KEEP UP THE WAR ON DRUG DEALERS

John R. Dunne proclaimed on this page last week that as an author of New
York State's Rockefeller Drug Laws, no one knows better than him that these
laws need to be overhauled.

Teddy Roosevelt once said, "A critic is a man who walks onto the
battlefield a day later, shooting the wounded." Dunne is such a man.

You see, I know that our laws work, because I helped to fight the war on
drugs for nine years -- along with many other good policemen and women --
when I was in the New York City Police Department's narcotics division. I
was assigned to the Brooklyn South Narcotics major case unit, and my
colleagues and I built many cases on the nonviolent,drug-addicted offenders
who are, as Dunne put it, filling our prisons to dangerously crowded levels
and are denied sufficient drug treatment.

Instead of worrying about these so-called nonviolent drug dealers who prey
on innocent people or about taking the handcuffs off bleeding-heart judges
who already set many criminals free to pillage and murder another day, why
not take the cuffs off law enforcement?

How about lobbying to build more jails, rather than advocating the release
of drug dealers who are polluting our streets and, ultimately, poisoning
our children?

Dunne said that there are people in jail for selling as little as 2 ounces
of cocaine or possessing as little as 4 ounces. Well, broken down on the
street, 4 ounces of cocaine is enough to get an entire junior high school
high. There are 28 grams in an ounce of cocaine. When 28 grams is broken
down into $20 bags, it can destroy a lot of lives.

There won't be need for any treatment if we get rid of the scum supplying
drugs and affording people the opportunity to get addicted to them.

As for nonviolent drug offenders, drugs are the catalyst for many crimes. A
junkie will go out and steal something to get his product. That same junkie
gets wired on drugs, and he or she is willing to go out and stick a gun in
someone's face to rob that person.

Below are just some officers from the New York City and New York State
police departments who have given their lives fighting in this war:

Sgt. John McCormick of the Bronx Narcotics District was killed April 27,
1998, while executing a search warrant in an upper Manhattan apartment. He
was 43 and the father of one child.

Officer Sean Carrington, who was in the Bronx Narcotics District Central 46
Precinct Initiative, was shot and killed while working undercover Jan. 19,
1998. He was 28 and the father of one child.

Detective Louis Lopez, an investigator in the Manhattan South Narcotics
District, was killed March 10, 1993, during a gunfight that erupted while
he was undercover in lower Manhattan. Lopez was 35 and the father of two
children.

Joseph Aversa, a New York State trooper assigned as an investigator with
the Drug Enforcement Task Force, was killed March 5, 1990, when he and his
partners were ambushed by suspected drug dealers during a buy operation.
Aversa was 31.

Officer Christopher Hoban, an undercover officer with the Manhattan North
Narcotics District, was killed Oct. 18, 1988, when a struggle broke out
between police officers and suspected drug dealers. Hoban was 26 years old.

These fallen heroes represented the police force with pride and integrity.
Who's going to their homes to fill the void when the kids they've left
behind open gifts on Christmas day? Who's going to take my kids to hockey
practice, or tell my little girl how much she's loved if, God forbid,
something happens to me?

While Dunne lays his head on his pillow at night in a nice, safe
environment, there are men and women fighting -- and falling -- to protect
and serve while the battle is going on, not a day later.