RING AROUND THE ROBERIES

People who live in low-income neighborhoods like Yamacraw Village tend to
bear the brunt of Savannah's crime problems. When authorities improve
public safety in these areas, the whole community gains.

Such was the case last week, when Savannah police broke up a suspected
armed robbery ring that operated in the Yamacraw Village area and possibly
other neighborhoods since mid-May.

So far seven people have been arrested. There may be more.

Savannah police said the suspects are part of two separate, organized
groups that have been preying on people in this area who are cruising to
buy drugs or pick up prostitutes.

Some might argue that people who get robbed in this fashion get what they
deserve. But pity the law-abiding people who live nearby. If police don't
act, streets can become more like a combat zone. Residents can become
prisoners in their own homes.

Yamacraw Village, located just north of the intersections of Bay and Fahm
streets, is owned by the Housing Authority of Savannah, which offers
publicly subsidized housing to low-income families. The housing project is
the site of a recent controversy over the restoration of its administrative
building, which is a replica of a Savannah-area plantation house.

But questions of history and architecture pale when compared to crime. "I
stay on the porch with my kids," one seven-year Yamacraw Village tenant
said. "I don't leave them unattended, especially at night."

Statistically, crime has been on the decline in Yamacraw Village. In 1999,
there were 82 incidents of serious crime in that neighborhood. Last year,
the number dipped to 63, housing authority officials said Monday.

Housing Authority spokeswoman Sandy Glicken said that as far as the
agency's staff could determine, none of the seven people who were arrested
for robbery lived in Yamacraw Village or in any public housing, for that
matter. If they did, they would be subject to eviction under the
authority's "one strike, you're out" rental policy.

Their victims who were cruising for drugs or sex didn't live in public
housing either. In fact, one lived in the city's southside, one lived in
Garden City and the other was based at Fort Stewart in Hinesville, housing
authority officials said.

It's a sad fact of urban life every where that low-income neighborhoods can
attract people who commit crimes. That's why it's important for law-abiding
people, with the help of police, to fight back.

The transitory nature of public housing neighborhoods can make that battle
more difficult. When people come and go all the time, and residents aren't
sure who "belongs" and who doesn't, it's difficult to tell the good guys
from the bad guys.

The suspects who were part of the alleged robbery ring are in their late
teens and early 20s, city police said. Investigators did not say how the
organization operated. But typically, such groups have members who pose as
drug dealers or prostitutes. When drug-buyers or prospective johns try to
do business, they get clipped.

Not surprisingly, the victims are sometimes too embarassed or ashamed to go
to the police. But if police don't know when or where these robberies
occur, they can't crack the robbery rings. When that happens, the quality
of life in neighborhoods where these robbers have set up shop can quickly
spiral downward.

Fortunately, Savannah police gathered enough information to bust the
robbers operating in the Yamacraw Village area. This is one circle that
should be broken. Let the suspects do a different kind of "preying" in
front of a judge.