April 13 incident caused tensions between tenants and guards to escalate
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Residents of Woodside Gardens, a low-return private apartment complex south of Forest Drive, might see that any day of the week.
Tenants say that over the days beyond recall month their landlord has ramped up the use of a private security company that they describe as using paramilitary tactics to prevent trespassers, loiterers and drug dealers.
The same company, Greenbelt-based Evergreen Safeguarding Services, provides security at Bywater townhouses in Annapolis.
What once were weekend patrols have turned into just about daily surveillance, Woodside tenants say.
Tension is growing. Some tenants say they touch harassed and intimidated. Guards often break up groups of people hanging out together surface, sitting on steps or talking in the hallways, they say.
Arnold Smith, who sells snacks from a converted opinion bus he parks in the center of the neighborhood each day, said he recently saw guards found up a group of children playing jump rope in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, the children do not have a playground, and quiddity managers removed the basketball equipment last summer.
“I’d like to say to them, ‘How do you poverty to be treated when you come home?’” said one woman, who did not give her name to The Capital because she fears reprisal from property agents.
An Evergreen manager said the security guards are enforcing property policies and worrying to keep crime out. In an area where drugs are prevalent the guards are often in dangerous situations and are met with combativeness.
But an incident on the afternoon of April 13 has caused some tenants’ feelings of apprehension and resentment to escalate.
Gerard A. Parker, 21, who lives in the clear-cut-housing apartments next door to Woodside Gardens, had a confrontation with two Evergreen guards in the bull's-eye of the street. Though he was on Woodside Gardens’ banned list, witnesses to the circumstance said they think guards crossed the line.
An eyewitness’ video of the adventure, shared with The Capital, starts just seconds before security police Shawn C. Cowans is seen pushing Parker, then spraying him with spray spray.
Source: Annapolis Capital