MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S MARCH FOR CIVIL AND PROPERTY RIGHTS

TONIGHT, they march.

Black. White. Young. Old. From East Madison to Pine. Down Pine to Broadway.
Past Oscar's, the family-owned tavern on bankruptcy's brink. Past Deano's,
where cops hand out cocaine to drug-addicted informants instead of getting
them off the street.

Leading the marchers will be a diverse group of small-business owners who
have never asked the government for anything. They ask only one thing
tonight: to be heard.

Like Central District tavern owners Oscar McCoy and Dean Falls, many of the
entrepreneurs who will march believe they were subject to selective and
arbitrary enforcement of the law. Meriland Dillard, former owner of Neko's,
wants to call attention to the city's disturbing double standards in closing
his nightclub two years ago. "We had no violence, no liquor violations, no
nothing, but they closed us down before they closed the dope house across
the street. The drug dealers are still in business there. But we're bankrupt
because we catered to the `wrong crowd.' "

The first elected official willing to respond publicly to these beleaguered
business owners hails from outside Seattle city limits. State Sen. Pam Roach
(R-Auburn) is coming to town to listen to the marchers and their broad
coalition of supporters at a hearing of the Senate Law and Justice
Committee. The public forum is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. at Seattle
Central Community College in Room 110.

The Senate panel's focus will be the state's decade-old drug- abatement
statute. Passed at the height of the crack cocaine epidemic, the measure
enables local governments to ask the court to condemn property in high-crime
areas. It was intended to make it easier for law enforcement to clear out
crack houses and meth labs. But the procedure has been used to shut down
hip-hop clubs and taverns where the city has failed to control narcotics
activity.

By allowing municipalities to build abatement files through aggressive
undercover drug stings, like those conducted at Oscar's and Deano's, the law
essentially encourages state-sanctioned criminal conduct in order to take
away property from lawful business owners without compensating them.

"It's really important that the individual rights of all citizens are
protected and I think this meeting is going to allow citizens to give their
perspective," Roach says. "We want to have strong laws to prevent drug
trafficking and crime. All of our citizens want that, regardless of color.
But do you do it by imposing onerous regulations on certain businesses and
not others?" Roach's agenda is to fix the process, not to point fingers at
rank-and-file police following orders from above. She says, if necessary,
she will offer corrective legislation next session.

It's too late, of course, for Oscar and Barbara McCoy. After pouring two
decades of their lives into their soul-food restaurant and dance club, the
McCoys may soon be forced to walk away with nothing. After testifying
against drug dealers, opening their business to federal drug agents, and
garnering praise from the Police Department, the McCoys were sued
successfully in superior court by City Attorney Mark Sidran "to protect the
safety, health, and welfare of the public."

The McCoys have not been charged with criminal wrongdoing, but if the state
Court of Appeals does not grant a stay of abatement, they will be stripped
of their business and the remainder of their lease. Unlike Florida's
drug-nuisance abatement law, which was challenged successfully by an
apartment owner whose property was closed for a year, Washington state's
statute does not provide for compensation of innocent owners. The U.S.
Supreme Court let stand rulings by Florida's lower courts that the original
abatement law amounted to an illegal taking.

But Oscar's is a "menace," city lawyers fume, and the injury to the
community far outweighs the McCoys' loss. Only the blind can believe that
crushing Oscar's has eliminated narcotics activity on 21st and East Madison.
Drug deals continue at phone booths across the street from Oscar's - in the
middle of the day. Yuppies roll up their windows at the stoplight on the way
to upscale Madison Park. And through Oscar's large picture windows - the
same ones federal drug agents peered through during stakeouts - you can
watch patrol cars pass by languidly while shady characters disperse.

Chris Clifford, a friend of the McCoys and owner of a Seattle club embroiled
in a separate federal civil-rights case with the city, points out, "Under
the current law, the city holds private property owners to higher standards
than itself. They rail about the harm that Oscar's perpetuates. But, my god,
what about the harm the city perpetuates when it tolerates the nuisances on
the streets outside Oscar's every day? If the government can't keep the
streets reasonably drug-free, how can we expect any good business in America
to do the same?"

Until now, there has been zero political leadership in Seattle on the club
owners' complaints. Sen. Roach, a fiery advocate for other victims of
government abuse, may prove to be the leader with the courage needed not
only to listen - but to act on a fundamental matter of civil rights and
property rights. Marchers will gather at Oscar's II on 2051 E. Madison
tonight between 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. before the Senate hearing.

Michelle Malkin's column appears Tuesday on editorial pages of The Times.
Her e-mail address is: malkin1@ix.netcom.com.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett