THE EDUCATION OF DR. MUMPOWER

Drug Excursion Sparks Controversy

"To solicit crack cocaine to prove there is a drug problem is like
smuggling a bomb onto an airplane to prove we need better security at
airports." - Council member Brownie Newman

It wouldn't be a war without a little reconnaissance work. And as the
principal planner and advocate of Operation Hard Time (a proposed war
on drugs in public housing), Vice Mayor Carl Mumpower apparently
figured he was the man for the job.

On the evening of May 14, Mumpower told Xpress, former Asheville City
Council member Herb Watts, a retired police officer, "offered to
educate me some more" about the open-air drug markets flourishing in
Asheville's public-housing complexes. Mumpower told how he and Watts
had driven to Lee Walker Heights, where Watts' car was approached by a
group of young men. According to Mumpower, Watts rolled down the
driver's side window, asked for "a dime," and "the guy dropped a rock
in his hand, Herb handed it to me, and Herb then drove off without
paying. I was looking over my shoulder waiting for the gunfire."

Later that evening, said Mumpower, he drove downtown and turned the
rock over to the Asheville Police Department. According to a "found
property report" submitted at 3:25 a.m. on May 15, "1 tan rock = 1g.
[was] found in the possession of Vice Mayor Carl Mumpower." The report
continues: "Dr. Mumpower stated that he got the tan rock from Lee
Walker Heights. Dr. Mumpower requests testing for controlled substance."

"The point of the episode," said Mumpower, "is to illustrate how
casual the drug dealers are. They have no natural enemies."

The incident was first reported by Peter Dawes in the June edition of
The Mountain Guardian News and Opinion, a local monthly newspaper. And
the June 10 edition of the Asheville Tribune, a weekly, carried a
story by Bill Fishburne that also mentions the Mumpower/Watts drug
operation.

Risky business Interim Police Chief Ross Robinson told Xpress that the
department would not be sending the rock to the SBI lab for testing
because, "They're not going to test it unless there is a defendant -
there has to be a charge." The APD, he explained, "could do a field
test, but that doesn't exclude a false positive."

And though he declined to "speculate on [Mumpower's] reasons,"
Robinson did say the APD "would discourage anyone from putting
themselves in close proximity to illegal activity, particularly drug
activity."

Asked if Mumpower had violated any laws, Buncombe County District
Attorney Ron Moore told Xpress, "Technically, any possession of
cocaine is illegal." But since the police didn't intercept the vice
mayor with the cocaine before he turned it in, prosecution would be
difficult, said Moore, because they would have to prove criminal
intent. As a result, he explained, it's unlikely that a jury would
convict.

Moore, however, also pointed out that his office has prosecuted murder
cases in which the defendant killed someone who'd run off without
paying for drugs. Mumpower's actions, said the district attorney, were
"obviously not a very smart thing to do." And if someone finds drugs,
stressed Moore, they should first call the police. He also noted that
if Mumpower had been stopped by a squad car on the way to the police
station, "It may have been a whole different ball game." Unless a
civilian had been asked to buy drugs as part of a law-enforcement
operation, added Moore, "It's not the type of excuse we'd be impressed
with."

Mayor Charles Worley concurred, calling Mumpower's foray into the drug
world "a very risky thing to do."

"You wouldn't catch me going into the projects in circumstances like
that," added Worley.

Council member Brownie Newman went further still, saying: "To solicit
crack cocaine to prove there is a drug problem is like smuggling a
bomb onto an airplane to prove we need better security at airports. It
is as reckless as it is unnecessary. Worst, it needlessly endangers
the lives of children and families by creating the potential for
violence in a residential neighborhood."

Newman also wondered why Mumpower had felt the need to take such
extreme steps to demonstrate the extent of drug trafficking in public
housing. "No one has ever denied that there's a problem; no one has
ever challenged Carl on that. It's just that we disagree on the
approach to addressing the problem," noted Newman.

And even before Mumpower first proposed the drug war at a Council
meeting, a May 3 article in the Asheville Citizen-Times reported that
the vice mayor had spent the night in an apartment in public housing
and had witnessed nonstop drug dealing outside his window.

Mumpower later told Xpress that his experience with Watts had taught
him "more about how widespread [the drug problem] was." He added that
his overnight stay in public housing had occurred "over a year ago."
Mumpower was also adamant that "people have challenged how pervasive
[drug dealing] is - they've challenged the seriousness of the issue."
As for the claim that his and Watts' actions had endangered public
safety, Mumpower acknowledged, "The dangerous thing to do was to drive
off. Herb has said that himself." But the vice mayor added, "I'm
fascinated by the enthusiasm with which people have embraced the
danger I represent to the public good versus these guys up there
packing guns."

Mumpower also stressed his own surprise at the way things played out:
"I didn't control the car. Herb drove off, and I don't think he should
have done that. I don't think he should have taken the crack rock. I
had no control over those things. I went up there to observe and
listen to Herb; I didn't go up there to make a drug buy. It's not
anything we ever discussed. I think that was a spontaneous thing that
Herb kinda did. The plan was to go out and observe and learn from
somebody who knows more than I do. This other was an incidental
activity that I am glad happened, because it really illustrated to me
how unafraid they [the drug dealers] are - and that really bothers me.
These are predators."

Watts did not return repeated phone calls.