SCOURGE OF ILLEGAL DRUGS MUST BE ERADICATED

To decrease violence in our neighborhoods, our focus should be on drugs,
not guns. Anyone who uses or sells illegal drugs has made a decision to
become a part of a violent organized crime network.

People who use or sell drugs have invited the drug world into their homes.
They endanger the lives of family members and neighbors. They don't care if
some of those they put in harm's way are children.

Drug dealers and users have chosen to raise the potential for violence.
They are inviting death and violence to walk in. When they do, these people
cannot argue that someone else is to blame, or that they don't know why
this has happened. They should be held accountable.

Nancy Deal

Memphis
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When drug dealers are evicted from rental properties, where do they go
(June 19 article, "Grandma's eviction from drug home ordered two years ago,
Gibbons says")? This would just seem to expand the territory of a drug
operation.

I have been a renter and a homeowner, and have had neighbors who were drug
dealers. I have called the police many times to stop their activities, not
to avoid the problem by getting that bunch moved out and another bunch
moved in.

This law seems good in theory, but if police did a better job of arresting
drug dealers and prosecutors, judges and juries did better jobs in the
courts, the burden of policing a neighborhood would not be left to
landlords and neighbors.

I would bet that taxpayers are supporting Helen Bea Hobbs and her family
with welfare and food stamps. If they are evicted, they have the money to
move to any other neighborhood they choose and set up shop. Apparently they
have a loyal following and a profitable business.

Perhaps they should rent a house next to the lawyer who plea-bargained a
community service deal for them, or to the judge who issued a lesser sentence.

Sandra Pate Prentice

Star City, Ark.
----------------------
My son, Sundiata Roach, was slain in Memphis on Labor Day 2000. I moved
from Memphis the following July. I read about the murder of 3-year old
Jessica Borner, and the article that listed Memphis children who have been
murdered in recent months. My son was 17 years old and a senior in high
school when he was killed by a stray bullet. I am sad for the children, and
I am sad for the city. Memphis has become a killing field. Too many
families in Memphis are shattered by senseless street violence. My family
will never be the same. We have moved on, but we always remember Sundi. He
was talking in a parking lot with friends after a high school party when
some young criminals drove through and began shooting. When the shooting
stopped, my son lay dying.

Children should be able to play on a playground, sit in a car, walk down a
street or stand in a parking lot without fear of losing their life. What
will be the lasting effects on a generation of children who have lived with
this threat and have witnessed the murders of loved ones, friends and
classmates?

The good people of Memphis, law enforcement and the courts must work
together to get guns and thugs off the streets.

Marie Roach

San Jose, Calif.
------------------------
Every article I have read so far about Jessica Borner has skimmed over the
real reason she is dead. The reason is not "like having suicide bombers,"
as the president of the Memphis Urban League said in your June 16 article
to explain why young men would spray a house with gunfire. The reason is
that she lived in the home of a drug dealer.

Judy Lewis

Collierville
----------------------
So many women and children, but where are the fathers? Making sure our
children are relatively safe is the major responsibility of a family that
includes mother and father figures. Until people take seriously the role of
heading a household by loving, protecting and teaching morals and values,
they should not expect police, teachers or day care workers to raise their
children and take care of the crime in their households and community.

Parents and grandparents need to be role models. How can people place
children in harm's way by selling drugs in their home? We need to take back
our neighborhoods by reporting crime and drugs to police, and by not being
part of the problem ourselves. Too many children have died because of a
lack of family structure.

Meldona Sulcer-Wills

Bartlett
----------------------
Your June 17 Metro section front featured a photo of a man who was teaching
his son to fire a shotgun. Page 4 of that section was filled with letters
to the editor from people wondering why our children are being shot down in
the streets. This irony will escape those who see no connection between
guns and dead children. The cycle of guns, drugs and death can be stopped.
But it will require more brains, courage and integrity than our elected
officials seem to have.

Step 1: More cops on the beat. Stop wasting money on studies and programs.
The best crime-fighting tool is a cop on the corner.

Step 2: Stop fighting "the violence." People talk about "the violence" like
it's the "the weather." Fighting "the violence" is how people get rich from
government programs. The problem is people shooting each other.

Step 3: Stop trying to pray the problem away. Problems are solved by clear
thinking and hard work. Prayer is neither.

Step 4: Ban the manufacture of guns. There are millions of guns in this
country. We have enough.

Step 5: Legalize drugs. We can stop drug crime by eliminating the huge
profits to be made on the black market. Use the tax money raised from drug
sales to fund treatment programs and put more police on the streets.
Remember Prohibition? Learn from it.

Michael B. Conway

Memphis
----------------------
In many parts of this city, people call police when they know about drug
dealing and other crimes, but too often police do not arrive until two to
three hours later.

I have two friends who live in a neighborhood that has been afflicted by
dope dealers for three years. Calls to police and city government have
produced nothing.

It is sad to hear politicians tell people who live in these areas that they
must get involved. When the city doesn't get involved, how can ordinary
citizens? Should we start vigilante groups? Should we become bounty hunters
and bring in bail jumpers dead or alive?

Without action from the upper echelons of city government, one of two
things will happen: Everyone who can move out of the city will, or people
will take the law in their own hands. Either way, Memphis loses.

Sandra Pruett

Memphis
----------------------
How many kids' lives were saved by police stopping cars and writing tickets
for failure to use seat belts? If these officers had been patrolling the
streets, breaking up gangs and checking young men for guns and dope, the
kids who have been killed in Memphis recently might still be alive.

William J. Padgett Sr.

Enid, Miss.