POLICE - DRUGS LINKED TO HALF OF CITY MURDERS

One Activist Also Sees Gangs As Cause

As Louisville's homicide numbers close in on a seven-year high and
police leaders struggle to explain the increase in violence, drugs
have emerged as a driving force in the killings.

Of the 60 homicides, police say 30 were related to drug use or
trafficking.

Just as homicides are on the rise from last year's total of 51, the
percentage related to drug cases, which primarily involve crack and
powder cocaine, is also up to 50 percent from 40 percent in 2003.

"Do those numbers warrant us doing something even different than we're
doing? I don't think so at this point," Police Chief Robert White said
last week. "For the most part our approach is sound. It's enforcement,
intervention and prevention."

While White said the city's drug problem boils down to street-corner
dealers and not organized rings, at least one activist group said the
police department and city leaders are in denial about why drugs are
fueling the violence.

"What drives dope?" asked the Rev. Gerome Sutton of the African
American Think Tank. "It's the gangs who run the dope. This is over
gangs and turf wars."

Homicide detectives have determined that three killings were related
to gangs, White said. And though he admits Louisville has gangs, "how
widespread it is and how it relates to violent crimes, the police and
Sutton, we might see that differently."

White is also quick to say that drugs aren't the only explanation in
the killings. Ten were related to domestic violence and 10 others were
connected to assaults.

A further breakdown of the homicides shows 40 of the 60 victims were
30 or younger; 14 were teenagers. There were 46 men and 14 women.
Forty were African American. Forty-three of the homicides involved
guns.

White has dispatched more officers to trouble areas in the city, which
include three police divisions - the 1st, 2nd and 5th. Those divisions
include all of western Louisville and the Shelby Park and Smoketown
areas, which is where the majority of the homicides have occurred.

White said getting officers into the neighborhoods will help stop
violence and solve crime.

"It is so important to establish credibility in the community," White
said. "We need to have people comfortable with those officers assigned
to them."

Gangs blamed by some

Angela West, a professor with the University of Louisville's
department of justice administration, has some doubt about police
figures that play down the role of gangs in the homicides.

While she said that she hasn't analyzed each homicide, she'd be
"surprised" if only three were gang-related, especially given the
police belief that 30 of the slayings have some drug connection. "When
you have drugs you have gangs," West said.

Sutton, who shares that view, said he's spoken with several people he
identified as gang members who say the relocation of residents from
the Clarksdale public housing complex has pushed gang members into new
neighborhoods. Conflicts then arose with rival gangs - mainly the
Bloods and Crips - over the sale of drugs, Sutton said.

"How can you come in where guys have been selling dope for 10 years
and try to sell?" Sutton asked. "They're not going to let you."

Lt. Joe Dotson, of the metro police intelligence unit, said he doesn't
disagree that drugs are a major factor, but he dismisses the idea that
there has been an increase in gang activity. A police database of gang
members currently holds about 600 names, he said - about half the
number of five years ago.

"Our feeling is this is not a gang issue, it's a dope issue. It's not
blue or red colors doing it, it's just dealers," Dotson said. "You
can't go up and voluntarily ask them to quit (selling in a new
neighborhood), so they just go up and kill them."

Tim Barry, of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority, said he doesn't
believe the Clarksdale relocation has anything to do with the increase
in homicides and described any such a notion as "hearsay and innuendo."

"I want to see the data that suggests that families from Clarksdale
are causing an increase in drug problems in some of these
neighborhoods," Barry said. "It's horribly unfair to Clarksdale residents."

Homicide up elsewhere

Experts say cities across the nation are seeing a jump in
homicides.

Though violent crime in the United States dropped 3 percent last year
compared with 2002, homicides increased by nearly 2 percent, according
to numbers released by the FBI. This year, several cities, including
Boston, Cincinnati and Denver, have seen an increase in homicides.

Indianapolis has seen 81 homicides so far this year, compared with the
same number for all of 2003. As in Louisville, police there say a
majority of the crimes were related to drugs.

"A lot are just arguments (over drugs), and people take out a gun,"
said Lt. Paul Ciesielski, of the Indianapolis Police Department.
"...We're trying to do what we can, but (the homicides) keep happening."

Terry Cox, of Eastern Kentucky University's criminal justice program,
said a community's homicide numbers can go up or down with little
reason. "People want a specific reason when many times there isn't
one," he said.

Crime numbers "fluctuate wildly sometimes," agreed West. "Any major
urban area is going to experience things of this nature every now and
then."

Sherry Mercurio, a police spokeswoman in Columbus, Ohio, which is
experiencing a major decrease in homicides, agreed.

Last year, Mercurio said, Columbus had 112 homicides - the most since
1991. So far this year, the city has had 21 fewer than in the same
period in 2003.

"We can't take credit when they're low and we certainly can't take
blame when they go up," Mercurio said. "Homicides are a difficult
crime to impact, unless you take every drug off the streets and get
every unhappy marriage apart."

Public's help sought

Only 32 of Louisville's 60 homicides have been cleared with an arrest,
less than the national average of 62 percent.

And of the 32, only 12 were considered drug-related.

White has twice asked for the public's help in solving this year's
homicides. Both times he said violent crimes related to drugs and
gangs are harder to investigate and solve because people don't come
forward with information.

"It's because of the fear factor, and the individuals who commit the
crimes are not inclined to talk to police," White said.

He's hoping to solve that with a strong community policing effort,
which now includes beat officers going door to door asking residents
for their help. If officers are in the neighborhoods, closer to where
the problems are, they can gain residents' trust and get more
knowledge about drug trafficking and the key players, he said.

"The community needs to hold us accountable just as they need to hold
each other accountable," White said.

Activist Christopher 2X said city and police leaders won't gain any
ground in the fight unless they reach out to youths and hear about
their struggles with not enough good-paying jobs or having anywhere to
go.

"What I'm hearing from them is, `Nobody cares for me, so why should I
care about myself?'" 2X said. "They're like, `Nobody's feeling my pain
and nobody can articulate with me other than the brother on the corner.'"

Police "will have to have spirit like never before, and that they're
there to help, not judge," 2X said. "You come to the corner to judge
them, you won't get anywhere with them."

White said he sees areas in Louisville where residents are ready to
work with police. In Iroquois Homes, a housing complex in the South
End, residents recently welcomed officers as they knocked on doors and
passed out tip cards that people can use to detail crime problems and
suspicious activity.

"I hope they can help us out with these gunshots," said LaTonya
Anthony from her Iroquois apartment. "If we can come together, I hope
we can make it a better place."

Partnership urged

And in the Shawnee neighborhood, the Rev. Barry Washington, of
Redeemed Christian Church, is telling neighbors and their children
that now is the time for a partnership. More than two weeks ago, two
men were killed and three people injured when two men got out of a car
and started shooting.

In his weekly youth group more than a week ago, Washington had his
students make cards for the families of the two men who were killed.
And Washington told the youths that it was time there were some
changes in the neighborhood.

"The police are going to be our friends," Washington told his youth
group during a gathering last week, as many of them dropped their jaws
and shook their heads. "Don't you want to be able to walk down the
street and be safe?"

Many of them nodded in response.

"The police coming to our neighborhood," Washington told the group,
"we're going to be praying for them."

"We're going to have to partner up with police down here," he added.
"We're going to have to do our share in this community."

And White said the police department will do what it
can.

As Sutton pushes for what he calls a "truce" between gangs, White said
he's willing to talk with any group, including people who claim they
are in a gang, if it would help stop the killings.

"If they have an ounce of credibility we need to have someone listen
to what they have to say," White said in a recent interview. "I feel
like in the midst of a bad situation, we can perhaps make some good
out of it for the long term of our community."