DRUG FIENDS ESCALATE WAR ON CITY

Behind an ordinary looking, mirrored-glass window on Burnet Avenue in
Avondale, there's a narrow little shop that contains no merchandise,
no groceries, no barber's chairs - just phones and computer terminals
and locks on the door.

It's an unlikely place for the front lines in Cincinnati's war on
crime - but that's what it is.

This week, the Avondale Public Safety Task Force office was dark. It
was closed to protect the lives of the elderly neighborhood residents
who take calls there and report crimes that are as common on the
streets outside as flags on the Fourth of July.

Drive-by threat

According to the rumor that Task Force founder Tom Jones heard, drug
dealers had a business meeting and someone offered an idea to make
Avondale more user-friendly for the curb-side, crack-buying clientele:
a drive-by shooting at the little office on Burnet.

Someone tipped off a relative who works in the Burnet office, and the
threat was passed on to Mr. Jones, who has led the battle against drug
crime.

"It won't stop us," he vowed. "We will open again." But for now, he
won't take risks with the lives of workers. "I'm really concerned
about Burnet Avenue right now. It's really unstable, and there is a
lot of hatred focused at me and the people who work there."

No wonder. In one eight-month period, Mr. Jones and his task force
accounted for more than 600 tips by collecting complaints from local
residents and relaying them to police.

Mr. Jones is no stranger to death threats. He can't even walk down
Burnet without being cursed, insulted and threatened. I know. I've
heard it. But even he was stunned by the threat to shoot up an office
staffed by grandparents from the neighborhoods that have been invaded
by drug dealers.

"The criminals are just taking over, and they're laughing at us," he
said. "I'm really mad about this."

Like Vietnam

He's used to fighting the local drug war like a replay of Vietnam: He
has the troops on his side - the Cincinnati cops. He has popular
support from most of the neighborhood, and growing support from other
neighborhoods that are fighting the same battle. But a minority of
vocal protesters makes enough noise to paralyze the politicians, and
Mr. Jones cannot get the support he needs to win.

For all the lip-service at City Hall about the need to improve
police-community relations, Mr. Jones has the best example going in
town - and City Council does nothing to help him. Instead, council
members voted down a motion to speed up the closing of a notorious
crime magnet on Burnet, Uncle Milt's, where police allege drugs have
been sold from the bar.

Mr. Jones says he will build a bigger coalition. "If we get enough
neighborhoods together, we will have a voice that they will have to
listen to," he said.

This is everyone's battle.

"Maybe I'm dumb or maybe I'm community-minded for stepping out on the
front lines like this," he said. "But if we pull out now, that will
send the wrong message, that they are winning. We don't want to send
that message."