A POLICE PRESENCE IS ESSENTIAL TO DRIVING OUT DRUGS

To the editor:

Help! Ours is a great city fast on the way to being a crime
capital.

Please consider the following:

Illicit drug sales and use are the root cause of 90-plus percent of
all crimes committed in Greenville.

The existing law enforcement strategy and tactics for the suppression
of the drug trade and drug use are not effective. The existing
criminal justice system is not effective in breaking up the drug sales
and use business in Greenville. Make no mistake about it - the drug
trade is a business.

How is any business adversely affected? A business is disastrously
affected when customers are lost. How are customers lost in the drug
business? By a constant show of strength by law enforcement personnel
at the drug dealer's place of business - the key word is "constant" -
24-7, rain or shine! The constant show of strength must consist of a
policeman - in uniform, on foot - in front of or near the drug
dealer's place of business. In all history, no war has ever been won
without infantry.

What is a drug dealer's place of business? A house on a residential
street, a street corner, a park, a storefront in a business district.
Our city police know most of these drug-selling locations. Those that
are not known will gladly be pointed out by citizens sick of the drug
trade in their neighborhoods.

How can one policeman in front of or near a drug dealer's place of
business stop the drug trade? Simply by being there - being on post,
on city property - writing down the prospective customer's license
plate number.

These police foot patrolmen may make few or even no arrests - but the
drug dealers in search of customers will move to new locations. If the
policemen will follow, the drug dealers will then move to other cities
and towns. Police in those cities and towns can stand in front of
their drug businesses. This strategy and these tactics will drive the
drug dealers out of business in Greenville! How is any business ruined
and destroyed? By lack of paying customers.

The police action plan outlined above was conceived and successfully
executed by Chief Ruben Greenberg of the Charleston (S.C.) Police Department.

The drug trade is so open and notorious in Greenville that there is
the perception in portions of our population that elected and
appointed officials are being bribed - "are on the take" - from drug
dealers. I do not believe our officials are taking bribes; however,
perception is often taken as fact.

The primary duty of any government is the safety and well-being of all
citizens. Do our citizens feel secure in their own homes or when they
move about Greenville? I think not. This is a call to duty - our
elected and appointed officials must now fulfill their most important
responsibility. The British have an apt saying: "There are no bad
soldiers, only bad leaders." I do not brand our officials as "bad." I
do say they must fulfill their most important duty, and no longer
accept half-hearted measures to stop the drug and crime trade that
will destroy our city.

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do
nothing." (Edmond Burke)

If not now, when? If not our elected and appointed officials,
who?

Barthell Joseph Jr.,

Greenville