CRACKING DOWN ON DEALERS MIGHT STOP SOME VIOLENCE

I'm sorry for the victims of the shooting on Rosamond and the neighbors of
that community, but it's not surprising (June 13 article, "Gunman rakes
house, kills child"). I travel in that area on business from time to time.
Often I see people, usually young males, waving and motioning that they
apparently have something to offer. I am not a drug user, but I imagine
they're offering crack cocaine.

There usually are a couple of police cars at the Mapco convenience store at
Summer and Holmes. I suppose the Mapco is relatively crime free, but I
don't see much patrol activity in the community. It would make sense for
police to leave the marked patrol cars out of sight, drive through those
areas in unmarked cars and observe the activity. I'm a civilian and I can
see it, so why not the police?

William C. Kirk

Memphis

The Memphis Police Department has made a stand against drivers who do not
wear their seatbelts, and is attempting to run prostitutes out of town and
arresting and humiliating the "johns." But I never hear anything about a
concentrated effort by the police to do something about drug dealers who
stand on just about every corner of the city.

I work in South Memphis, and every day I drive by the same people and see
open drug transactions. Do the police not see this? I have seen police
officers driving in front of me when I have seen deals going down, and yet
the police drive on. Is the reason so many little kids have been killed in
the past few weeks that police are too scared to stop the drug dealers?

The mayor and police director need to do something.

Bobby Appel

Atoka, Tenn.