EXTERMINATING DRUG VERMIN FROM THE PLACE WE CALL HOME

GREENVILLE -- The early-morning sun bathes this Greenville neighborhood in
a false sense of serenity - the phalanx of drug clientele has yet to show
up at the intersection of Mulberry and Ohio streets.

But as the day wears on, the tempo of the traffic picks up and dozens of
faces - young, old and in between, all familiar to the street-corner drug
dealers hanging around this open-air bazaar - begin to appear.

It's a disturbing image of the flourishing illegal drug trade, nestled in
with single-family homes and hard-working people who see a piece of their
community slowly being sucked up by the criminal dysfunction who prey on
its streets.

To those who live here, the almost nonstop drug processional smothers them
beneath a sordid human canopy - random gunshots, squealing tires - placing
a God-fearing neighborhood at risk. It's a din that drowns out their urgent
pleas for help.

"The boys in the 'hood have run things around here for a long time," said
one resident. "You mind your business, because you might get shot." For
many of these residents, hopelessness and despair have long since replaced
frustration - a growing disappointment with law enforcement apparently
unable to rid their community of this menace.

Perhaps with the Greenville City Council's appointment last week of Lon
Pepper Jr. as chief of police, the department will be re-energized to
attack this illicit drug trade, which rips away the human fabric of our
society.

But as one Greenville police officer said of the city's escalating drug
trade, "The drug dealers are like cockroaches: Turn on the light, and they
just scatter to a different neighborhood."

So those who are charged with protecting our safety are hamstrung by an
entrenched governmental bureaucracy, and a lack of resources to get the job
done. But we have heard that lame refrain before.

So what is a community to do? Hope and pray, much like the residents who
live near Mulberry and Ohio streets.

The tragedy is that most of these homeowners are hopelessly trapped,
because who is going to purchase property in a free-flowing drug zone?

"What you have out here is a drive-through drug den," said Oliver, another
resident. "They can get you the drugs faster than McDonald's."

It doesn't matter what time of day, the drug dealers and their would-be
clients are omnipresent, Oliver said.

Many in the neighborhood fear that some youngster is going to be killed by
a stray bullet or run over by one of these jerks who have turned these
residential streets into a drag strip.

"We have an epidemic drug situation in this community, and the police are
doing nothing about it," Oliver said, resignation creeping into his voice.
"And the elected officials are really no better."

District 5 Councilwoman Audine Haynes understands the neighborhood's pain,
because she lives there. In fact, the former Washington County sheriff's
deputy knows first-hand what law enforcement is not doing to address the
area's illegal drug trade.

Haynes has never subscribed to the "duck and run" philosophy of many
politicians; she faces tough questions head-on. Haynes said she has waged
an unsuccessful 18-month campaign to call attention to the problem the
illegal drug trade is having on her district. She is not satisfied with the
response from law enforcement.

"The residents are afraid for their safety," she said. "I am truly tired of
it . . . there needs to be more drug arrests."

Haynes looks at the aggressive drug enforcement taking place in neighboring
Sunflower County and wonders why the same measures cannot be taken in
Greenville.

"What we need to do is quit skirting the issue, and begin to do something
about the problem," Haynes said.

Because if law enforcement does not begin to show some semblance of a
response, the criminal element who ply their poison trade on our community
will continue to conduct business as usual.

In the long run, we all suffer.

Former Sun Herald staffer Donald V. Adderton is the editor of the Delta
Democrat Times, 988 N. Broadway, Greenville, MS 38701.