CITY HAS DRUG PROBLEM BECAUSE WE TOLERATE IT

I read with interest the editorial titled "Drug bust a lucky catch"
[Herald-Sun, May 25]. It's amazing how soon our community forgets that
Durham has a serious drug trafficking problem. Just weeks ago the police
took 850 pounds of pot off the streets. Was that luck too? But just let The
Herald-Sun print something significant that the Police Department has done
(even if they call it luck,) and here comes the pretentious speech calling
for more policing.

Have you forgotten where you are? This is Durham. While it may be
politically correct to encourage the police to aggressively pursue those who
traffic in narcotics, I still remember the barrage of anti-police rhetoric
that came from the Cheek Road crackdown. How soon we forget. And you want an
"around-the-clock drug offensive?" Who do you think will support it? Will
The Herald-Sun, which called it a "lucky catch," although it may have been
coordinated by a federal task force? Will the parents of our local
gang-bangers support corralling their misguided youth? Who's going to stand
with the chief when violence is met with greater force?

We're living in an era of "kinder, gentler," and frankly the gangs here love
that! Who will support a take-the-gloves-off offensive? That's what it will
take. Durham is the way it is because we tolerate it. From the courts to the
churches, from our schools to our homes, we must like it this way. Or else
we would rise up like Judge Abraham Jones recently did and say enough is
enough!

M. IRVING

Durham