AS FOCUS FADES, PROBLEMS RETURN TO SURSUM CORDA

"Coke, coke," a drug dealer uttered to a passerby just feet from the
townhouse in the Sursum Corda housing development in the District
where 14-year-old Jahkema Princess Hansen was gunned down on the night
of Jan. 23.

Nearby, a shirtless man stood in his doorway examining the rock of
crack cocaine he had just bought from the dealer, while another
solicited the driver of an idling Buick, asking him whether he wanted
to buy marijuana: "You all right? You need smoke?" Within seconds,
cash and drugs changed hands and the vehicle eased away from the curb.

Sursum Corda's open-air drug market was full of activity last
Wednesday afternoon -- even though D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey
had designated the area an emergency drug-free zone, meaning the
complex was supposed to get five days of strict law enforcement. The
chief gave police officers greater authority to arrest loiterers as a
way to more aggressively police the drug trade.

The plan called for the emergency designation to run from Wednesday
through midnight yesterday in and around the 199-unit complex off
North Capitol Street. But as dealers worked the streets, alleyways and
parking lots the first afternoon, there was not a police cruiser or
officer in sight.

Their absence was a stark contrast to the days following Princess
Hansen's slaying when police cars and vans, with lights flashing, took
up positions along the horseshoe-shaped street that curves through the
center of Sursum Corda.

Although police said they have made numerous arrests in the past few
weeks, recovering drugs and guns, residents of the development are
complaining about the gaps in police coverage. They said that they are
deeply skeptical about commitments made last month by Mayor Anthony A.
Williams (D) and police brass to devise a long-range plan to ease the
problems of drugs and violence -- which have ravaged the
two-square-block area since the mid-1980s.

Many in the neighborhood described the pledges as little more than
hollow promises and politically advantageous sound bites. They said
authorities should have a more effective crime-fighting plan in place
given that more than three weeks have gone by since Princess Hansen
was killed. The teenager died in what authorities say was an apparent
attempt to keep her from testifying about a homicide she witnessed.

What has further infuriated some residents is that even when police
are there, they don't always act. Residents said that drug deals have
been taking place recently in front of some police officers in parked
cruisers who don't bother to get out of their cars to question anyone
or make an arrest.

Police officials said they have been delivering on the promises. Asked
why the police were not out in full force Wednesday, a police captain
blamed a bureaucratic mix-up. He said officers were not able to take
advantage of the first 16 hours of the drug-free designation because
of delays in posting signs that are legally required 24 hours before
the more stringent loitering penalties can be applied.

The failure of some officers to act while patrolling the complex is a
problem that needs to be corrected, the police officials said. But
they noted that more than two dozen individuals have been arrested in
the last three weeks in the Sursum Corda neighborhood, most of them on
drug charges. Police said they have towed about 60 cars that were
either abandoned, unregistered or stolen.

The strong sense of betrayal felt by some residents was clear
Wednesday night at a community meeting in which they expressed their
frustrations and distrust to representatives from the Williams
administration.

"We have been begging for help for 20 years. But they have done
nothing," Sursum Corda's assistant manager, Christine Nicholson, told
the gathering of about 60 people at R.H. Terrell Junior High School.

Nicholson, who has lived at Sursum Corda for more than two decades,
said in a subsequent interview that the mayor and the police "are
going to have to prove to me that what they are doing is real, because
I have heard and seen this all before." She added, "If they had given
us only half of what we had asked for, perhaps this young girl did not
have to die."

The shooting of Princess Hansen was one of three killings over a
six-day stretch in the Sursum Corda area. On Jan. 18, Mario J. Evans,
21, was shot to death in a hallway at Temple Courts and Tommy Cardwell
Jr., 36, was slain in a parking lot nearby. Marquette E. Ward was
charged in Evans's death; there have been no arrests in Cardwell's
case.

Investigators said they believe that Princess witnessed the homicide
of Evans, but she would not cooperate with the police investigation
despite warnings from authorities that she would be killed if she
returned to Sursum Corda. On Jan. 23, according to police, Franklin
Thompson, 22, burst into a townhouse on the horseshoe and shot the
girl seven times. He has pleaded not guilty to a murder charge.

Thursday afternoon, a day after the community meeting, three police
cruisers were parked in the horseshoe. But notwithstanding the
presence of the officers and another who was patrolling the streets on
horseback, the drug dealing continued within 25 yards of the police
cars -- without any of the officers even getting out of their vehicles.

Two of the cruisers, carrying a total of three officers, were parked
next to each other, and the drivers were conversing through their open
windows. The officers, at times, were engrossed in laughter and did
not seem to be paying attention to the drug activity on the horseshoe
or in an adjacent parking lot.

At the top of the horseshoe, on M Street NW, another officer was
smoking a cigarette and reading something on his lap in his cruiser.

One drug dealer on the horseshoe, near the development's leasing
office, appeared unfazed by the police cruisers and the officers'
clear view of him. He approached a reporter and told him that he was
selling rocks of crack cocaine for $25 and $50, as well as PCP.

Asked whether he was concerned about the police up the street, the
dealer said: "No, man. It's no big deal. What do you need?"

Late yesterday afternoon, one cruiser was visible in the area, and
young men, who appeared to be soliciting cars, moved freely around the
area.

Capt. Ralph McLean of the 1st Police District, which is responsible
for Sursum Corda, said that he was troubled that officers were not
leaving their cruisers.

"Somebody needs a swift kick in the seat of the pants, because it
makes all of us look bad," McLean said. "They should be getting out
and walking around."

McLean said he spent several hours at Sursum Corda over the weekend
and has been stressing to officers the importance of getting out of
their cars while there.

McLean disputed the idea that the police have not dedicated adequate
resources to fighting crime at Sursum Corda since Princess's death. He
noted, for instance, that a significant number of officers work
overtime in the neighborhood from 3 p.m. to 3 a.m. And he said that
just because residents may not see uniformed officers at a given time,
it does not mean police are not there.

Of the 25 people arrested in the Sursum Corda area in the past three
weeks, 80 percent were taken in on drug charges, McLean said. In one
arrest early Wednesday, officers seized a fully loaded Ruger handgun,
30 grams of crack and 70 grams of marijuana from two previously
convicted felons, the captain said.

About the same time the following day, a man was shot in the thigh in
the Unit Block of M Street NW by a gunman in a car. After a high-speed
chase that ended on 12th and U streets NW, police arrested four men,
two of whom have been charged in the shooting, McLean said.

McLean noted that Sursum Corda remains a dangerous place rife with
illicit activity that poses a formidable challenge to law
enforcement.

"We are trying to make a dent," McLean said. "But it's going to be a
tough nut to crack. Sursum Corda has been there for years and years
and years."

In the meantime, families at Sursum Corda say they need the police to
do a better job so that people can live with less trepidation. Because
of the recent violence, some children will no longer sleep alone in
their beds and some residents feel uneasy about openly discussing the
slayings for fear they will be next.

Alverta Munlyn, 61, who has lived in the Sursum Corda neighborhood her
entire life, said that greater prevention is needed around the
open-air drug market, perhaps enlisting the Guardian Angels to help
out. "It's like we are a forgotten community, a community of poor
people," she said.

Staff writer David A. Fahrenthold contributed to this report.