Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990 TAG: 9004090268
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In Roanoke, a small victory was announced. In Washington, D.C., news of an impending defeat was leaked.
Both concerned cooperative efforts involving federal and local law-enforcement agencies.
First, the good news: The Uniform Crime Reports, an evaluation prepared by the FBI and state police, said that criminal activity in the Roanoke Valley dropped 6 percent in 1989. One cause of the decrease - probably the major cause - was the success last summer of Operation Caribbean Sunset, the combined federal, state and local effort to get rid of crack cocaine in Roanoke.
The bad news: William Bennett's opening volley in this war missed the mark. Bennett, President Bush's national drug-policy adviser, had undertaken a yearlong effort to make a major reduction in the drug trade in Washington. It was a failure.
The report hasn't been released yet, but the Bush administration already is admitting that federal and city officials working together in the district did little to stanch the flood of illegal drugs for sale on the city's streets. The number of murders, almost all drug-related, continues to rise at a near-record pace.
Granted, the drug problems in Roanoke and Washington are not directly comparable. Tactics that work in one place won't necessarily be effective in the other.
But it's possible that the root causes of the success of Caribbean Sunset here, and the failure of Bennett's plan in the nation's capital, are the same: community involvement. Roanoke had it; Washington didn't.
Special agent Donald Lincoln, of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, summed it up: "You can't do it unless the guy who lives next to a crack house calls and complains." People in Roanoke cooperated, and now it looks as if their efforts were worthwhile.
Still, officials are right not to be too optimistic about these numbers. They may prove significant, if the downward trend continues - or they could reflect only a temporary dip. The Roanoke statistics don't tell the truth; they tell a truth. In any case, it's likely that Caribbean Sunset, or something like it, will have to be repeated to keep the statistics moving down.
The news is much more troubling for Washington, a city getting more than its share of trouble.
A year ago, in a well-publicized media event, Bennett called for the creation of a metropolitan-area task force to aid local police in driving crack dealers off the street. He also asked for new jails and prisons. At his press conference, other high-ranking administration officials stood beside him and lent their support. The White House said that Bennett's plan represented "a coming to terms with hard issues."
Now, everyone involved admits that, apart from a few modest successes, the plan was a failure.
Democrats were quick to blame Republicans. Federal officials said the city didn't cooperate fully. The city claims the real problem is suburban drug-users from Virginia and Maryland who do their shopping in Washington. Everybody blames Washington Mayor Marion Barry. Officer Krupke, what are we to do?
This is folly. There's more than enough blame to go around. The finger-pointing proves only that officials at all levels of government are long on windy rhetoric and short on useful ideas.
Given the scope of the drug problem in the nation's capital, it's doubtful whether any dramatic gesture is going to do much good until the people living in drug-infested neighborhoods decide to become involved. The real war against drugs will start when the people trust their elected officials, from the White House on down, and all of them work with the police to win back their streets.
by CNB