Coatesville Police Chief William Matthews was put under the spotlight at last night's council meeting as residents complained of violent street crime running rampant with the city's Mexican community being singled out by street thugs.

Nereida "Nellie" Colon, long active in the city's Hispanic community, told council a Mexican family in the 300 block of East Chestnut Street have been brutalized in their home more than once.

"The father had a gun put to his head in front of his children," Colon said. Their apartment was ramsacked and mattresses turned over in search of money, according to Colon. On another occasion, she said, a young girl was raped behind a dumpster. "They were so terrified, they sent the girl back to Mexico."

"These people are scared; they don't have papers," Colon said. Those believed to have committed the crime continue to show up on the street outside the family's home. Including, she said, those who assaulted a 65-year-old man outside the post office on Chestnut Street where he was going to purchase a money order. The man lives in the same building of the family that was repeatedly robbed, according to Colon.

"They guys who did this keep coming back on the street," she said.

Council President Karen Jorgenson lives in the 300 block of Chestnut. "I now what goes on there. We need to get a handle on this," said said, suggesting surveillance cameras. "Whatever it takes we have to deal with it."

"I just want something done because I'm scared for them," she said, adding that she, too, has had two families members assaulted.

"I just wish there were more people like you who are willing to step up," said Matthews. "You need to get a group together.

"I got a group," answered Colon. She said last week she brought 50 people to the police station. "I stayed from 8:30 to 10 at night helping the detective fill out police reports."

Last September, Matthews told more than 300 hundred mostly Mexicans attending evening Mass at St. Celcia's Church on Chestnut Street that they would receive the same level of police protection as the rest of the city's residents. "We will do everything we can do to protect you and your family . . . As a victim of crime we are not interested in your immigration status," Matthews said at the time.

Colon was not alone in concerns about crime. A woman from the West End complained in the last several weeks there have been two home invasions that she is aware of, only one of which, she said, was reported to police.

Council Member Ed Simpson told Matthews in the last weeks there have been three arsons. "Kids are setting off bottle rockets and setting fires," he said. Simpson represents the First Ward which include the West End.

"I demand to see more (police) patrols. The people in the West End deserve the same kind of (police protection) as the rest of the city," he said. "I see Valley Township patrols more."

Matthews said police are patrolling the West End and an arson patrol has recently been added.

"I think you should do less writing and more work," said Simpson, referring to Matthew's comments earlier in the about having written about several of the city's problems.

Since February, the city has hired 10 provisional police officers, those hired outside the normal Civil Service Commission. The police department is now only one short of its full complement of 34 police officers. With the new hirings, Matthews has said the department is now able to assign one Spanish-speaking officer to each shift.