NEEDED RESPONSE TO DRUGS

Greenville Police Department Develops An Aggressive Enforcement Plan

The illegal drug trade has always been the scourge of any community, so
what is engulfing Greenville these days is certainly not the exception to
the law enforcement rule.

However, city, county and state law enforcement agencies appear to be
readying a response to rid the streets of the thugs and drug dysfunction,
which ply their trade in our neighborhoods.

Perhaps the arrest on Monday - by members of the Greenville Police
Department, Washington County Sheriff's Department and the state Bureau of
Narcotics - of a reported Greenville firefighter on drug trafficking
charges is the long-awaited beginning of an aggressive antiphon to what we
see as a runaway illegal drug train with no motorman at the controls.

"We are aware that there is a problem in the area," Greenville Police Chief
Lon Pepper Jr. said Monday during an editorial board meeting with the Delta
Democrat Times. "We need good citizens to come forward with information we
can use to build cases and make arrests."

Mayor Paul Artman Jr., Councilwoman Audine Haynes, Maj. Lester Carter and
Capt. James Tutor, commander of the Police Department's Special Operations
Unit, said the city is going to see changes in the way the flourishing
illegal drug trade is being addressed. We certainly hope so.

Even though law enforcement is making a good-faith effort to reach out to
the community, nevertheless, there is an obvious chasm of distrust between
law enforcement and residents, which is not exclusive to Greenville. While
residents desire help, they do not want to get involved because many fear
physical reprisals from the low-lifes they demand be driven from the
neighborhood.

So the Greenville Police Department - through no fault of its own - is
placed in a Catch 22 situation. "It is a matter of building trust," Pepper
said. "But we need the involvement of the citizens."

But building confidence takes time, and the Greenville Police Department
does not have that luxury. The illegal drug problem needs aggressive law
enforcement action, and it is required now.

In recent weeks, residents living near Mulberry and Ohio streets have
complained bitterly about the so-called "open air drug bazaar" operating in
their neighborhood that goes unabated. It is an illegal enterprise that is
placing residents at risk of the mayhem and lawlessness associated with
illicit drugs, especially late at night.

But the Mulberry-Ohio neighborhood is not the only Greenville community
being relentlessly assaulted by illegal drugs. We are sure many communities
in the city have a harrowing story to tell - be it crack cocaine in the
African-American community to crystal methamphetamine in the Caucasian
community.

As we see it, there must be a concerted law enforcement response that shows
the public that authorities are serious in addressing this epidemic that
threatens the future of our youth. Anything less is not acceptable.