Church Groups Use Pressure Tactics in Drug Fight

HAMMOND, Ind. Singing spirituals and chanting against the sale of
illegal drugs in their neighborhood, about 80 members of the Mount Zion
Baptist Church here took their antidrug message Sunday afternoon to an
area they suspected of being a source of the problem.

Marchers sang religious hymns and chanted "Hey, ho, dope must go" as they
left the church for a fiveblock march. They stopped at four houses, urging
those inside to "change their lives or move out of the neighborhood." Two
marchers used megaphones to amplify the message to those indoors while
three children distributed fliers that said drug dealing would not be
tolerated.

"The devil is running rampant in our community," said Leatha Harper, who
helped organize the march. "Let us reclaim our community."

Posters identifying the houses as drug dens were plastered near their doors
while the marchers were escorted by police officers, police officials and
the county sheriff.

Church organizers call it Operation Holy Ground. They meet with mayors,
city council members, the Lake County sheriff and prosecutor, and
representatives of the U.S. attorney for northern Indiana before each
march. They demand that the police immediately shutter specific suspected
drug houses within 30 days. The addresses of the houses identified by the
churches as drug sites are presented to the police from the pulpit in a
sealed envelope.

Church organizers say they hope that the strategy will pressure the police
into arresting drug dealers and force city officials in Hammond, Gary and
East Chicago, Ind., to confront landlords who rent to suspected drug
dealers. The effort is expected to continue through this summer, although
questions have been raised about its legality.

"Desperate times call for concrete action," said the Rev. Vincent
McCutcheon, the president of the 29congregation interfaith group that
started the operation on May 5. "We're done with just sitting back and
grumbling about the decay of our communities."

The marchers were angrily denounced by a woman when they singled out her
home, which she said had been wrongly identified.

But Sandra Gibson, a neighbor living next to one of the suspected drug
houses, said she was pleased to see the police and marchers.

"Nothing but gangs and drugs and shooting here," Ms. Gibson said. "I hope
they scare these hoodlums away or put them in prison."

The organization's antidrug strategy has resulted in 29 drugrelated
arrests and the closing of three suspected crack houses in Hammond and
neighboring East Chicago.

But some experts on constitutional law say the strategy may violate the
rights of landlords and tenants. William Marsh, a retired Indiana
University professor, said that because police, city and county officials
accompanied marchers to suspected drug houses, they were, in effect,
cosponsoring what might be the violation of basic rights of privacy.

"There has been no due process to determine the accuracy of the charges
being leveled, and drug dealing is a very serious charge," Marsh said.
"People's reputations are at stake. The local officials are putting their
stamp of approval on this activity."

The interfaith organization is composed of 29 houses of worship in Hammond,
East Chicago and Gary, all less than a 25minute drive southeast of
downtown Chicago. The group reports 50,000 members. Paul Scully, an adviser
to the group, said that at election time, members would remember which
local officials had taken part in the antidrug effort.

"What we are attempting to do is for each individual church or congregation
to take control of the neighborhood properties," Scully said. "Those who do
not assist us, who only pay lip service in our struggle, will not be
forgotten."

Chief Fred Behrens of the Hammond Police Department and Sheriff John
Buncich of Lake County said the benefits of community support in the fight
against drugs outweighed other considerations.

"This is what we've always wanted, for the community to take the lead and
be our eyes and ears," Behrens said. "Now that we've got that help, it
would be very difficult for us not to meet them halfway."

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company