Daytona Beach, FL – The head of the Daytona Beach Police Department blames a man who claims to be an ordained pastor and an “elected official” for creating a homeless camp in downtown Daytona Beach that evolved into a den of criminal activity.
That’s what DBPD Chief Mike Chitwood told members of the media during a press conference at his office on Valor Boulevard on Tuesday. It came 4 days after DBPD broke up that homeless camp and ordered the 100 or so people there to either accept shelter from the Salvation Army, find somewhere else to stay or get arrested for refusing to leave.
Chitwood took special aim at Michael Pastore, the homeless advocate better known as “Pastor Mike” who has been pushing the City of Daytona Beach to create a safe zone in downtown for the homeless since the city shut down Manatee Island Park in December.
“During the daytime, when the media was there, we had this ‘woe is me, we need to help the homeless’ and then, when the news vans pulled away and the Internet pastor went home, it became completely different,” Chitwood added.
At least 25 arrests were made while the camp was in place in front of the Volusia County Administration Building on 250 North Beach Street, according to Chitwood.
Some of those arrests were based on undercover officers who recorded video while at the camp. Chitwood refused to release that video to the media, claiming it would compromise investigative techniques as well as his officers and the people on the tape.
“You heard about prostitution,” Chitwood added. “You heard about drug dealing. You heard about beatdowns. You heard about shakedowns. You heard about people who were not homeless who pulled up in cars and pitched a tent there.”
While not naming this person directly, Chitwood also blamed an “elected official” for teaming up with Pastore to create the camp as a way of putting a spotlight on the city’s chronic homeless problem.
“This wasn’t what it was purported to be,” Chitwood stated. “This was orchestrated by an elected official and Pastore. That’s what it was. Let’s call it what it was. This was a sad play.”
Josh Wagner – the District 2 Representative on the Volusia County Council – admitted during a recent public forum on the homeless issue that he posed as a homeless person and spent a night at the camp as part of his research into the issue.
Chitwood told the media that he would “bet his life” that the people at the camp knew about this “elected official” while he was at the camp and were told to be on their best behavior while he was there.
He also said the camp – which started small but grew quickly – started to develop a more criminal element the longer it was there, with some people tricking and threatening the people who were truly homeless into giving them money or drugs, turning those homeless into victims.
“They had money to pay,” Chitwood noted. “A lot of those folks collect disability. A lot of them are out panhandling, making hundreds and hundreds of dollars a day.”
Chitwood promised to break up any more attempts to create another such homeless camp within city limits.
This comes as the Daytona Beach City Commission and the Volusia County Council consider a joint meeting specifically on this topic. The DBCC will meet Wednesday at 6 PM and the VCC will meet at 9 AM Thursday.
Daytona Beach Mayor Derrick Henry formally made that request to the county last week, but the DBCC and VCC have to approve before a meeting date can be set.
Copyright 2016 Southern Stone Communications.