New York Drug War Results Questioned

NEW YORK (AP) Outside the Great Wok, a spindly man in bright yellow
sweatpants looks both ways before pushing his hand down a fistsized hole in
the sidewalk. A few seconds later, he shuffles away.

That the deal for crack cocaine happened at all is a sign that New York
City's war on drugs hasn't shut down the narcotics trade. Instead, some
dealers have moved to the suburbs or gone underground in this case, to a
basement extending below a crumbling Brooklyn sidewalk fronting a dingy
Chinese restaurant.

``Have (the dealers) quit and gotten 9to5 jobs? No,'' said Capt. Kevin
Perham, a commander involved in the crackdown. ``But we've made it very
uncomfortable for them. ... They're going to pretty great lengths not to deal
on the street.''

It's been nearly a year since police began an expensive crackdown on dealers
in north Brooklyn, where the drug trade was blamed for fueling up to 40
percent of robberies, shootings and other violent crime. What followed was a
year of undercover stings, surprise searches and steppedup street patrols.

The effort is part of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's campaign against prostitution,
panhandling, graffiti and other ``quality of life'' crimes. Critics say
targeting drug peddlers without addressing problems that feed demand
addiction, poor schools, unemployment, broken families will have no lasting
impact.

``My fear is that while dealing is less visible in some places, it's more
visible in some new area,'' said Monsignor John Powis of St. Barbara's Roman
Catholic Church. ``It still appears that anyone who wants drugs can get them,
and rather easily.''

Allan Clear, head of the drug addict advocacy group Harm Reduction Coalition,
said the police strategy won't work: ``Eradicating drugs is a utopian dream.
It's not going to happen.''

Police say they have made progress, pointing to 1996 statistics from the
targeted precincts narcotics arrests up 16 percent; reports of serious
crime down 22 percent; shootings down 23 percent; robberies down 14 percent.

It isn't cheap. The drug battle in Brooklyn is expected to cost the city $30
million this year and next. There are similar plans for other parts of the
city.

In one Brooklyn neighborhood, where dealers eight years ago executed a mother
for tipping police, a oncethriving heroin trade appears dead after police
arrested 50 people in a raid last year.

Steve Martin, 34, said the days are over when he had to say ``excuse me'' to
dealers loitering on his stoop or worry about letting his five children out
to play. He credits the police.

``They've stopped all that crap,'' Martin said.

There are indications that some of the drug suppliers have moved out of town,
said Anthony Senneca of the city's U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
office. There have been large drug seizures in the suburbs, including 1,240
pounds of cocaine last year in Westchester County, north of New York City.

But the hole in the Brooklyn sidewalk remains, a sign of dealers'
determination. Police have filled it with cement and sealed off the basement,
but dealers have broken in and poked new holes.

Authorities admit they can't stop drug sales as long as there are buyers. But
they argue that changing the way dealers do business is a worthy goal.

``It's not victory,'' Senneca said. ``But we're winning one battle.''