STRUGGLE WITH A STUBBORN DRUG TRADE

Closing D.C. Open-Air Markets Isn't Easy

A police cruiser recently rolled up on 57th Place, a troubled patch of
Southeast Washington. Behind the wheel, Anthony Guice, a stern and
strapping public housing police officer, spotted a group of young men he
had come to know as neighborhood drug dealers.

In seconds, the men vanished between the worn red-brick, two-story row
houses. Twenty minutes later, the cat-and-mouse ritual resumed. Some of the
men returned, only to disappear again as the police car came back around.

Nearly two years ago, police targeted 57th Place and nearby streets, using
a $300,000 federal grant to mount a full-scale, five-month assault against
the open-air drug market there. Ultimately, 150 dealers and 250 customers
were arrested. All seemed well - until some drug dealers returned three
months later.

"There's still a drug problem there," said D.C. police Lt. James Boteler,
who led the operation. "It's not nearly as bad as it was before. On 57th,
it was like a carnival atmosphere."

The 57th Place project illustrates the difficulties - even with the most
extraordinary efforts - of eliminating open-air drug markets, one of the
most visible symbols of lawlessness in urban America. More than a decade
after the city began a concerted effort to eliminate street sales,
Washington today has at least 60 open-air markets, each defined as a two-to
three-block area where drugs are peddled outdoors.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) is the latest to lead a crusade, vowing that
"drug dealers are not going to be on the streets while I'm mayor." In
September, he promised to shut down six flagrant markets, and top police
officials met this month to plot a tougher drug-market strategy.

But converting rhetoric and lofty ideas into results is no easy task.
Interviews with drug addicts, dealers, prosecutors, residents, politicians,
judges and police show the complexity of the problem and what Williams is
up against:

* Police complain that sentences are still too light and laws too lax,
making the District a magnet for drug sales to city and suburban customers
alike and allowing arrested street dealers back out by morning.

* Street dealers often react to police crackdowns by setting up shop just a
block or two away. And they're carrying fewer drugs to avoid felony charges.

* Some dealers have taken to selling marijuana instead of crack cocaine or
heroin because the District's lenient marijuana laws greatly reduce the
risk of prison sentences.

* Drug sales remain an enticing form of employment, a reflection of the
dearth of economic opportunities and lack of education prevalent in many
neighborhoods. And the District has fallen far short in providing drug
treatment.

Inroads have been made. Last summer, police made more than 1,000 arrests of
suspected traffickers with the help of the Summer Mobile Force, a nightly
patrol that united with vice and narcotics officers in targeting drug
corners. Some outdoor drug peddlers were displaced, or they became more
low-key and less apt to indiscriminately flag down cars for sales, police say.

Still, "we're not short of open-air drug markets; there's tons of them,"
Sgt. John Brennan, a veteran narcotics officer, said as he drove his
unmarked Ford Taurus from Northwest to Southeast one evening, pointing out
each market along the way.

"You send an undercover on this block right now and we'll make a case, no
doubt about it," he said as he headed down Park Road NW, off 14th Street,
past the glares of suspected dealers.

Helping the Neighbors

The battle against open-air drug markets is complicated by the entrenched
attitudes in some neighborhoods. Many residents refuse to help police -
some out of fear, some out of disdain for the police, some out of loyalty
to dealers they grew up with or are related to. In certain neighborhoods,
some residents are also customers.

Guice, the public housing officer, said some residents let dealers slip
into their homes when officers arrive. "They've got an open-door policy,"
he said. "We care about what's going on, but the citizens need to care even
more."

In some areas, young children and teenagers, some on bikes and skateboards,
watch for police, particularly unmarked cars. Some are given cellular
phones and beepers.

"Everyone looked out for the hustlers because everyone looked up to them,"
said a former drug dealer who peddled crack around Minnesota Avenue SE.
"They [children] are taught to tell the dealers when the police are coming.
They get paid. They get candy. You give a basketball."

A drug dealer in Benning Heights, in Northeast, said he often buys ice
cream and throws a block party. "You got to give back to the community," he
said.

The seeds of loyalty are planted at an early age. On one recent evening,
three boys, 3, 6 and 9, played behind row houses in the 5600 block of A
Street SE. They were asked whether people sold drugs there.

The two older boys pointed to a spot about 20 feet away where a few men had
stood before a police car pulled up. The children said the men sell drugs
in tiny plastic bags.

The boys were asked: Are the men good guys or bad? Good, both said assuredly.

"They give us money so we can go to the candy store," the 6-year-old said.
"They're pretty nice. They give us ... dollars, 50 cents."

"They watch out for my mother, too," the 9-year-old added.

A 12-year-old walked up. He said no one sells drugs behind the row houses.
When the 6-year-old tried to correct him, the 12-year-old quickly hushed
him up.

Boteler, the lieutenant who led the $300,000 effort to close the drug
market in the area, said neighbors have to call police and chase off people
who don't belong. "We can't have a police presence 24 hours a day," he said.

But even when neighbors fight back, results are mixed. Police and residents
recently chased dealers away from 16th and D streets SE, where drug corners
had operated for years not far from the Capitol. The dealers then shifted
to 15th and C, neighbors said.

"The kids have nothing to do. They have no jobs. They want money; it's a
quick way to get it, " said resident Pam Hairston, 45.

Residents in the 16th and D area, one of Williams's six targeted drug
markets, have worked with police as part of the mayor's push for
cooperation. They said they've noticed some improvement. In the past, they
felt like they got little help from the city.

Drug Business Strategies

Over the years, as police have cracked down, dealers working the
streets--whether in the District, Prince George's County, Alexandria or New
York City - have responded by shifting strategies.

Dealers increasingly keep their stashes under rocks, in abandoned cars, in
fast-food bags. If caught, they are carrying less than a dozen rocks of
crack or packets of heroin. Some worry about felony charges or mandatory
minimum sentences in U.S. District Court, where the bigger drug cases are
prosecuted.

"With respect to crack cocaine and the mandatory minimum of five grams
[about 30 rocks of cocaine], we do see people more often breaking up
amounts into less than five grams to sell or carry," said Steve Roman, who
led the U.S. attorney's federal narcotics unit in the District until
entering private practice a few months ago. "There's a fairly wide
[understanding] of how the federal sentencing guidelines work among drug
dealers of a certain sophistication."

To avoid getting nabbed by marked patrol cars, some dealers distance
themselves from transactions, police said. Some take money from a customer,
who is then directed to a corner where someone else delivers the drugs.
Other times, a dealer directs customers to a bag of drugs atop a windowsill.

But when dealers are caught, most wind up in D.C. Superior Court.

On a recent Tuesday, Shawn A. Rogers stood in Courtroom C-10. Rogers, 19,
had been arrested at an open-air drug market at Ninth and L streets NW and
charged with possessing 16 tiny packets of crack. The prosecutor noted that
Rogers was awaiting sentencing in two other cases: a drug and a domestic
assault conviction.

"A lot of guys on the street know if they get arrested they'll be right
back on the street, and they know their cases will take a lot of time to go
through the system," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Martin. A typical
case can take a year to go to trial, and with several delays, as long as
three years.

Martin said that each month, about 20 defendants in his caseload are
sentenced for felonies, most involving cocaine or heroin sales. About
two-thirds have at least one previous conviction. But he said most get
probation or a suspended sentence.

In federal court, some dealers get sentences of 30 years or more,
particularly if violence was involved. But about 95 percent of the city's
drug cases are prosecuted in Superior Court, where judicial discretion
results in sentences all across the board. Most defendants get probation.
Those who don't typically get one to three years in prison.

Rogers's case was fairly common: Several weeks after he appeared in court
on the cocaine charge, he received a suspended sentence of one to three
years for his previous cocaine case. He also was ordered to serve three
days of a 180-day sentence for domestic assault. Rogers, now free but under
court supervision, is awaiting trial on his latest cocaine charge.

In the 57th Place operation, about a third of the 150 drug dealers caught
during the five-month investigation were sentenced to five or more years in
prison, police said. The other two-thirds got sentences ranging from
probation to about two years.

Police say some drug dealers mock them, particularly when charged with a
misdemeanor. "They laugh about it and say, 'I'll be out tomorrow,' " said
Officer Paul Regan, who patrols in Northeast Washington.

The frustration is compounded in court. Prosecutors complain that some
juries won't convict on drug charges because they distrust the system. Once
arrested, some defendants simply play the odds, hoping the cases get
dismissed.

From January 1999 to mid-November, 25 percent of the 4,513 felony and
misdemeanor drug cases in Superior Court were "no-papered," meaning that
prosecutors decided after the arrest not to file charges because of
problems with the case, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

An additional 27 percent were dismissed after charges were filed, sometimes
because the government was not ready for trial, a drug analysis proved
negative, the defendant pleaded to another charge as part of a plea bargain
or the case was moved to U.S. District Court.

About 42 percent of the drug suspects pleaded guilty. Only 4 percent of the
cases went to trial. Of those, more than one-third of the defendants were
acquitted.

Many police say the D.C. laws are too lenient, particularly for marijuana.
In the District, it's a misdemeanor to possess or distribute marijuana,
whether it's one joint or 10 pounds. The same goes for possessing small
amounts of crack or heroin. The maximum penalties range from 6 months to a
year in jail.

In Virginia, by contrast, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute
anywhere from a half-ounce to five pounds - or possession of small amounts
of crack or heroin - is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Because of the popularity of marijuana and the greater criminal risks of
dealing cocaine or heroin, some of the District's open-air markets have
shifted to selling marijuana and have become just as violent as markets
peddling harder drugs.

The D.C. Council is considering tougher legislation, in part at the urging
of U.S. Attorney Wilma A. Lewis, who described the problem in a letter to
the council last April. "Time and time again, marijuana dealers are
arrested and immediately returned to the street," Lewis wrote, noting that
one investigation linked 21 slayings committed over many years to three
marijuana markets in Northeast and Southwest Washington.

But the bill, introduced in May, has run into public opposition,
particularly from "yuppies and buppies," said council member Charlene Drew
Jarvis (D-Ward 4). "There is a fear of unusual punishment for those who
possess small amounts of marijuana."

A Long Wait for Help

If the District's drug laws seem out of sync to some, so does its effort to
treat addicts. Although the number of heroin addicts has jumped in the past
five years to more than 14,000, health officials said, the number of slots
in methadone treatment programs has decreased from 2,500 to 1,180 because
of budget cuts. Hundreds of heroin addicts are on a waiting list, and
untold others haven't bothered to sign up due to the wait.

"There's an unbelievable shortage of treatment," said Inspector Kathy
Lanier, head of the D.C. police narcotics unit. "It's such a big part of
the equation we've overlooked."

Superior Court Judge Michael L. Rankin agreed, saying the solution lies
beyond simply locking up dealers. "We haven't made a dent in the public's
desire for illegal drugs," he said. "I think treatment is ultimately the
answer."

Rankin, along with Chief Judge Eugene N. Hamilton, advocates expanding the
Superior Court drug court. Under that system, users and sellers arrested
for any nonviolent crime - and who initially test positive for drugs -
undergo therapy, drug testing and job training, if necessary. If they
complete the program - about 40 percent do - charges often are dropped or
they receive probation. The program lasts an average of about eight months
for adults, 12 months for juveniles. About 400 people are currently being
treated.

Efforts are under way to improve drug treatment. Officials intend to add
330 methadone treatment slots soon. And with the help of money from
Congress, the D.C. Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency plans to
double the size of the city's non-methadone substance abuse program, which
covers all drugs and alcohol, by adding 1,000 treatment slots. The agency
also plans to expand routine drug testing for those on parole or probation.

"We see the system really hasn't worked, in part where we continually
locked up youths in the city," said Deputy Mayor Erik Christian. "We're
looking for means to stop this revolving door."

Beyond treatment, other needs lurk, said Jasper Ormond, associate director
of the court services agency. "What you have is a lot of kids out in the
street, poorly educated, under-educated, who do not have the skills to get
into the job market," he said. "They're not getting the level of
rehabilitation and intervention they need."

There are signs of hope. The percentage of adult criminal suspects in the
District testing positive upon arrest for cocaine, heroin or PCP has
dropped dramatically since the height of the crack epidemic in 1989,
according to the D.C. Pretrial Services Agency.

Turf battles among dealers also have become less common, and less deadly.
As crack use started to spread in the mid-1980s, the city's homicide rate
soared, with homicides reaching an all-time high of 482 in 1991. Last year,
less than half that many people - 229 - were killed.

Signs of Progress

There have been success stories. Residents and police in some neighborhoods
drove away dealers by constantly patrolling the streets or videotaping
dealers. Some markets were obliterated when public housing units were razed.

Most markets on 14th Street have vanished in recent years, pushed out by
stepped-up law enforcement and a resurgence of business and development.
But on some side streets, markets still thrive.

On Orleans Place NE near Gallaudet University, police spent about 11 months
cleaning up a marijuana market, though there still is a trickle of street
drug sales.

On Forrester Street SW, one of the mayor's six targeted markets, police
working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration cleaned up an
open-air marijuana market last year, after targeting the area for more than
a year. Three residents notified police about dealers hiding drugs, and
when they were selling.

In the past six months, two police officers have been posted on the block
from 4 p.m. to midnight daily, and residents have remained vigilant. In the
57th Place area, in contrast, police say that some residents have
cooperated quietly but that they have never been as visible and persistent
as on Forrester.

Police and city officials have been pushing for more cooperation between
police and agencies such as the Department of Public Works and the Housing
Authority to eliminate abandoned buildings, clean up neighborhoods and
evict drug dealers from public housing. The mayor hopes to add police to
the force and plans to broaden the city's youth mentoring program. He's
also contemplating hiring a drug czar to coordinate the effort.

Some officers see the problem as never-ending. But Boteler, a veteran of
the 57th Place battle, still has hope.

"I truly believe we can get rid of this problem, at least to the point it's
not open-air, that it's driven indoors," he said. "It's gonna cost, but
what are the alternatives?"

District Drug Markets

In September, Mayor Anthony A. Williams vowed to shut down six of the
District's flourishing open-air drug markets. Since then, police have had
varying degrees of success taming the markets. The targeted markets are:

1. 1500 block of Seventh Street NW and nearby streets.

2. Georgia Avenue NW between Harvard and Kenyon streets.

3. Area including 1400 block of Montello Avenue and 1100 blocks of Oates
and Penn streets NE.

4. 200 block of 51st Street NE, 300 block of 50th Street NE and areas
around Division and Burroughs avenues.

5. Unit blocks of Forrester and Galveston streets SW.

6. 1600 block of 16th and 400 block of D streets SE.