LEE COUNTY GROUP PUSHES FOR MORE DEPUTIES

LEMON SPRINGS - A band of four-wheelers zooms out of the Nicholson Road
cycle repair shop Saturday on a mission: to stop the drug dealers in rural
Lee County.

[photo: Members of the Citizens Against Drugs, led by President Jimmy
Fraley, head out to ask Lee County residents to sign a petition asking for
more sheriff's deputies.]

Jimmy Fraley, denim shirt unbuttoned to his navel, carries a gun on
his hip as he bounces along the road's shoulder from house to house.
The group is just collecting signatures, but Fraley, who is 53, says
he is armed for his protection.

"We're doing something that a lot of people resent," he said. "I fear
for the safety of my life at all times."

Fraley's organization, Citizens Against Drugs, wants the Sheriff's
Department to hire six deputies to combat drugs in this county of
49,000. Its members are circulating a petition to back up their request.

The organization's members say the department's four deputies per
shift aren't enough to shut down the crack houses in their
neighborhoods. They believe a lack of law enforcement presence is one
of the reasons drug traffic has come to them.

"Drugs used to be in the big cities, but now it's out in small town
USA because there's only one Barney Fife out here," said John Ed
McGehee, a member of the group.

Some elected officials say privately that extra lawmen won't help. At
a recent meeting of the county commissioners, board Chairman Herbert
Hincks read statistics showing that Lee County deputies are
responsible for fewer square miles each than lawmen in Moore, Harnett
and Chatham counties. At the request of Commissioner Bert Matthews,
Hincks placed her and Commissioner Chad Adams on a committee to study
the need for more deputies in the county. The two-person committee has
not set a time schedule.

Sheriff Billy Bryant said Lee's drug problems are no worse than those
in surrounding counties. He did not ask the county commissioners for
more deputies during budget discussions this year.

Bryant said the group has helped open a line of communication between
citizens and the Sheriff's Department. But he has cautioned them that
riding ATVs on the side of the road is illegal. Bryant also says that
more pressure should be put on the legal system to imprison drug offenders.

"The public demands that we make these arrests. We make them," he
said. "We demand that the courts do something with them."

Despite the reticence from county leaders, Fraley said, he's going to
keep trying. He said his group has collected more than 6,000
signatures, and he hopes to reach the whole county.

Call to action

He was inspired to start the group one rainy day in February when he
saw four men trying to rob an elderly neighbor. He only saw the men
because he had driven his pickup to the woman's house to check on a
suspicious car.

"They were trying to get in her door," he said. "She was holding the
door."

One of the men ran toward Fraley and he got out of his truck with a
revolver, he said. The men asked for $20, and eventually left.

"That was my last straw right there," he said.

He formed the group in March. It has focused on the Lemon Springs
area, Fraley said, but he hopes to broaden it to the whole county and
even include interested people from other counties.

As Fraley knocked on doors along Pilson Road on a recent Saturday, he
met sympathetic listeners. One woman said her children's bicycles had
been stolen recently. Kathy, who asked that her last name not be used,
said her 15-year-old son, David, was biking in the neighborhood when a
woman began chasing him.

"She was like, 'Come here baby, I'll show you a good time,'" David
said. "She grabbed a hold of me, and I took off."

Fraley doesn't discriminate when he's collecting signatures. He drives
his all-terrain vehicle up driveways he says belong to crack houses.
He gets suspected users to sign.

"Biggest drug dealer in the county signed our petition," he said,
proudly.

One man who was living on the second floor of an open barn, his yard
littered with junk cars, brush and beer cans, came out to greet Fraley
with a sheepish smile. He signed the petition, explaining that he
wasn't exactly "a pillar of the community."

"My ship kept coming in as a rowboat," the man said.

Fraley nodded, without judgment. "You know how it goes," he
said.

Perhaps the greatest public response to the county's drug issues can
be seen at CAD's meetings at Greenwood Elementary School. Sheriff
Bryant and the county commissioners have applauded the organization
for awakening people's interest in fighting drugs.

First-hand knowledge

The occasional gatherings usually combine testimonials about drug use
or crime with patriotic songs and prayer. Many come to the meetings
because of their experience with drug-related crime. They have seen
friends and family members addicted to crack cocaine. They have been
robbed. They say strangers knock on their doors in the middle of the
night asking for "gas money."

Donald Strickland, a recovering crack addict, said he joined the group
because it gave him power over the drugs. It also connects him with a
network of good people, he said.

"It gives me a reason to keep on going, staying clean, to do something
beneficial against the drugs," he said. "We're getting things done."

But attendance has dwindled in recent months. More than 300 people
attended the first meeting in March, according to some who were there;
only about 75 people were at the August meeting. Fraley says if he
could get more support from the county commissioners, the group could
be stronger.

"That's what this organization's running up against," Fraley said,
wondering aloud why only one commissioner attended the August meeting.
"Why should I have to go call them and tell them to come to the meeting?"

Criticisms

Some complain that the group has used tasteless measures to further
its cause. As an example, they point to the sign the group put up in
July when 11-year-old Bradley Way was killed and an alleged drug user
was charged with the crime. The sign said: "How many more people are
we going to lose to drugs and crime?"

And others - including a former member, public officials and deputies,
all of whom declined to be named - say the group would be more
effective if it were less critical of elected officials.

At the most recent Thursday night gathering, attendees walked past a
table of Citizens Against Drugs paraphernalia for sale: orange hats,
black polo shirts and bumper stickers marked with the organization's
name. Fraley said he has put about $4,000 into the nonprofit
organization's products.

A handwritten sign on the school door reminded visitors that guns are
not allowed in the building. Inside, state Trooper Dwight Mark Cole
set up a display of drugs and paraphernalia: crack rocks in baggies,
Valium pills, a syringe. On a PowerPoint screen, Fraley's name was
projected, with a quote below: "Whatever it takes."

Fraley stood in front of the partially filled auditorium.

"We're not fighting people," he said. "We're fighting a demon."

Larry Davis, a member of Bears Against Drugs, a state Highway Patrol
organization, took the microphone. He said that when he started on the
Sanford police force in the 1960s, he barely knew what marijuana was.
Now teenagers are buying blunts, crack pipes and other paraphernalia
at convenience stores.

"It's a shame that you can't keep the Brillo pads on the shelves at
the convenience store because the kids buy them," he said. "They're
not scrubbing pots, ladies and gentlemen."

Brillo and other scouring pads are used as filters for crack pipes,
authorities say.

He connected drug traffic to organizations such as the Taliban.

"Where's that money going? To terrorism," he said.

He read letters from recovering addicts to crystal methamphetamine and
told a story about catching a drug trafficker on Interstate 95.

Fellow Bears Against Drugs representative Billy Ward, who didn't use
the microphone but yelled across the room, got the most response from
the audience. Breathlessly, Ward preached about his son's addiction to
crack cocaine. He explained how an addict will take the checks from
the middle of your checkbook, how he will lie to you. He read from his
son's letters from prison. And he talked about the tough love that
broke his son's fall. Ward's refusal to visit his son in prison; how
he would report the car missing and have lawmen go look for his son.

Ward's son recently graduated from college, he said.

"Take care of your children. Don't blame your schoolhouse," he
shouted. Those in the room clapped.