POLICE CHIEF TAKES AIM AT DRUG TRADE

The Police Chief Said He Will Use Street Patrols More Aggressively To
Enforce A No-Tolerance Policy

YOUNGSTOWN - If you don't walk away from the city's drug culture,
you're left with two options: a violent death or prison.

"Strangers don't kill strangers," Police Chief Robert E. Bush Jr.
said, reflecting on last year's homicides. "The majority were
drug-related. I know I'll hear from the victims' families for saying
that, but it's true."

He said if you're not involved with drugs - or hanging out with
someone who is - there's nothing to fear. "We don't find bodies in the
streets, people coming home from work, killed for no reason."

In 2004, the city recorded 22 homicides - 16 black, six white. The
youngest was a 16-year-old boy, the oldest a 63-year-old woman. A
coroner's ruling is pending in the December death of an East Side woman.

Until 2003, the city's homicide rate hadn't dipped below 20 for more
than a decade. That year, 19 were killed.

Between 1991 and 2002, the city recorded 564 homicides, an average of
47 per year.

Three Options

Bush said the fast-paced and lucrative drug culture leaves young men,
mostly black, with only three options: "You walk away, you go to
prison or you die."

The cycle of violence typically involves retaliation.

"That dope dealer who gets ripped off, now he's out to retaliate. It
sends a message," the chief said. "The drug trade - it's commerce, a
market-driven economy."

The 2004 New Year brought with it the still-unsolved triple homicide
that happened inside a house on New York Avenue. Danyale Oliver, 30,
one of the three victims discovered Jan. 15, left two daughters.

The girls' 22-year-old mother, Shaquanda Crump of Lora Avenue, said
Saturday that she doesn't believe Oliver's slaying involved drugs.

"I know they keep saying drug-related - I don't believe that," Crump
said, adding that Oliver was a good father who had been making plans
for his youngest daughter's birthday. "He was killed a day before
De'Janae's first birthday - she'll be 2 Jan. 16."

The older girl, Dalaysha, will be 6 in May.

"Dalaysha says she wants to know who did it so she can ask why they
killed her daddy," Crump said. "She misses him, she wishes he was
here. She wanted him around for her first day at kindergarten."

Crump said she's heard nothing about the status of the homicide
investigation and neither has Oliver's mother.

Economic Climate

The chief, meanwhile, shook his head at the idea that the city's
economic climate, a lack of jobs, plays any part in attracting young
men to the drug culture. He paused as he thought back over the years
before explaining.

"I don't ever recall anyone saying, in jail or in court, that they got
into the drug trade because they couldn't find a job," Bush said.
"It's a conscious decision and they know the outcome. They see their
friends killed, but they think it won't happen to them."

Last year, the South Side had 10 homicides; the East Side, five; and
the North Side, seven. December was the deadliest month, with five men
shot to death, all on the South Side.

This year, the chief wants his officers, especially on the South Side,
to "keep pounding the streets," aggressively enforcing a
zero-tolerance policy and looking for convicted felons violating their
parole. "If you're a convicted felon working at Walgreen's, there's no
reason for you to have a .45," he said.

The chief used the arrest a few days ago of 26-year-old Terry Ramses
on the South Side as an example of "pounding the streets." Ramses, of
Market Street, climbed a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire to
avoid arrest on a traffic violation. He was found hiding in a garage
on Mary Street.

The chief called Ramses a likely candidate for a homicide.

Ramses was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, illegal
possession of a weapon based on a prior conviction, aggravated
trafficking in crack cocaine, possession of dangerous drugs, driving
under suspension (failure to pay child support), failure to signal a
turn and no seat belt. The pursuit began after police pulled Ramses
over on West Indianola Avenue when he failed to signal a turn. He ran
after getting out of the car, reports show.

Parole Authority

In 2005, Bush intends to again call upon a "great resource" - the Ohio
Adult Parole Authority - to remove convicted felons, such as Ramses,
from society. Felons cannot possess a gun, be around any illegal
activity, and some have curfews.

The drug trade, Bush said, is supported by working-class men and
women, many from the suburbs.

"There's no discrimination, black and white, from all over the
Valley," the chief said of drug users. "We know by the cars they drive
and the way they're dressed."

He said undercover cops who videotape drug activity see it all - women
in nurses' uniforms, store clerks in smocks, construction workers and
men and women in business suits.

As an example, Bush mentioned the recent arrest of Robert F. Premec,
41, of 8354 N. Lima Road, Poland, on drug trafficking charges. Premec
is accused of buying heroin and OxyContin, mostly in Youngstown, and
distributing them in the Poland area.

"The chances of [Premec] being a homicide victim were great," Bush
said. "That's the drug culture."

Caught Up In It

The October 2004 shooting death of a 43-year-old Girard man at the
Brier Hill Annex on Dupont Street is another example of out-of-towners
caught up in the violence of the drug trade. The victim was at the
subsidized housing complex to buy drugs, his brother told police.

There's little police can do to prevent homicides because of the
secretive nature of drug dealing, the chief said. Police, though, will
work vigorously to not allow lawlessness to prevail, he said.

Finally, Bush said he's concerned about Mahoning County's finances,
specifically the failure of the half-cent sales tax in November and
proposed cuts in corrections officers at the jail. The release of
inmates will undoubtedly result in a crime increase, he said.

"Those who will be released will break into houses, steal cars, rip
off drug dealers and maybe shoot somebody," he warned.