SOMA RESIDENTS ON DRUG WAR'S FRONT LINE

Special To The Examiner

The District Attorney's Office claims it is prosecuting a record number of
drug crimes in the South of Market area, but crack addicts are still
running amok, city officials told residents this week.

Despite the Department of Public Works spending a third of its budget in
the SoMa neighborhood and the Department of Public Health taking steps to
relocate addicts out of the area, South of Market is still more like South
of Mayhem, residents say.

Frustrated, they have formed their own community coalition to press
agencies to take a harder line on drug dealers, saying that addicts can
even buy "crack kits" containing drug paraphernalia at local minimarts.

At a meeting Monday with city officials, some residents complained that the
DA's Office wasn't prosecuting enough drug-related and quality-of-life
crimes, particularly theft from cars.

"It's become a revolving door," said one resident. "These are (car thieves)
who are costing us $60 to $80 every time they break a window."

Assistant DA Mike Menesini, currently a managing attorney for misdemeanor
cases, said such cases were being prosecuted. Assistant DA's generally have
workloads of 60 to 80 cases more than they had before.

"The DA's Office has been very aggressive in terms of prosecuting narcotics
laws," Menesini said.

Menesini said he wanted to work with police to clear up public drunkenness
and ad hoc encampments in SoMa in a way similar to the blitz on public
drinking that had transformed the Haight Ashbury district.

He added that the DA had an "astronomical" number of drug cases ready for
jury trial and just needed a courtroom, referring to the overcrowded state
court system.

"We are very concerned about local quality-of-life issues," Menesini said.
"I will work with your community, your police, your neighborhood."

As for the crack kits, which contain a glass pipe and copper mesh,
community representative Scott James said they were available in local
markets on Sixth and Seventh streets and that he had seen the SoMa
community court prosecuting a case of a proprietor selling a kit.

Capt. Tim Hettrick of the Police Department's Narcotics Division told
residents that police had conducted two high-level drug raids in the past
week and were carrying out regular undercover buy-busts in South of Market.
But addicts still were running amok in crazy scenarios like those
immortalized by Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy in comedy sketches.

"If you look at Sixth Street and Seventh Street and Market, and the
late-night crack-addict robberies, those routines are true," Hettrick said.

One guy recently pursued by police over a $10 cocaine rock holed up in a
nearby apartment and took a mother and daughter hostage, then moved to
another nearby home and took an elderly woman hostage.

"All for a $10 rock that the DA may not have prosecuted," Hettrick said.

Amy Petersen, who convened the meeting on behalf of residents, said she was
disappointed not to learn more about what the Narcotics Division was doing
to stop the spread of drugs.

Guy Danilowitz, who, like Petersen, is part of the Police-Community
Relations Advisory Council, said he was pleased with the meeting and that
residents couldn't expect police to solve all the problems.

"We've also got to come up with some solutions," Danilowitz said.

Residents told city officials that drug-treatment centers attracted drug
dealers, who police confirmed waited outside treatment facilities to lure
vulnerable prey back into using drugs.

Neighbors said hot spots of drug activity were Lafayette Street, Washburn
Alley, and Natoma Street at Eighth Street.

Department of Public Health spokesman Charlie Morimoto said addicts are now
being taken out of their destructive environment after completing their
drug treatment, and put up in more supportive housing.

He said another part of the solution would be increased methadone treatment
- -- the drug given to heroin addicts to rid them of the craving for opiates.

"If I could, I would increase methadone two-or threefold in San Francisco,"
Morimoto said.

"(But) people get fearful that you are replacing one drug for another," he said.