Court recruits Mozart to deter trouble

At two minimarkets in Sacramento, Beethoven has been enlisted to do what no beat cop could do: drive off loiterers, panhandlers and drug dealers. For good.

In two separate cases, the Sacramento Superior Court has told markets identified as trouble spots by police to play music known to discourage loitering – classical music.

Reviews of the violin concertos – to be audible for 25 feet around the store, the orders say – are mixed at the Oak Park and Lawrence Park convenience stores. Police and city officials say the music is effective, along with other security upgrades.

While the tactic has been used around the world, some academics see its backing by a court as a cultural assault, similar to thumping panhandlers with a hefty volume of Shakespeare.

"I think it's a coercive act and it makes a mockery of our idea of classical music as a great cultural tradition," said Robert Fink, a UCLA associate professor of musicology. "It would be like reading 'to be or not to be' through a bull horn."

But Onkar Singh appreciates the tactic. He works at one of the affected stores, World Wines & Liquors on Fruitridge Road just west of Stockton Boulevard.

On Monday evening, he gestured to a new monitor showing nine security-camera views in and out of the store.

"When we see someone sitting in the front or back, we turn it up," he said, a grin forming on his face. "They go away."

Sacramento police and the City Attorney's Office worked jointly to force change at World Wines & Liquors and Prit Market, on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard south of 12th Avenue.

From April 2004 to July 2006, police responded to 359 calls at World Wines & Liquors and 196 calls at Prit Market, according to documents in the court cases against the stores. The calls range from drug activity to prostitution to panhandling.

In declarations filed in court, Sacramento Police Officer Scott Hall painted gritty pictures of both markets, detailing drug arrests and criticizing both stores for peddling the area's cheapest single cans of beer and tiny bottles of liquor.

At Prit Market, Hall noted an arrest for tar heroin sales near the store and the constant presence of a man who had been arrested 19 times for public drunkenness.

"It is like the social hub for 'old school' people to gather, hang out, and drink all day," Hall wrote.

In September, Sacramento Superior Court Judge Jeffrey L. Gunther ordered that the store install exterior security cameras, employ private security guards and install high-intensity lighting.

Also ordered was the installation of a sound system to play music outside the building "known to discourage loiterers (e.g. classical music)."

Hall also documented crack possession and undercover cocaine sales arrests in the parking lot at World Wines & Liquors, which agreed to a similar order in December 2006.

Reactions to the rules – and the requiems – vary at each location.

At Prit Market, owner Jack Patel plays Handel, Strauss and Mozart on a seven-disc CD changer that pipes the music to the parking lot.

The fast-paced violin music was loud at the side of the store, but not where most cars parked or at the entrance Monday morning. Inside the store, the dominant sound was a television behind the counter and Patel's friendly banter with a steady flow of customers.

Patel does not sing the sonatas' praises.

"We play, but music doesn't stop crime," Patel said. "I've been here 18 years. I've never had problems."

Long-time customer Gregory Bell, 56, said he's seen changes at the store but attributes them to overall improvement in the neighborhood.

"If a person is breaking the law, what do they care about music?" he said.

A mile away at World Wines & Liquors, the music is clearer and louder. The outside speakers – installed in the building's overhang – pump out a mix of Western and Indian classical music and opera.

Inside the store, Singh, who said he is the owner's brother, plays Sikh worship music on a portable CD player.

He's used to the classical music, he said, and likes the effect it's had on panhandlers. They've left, he said, particularly insulted by the opera CD.

Regular customer Peter Cerda of Elk Grove shares the sentiment, calling the classical music repetitive. But he's glad it is playing: "It runs 'em off," he said, referring to aggressive panhandlers who used to rule the parking lot.

Gustavo Martinez, the supervising city attorney who oversaw the cases, said the order in place the longest – at World Wines & Liquors – seems to be working. He said the store went from averaging 175 police calls per year to 10 this year.

"That, to us, is very positive," he said, crediting the Police Department with coming up with the idea to play classical music.

The idea has been used before, nearly always with positive results reported in the media, said Lily E. Hirsch, a Cleveland State University visiting professor of musicology who wrote an article about "Weaponizing Classical Music" in this month's Journal of Popular Music Studies.

She cited an example from Sydney, Australia, where officials piped Barry Manilow tunes into a park to ward off hot-rodders.

Officials said it worked. But in published reports, Manilow decried the tactical use of his tunes, suggesting they might drive some people to light candles or dance.

"What if this actually attracts more hoodlums?" he wrote in an article that Hirsch cited.

Hirsch did not entertain Manilow's question, but she did say that the music-wielding strategy is more about cultural cues than the music itself.

"If you're feeling tough and want to do a drug deal, you might feel silly doing it to classical music," she said. "It doesn't fit your persona."

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