S.F. COPS RAID A DOZEN HOMES IN DRUG CRACKDOWN

Target Areas Where Gangs Have Terrorized Citizens

San Francisco police launched a series of drug raids in the Western
Addition and other neighborhoods Wednesday, where drug gangs have
terrorized citizens and contributed to The City's high homicide rate.

By midday, more than 50 San Francisco police had raided at least a
dozen homes and at least 10 suspects had been arrested on charges
related to drugs, weapons and parole violations. More arrests -
including, police hoped, murder suspects and material witnesses in
murder cases - were expected.

Police confiscated a gun they believe was used to shoot Kionta Dean on
Feb. 28 at 1843 Eddy St. The man with the gun has not been charged but
police were questioning him as of noon.

Several other weapons and a half pound of heroin were
confiscated.

"There are whole bunch of locations involved here," Officer Sherman
Ackerson said Wednesday morning. "The goal is to target gangs who are
selling drugs in the public housing projects and on the streets of the
Western Addition."

The raids began about 10 a.m., near several public housing projects in
the Western Addition. Although the focus was closer to downtown San
Francisco, officers also served search warrants in the Alemany housing
projects, in Bayview-Hunters Point and one in the Richmond.

Some 30 officers fanned out at 10 a.m. to join 20 officers already in
the field staking out alleged drug locations. The officers were
planning to serve about 30 search warrants, including the homes and
cars of numerous suspects before the day's end.

The raids were designed to break up a gang that has allegedly sold
drugs and terrorized the Western Addition for the past year, according
to police. The loosely affiliated drug dealers also operated in other
parts of The City, police said.

So far this year, drug-related violence in the Western Addition has
taken the lives of 10 people - more than a quarter of The City's
homicides, police said. Most of those cases are unsolved. Nearly all
the cases involve African American male victims.

Last month the Police Department announced a new team to combat
black-on-black crimes.

"We believe that some of these same gang members may be involved in
homicides," Ackerson said. "Even if we cannot arrest them for
homicide, we believe that taking these guys off the street for other
charges will reduce the violence here."

Police said some of the violence stems from the closure and rebuilding
of public housing projects in Hayes Valley and the Fillmore District
in 1996-98. Homicide Inspector Napoleon Hendrix said the closure of
the projects forced drug dealers to seek new corners and sparked a
bloody competition among dealers.

"All these recent homicides, one way or another, come back to drugs,"
Hendrix said. "It could be direct fight over turf or it could be
something personal or more complicated. But the level of violence goes
up when these groups are trying to claim different corners."

The raids marked the second major anti-drug operation in less than a
year in the Western Addition.

In a controversial predawn raid Oct. 30, 90 San Francisco police and
state and federal law enforcement agents arrested 11 alleged gang
members and confiscated seven handguns, a large quantity of marijuana,
some powder cocaine and crack cocaine and about $4,000 in cash.

Many residents of the Martin Luther King / Marcus Garvey apartment
complex later complained about that raid to the Police Commission,
including one family who said cops killed their pit bull.

But police have defended that raid, saying that the only people
targeted were suspected criminals. They have since noted that
complaints of drug dealing and violence have decreased since that raid.

More than 40 residents have since filed legal claims against The City,
alleging the raid violated their civil rights.

Police Chief Fred Lau and Deputy Chief Richard Holder both promised
the department would be more careful in such raids with innocent people.