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Tuesday, 23 January 2007 17:06 |
By DAVID FORBES
The city is developing a comprehensive plan to fight illegal drug sales in public housing, as Asheville City Council voted 5-2 in support of developing such a plan on Jan. 16.
The resolution included a call for easing the economic plight of residents in public housing and attempting to increase child care as well as police activity.
"Police alone are not going to address this," Councilman Bryan Freeborn said before amending the resolution to address child care. "Weëve heard that we also need to deal with poverty, to deal with child care, to deal with the issues feeding this."
That
led to the dissenting votes from councilmen Carl Mumpower and Jan
Davis, who felt that the clarity of the resolution was diluted by
adding more facets to it. The original resolution focused more on
studying how the police are functioning in drug efforts ÇƒÓ and what they
could do to eliminate drug markets in public housing.
"I have a
problem with adding this. Weëre swamping this resolution ÇƒÓ thatës
taking away its clarity and creativity," Mumpower said.
Mumpower has
been at the center of a recent controversy over the cityës efforts to
stamp out illegal drug use after he initially requested to ride along
with the police weekly on drug raids ÇƒÓ and has criticized the
effectiveness of the Asheville Police Department in combating drugs.
"About an hour
before this meeting, I received an e-mail from the city manager and
police chief accusing me of endangering the safety of our officers when
I stopped at the West Asheville substation to report drug activity in
Pisgah View (Apartments)," Mumpower said.
"If I was doing
that, you should arrest me and charge me. We are struggling with a
problem of corruption ÇƒÓ the corruption of indifference to open air drug
markets."
He recently
ended a "30 visits in 30 days" effort to log 30 instances of open-air
drug transactions in the cityës public housing. After 10 days, "it was
that or my wife was going to leave me," Mumpower noted, adding that he
found 25 transactions in that time.
"The activity is
visible and blatant ÇƒÓ we cannot maintain police substations in public
housing because they keep getting vandalized, but we ask people to live
there," Mumpower asserted. "Illegal drug activities are an example of
Ashevilleës diversity. Black males deal most hard drugs, white males
and females purchase most hard drugs and illegal Hispanic aliens are
the distributors of most hard drugs."
But Police Chief
Bill Hogan asserted in remarks to council that the Asheville has a
higher drug arrest rate than many larger cities such as Charlotte and
Winston-Salem.
"In 2005, we
made 127 drug-related arrests per 10,000 residents," Hogan said. "If
you look at the national average, itës 62 arrests per 10,000. Weëre
nearly twice that. That represents that weëre doing twice as much. I
want to assure the council that weëre committed, weëre dedicated and
weëre ready ÇƒÓ the statistics show that."
He suggested
that the city increase ties with residents in public housing and also
investigate increased policing for Ashevilleës public housing, ranging
from one unit all the time, which would cost about $870,000 ÇƒÓ to a
"saturation plan" of $6.7 million that would involve a much larger unit
to patrol the areas constantly. The police department, Hogan noted, is
currently investigating the ways it conducts patrols and how resources
are allocated.
Mumpowerës
proposals also suggested that Asheville should look at targeting users
as much as dealers, push for more funding of the state court system and
make public housing conditional upon "responsible behavior."
He also noted in
his presentation that he believed Hogan had been "well within his
rights" to refuse his earlier request to accompany police.
"I have no
problem with our police ÇƒÓ my confrontation was with our city and police
administration," Mumpower said. "I do not believe our city and police
administrations are taking the steps necessary to protect all our
citizens."
At the end of his remarks, Mumpower received applause from some members of the audience.
Residents of
public housing pleaded with council to find some way to address the
problem, including Kara Dilworth, president of the Deaverview
Residentsë Association.
"When youëve got
people who are going out there to buy crack and arenët buying clothes
for their children ÇƒÓ itës a problem," Dilworth said. "Itës not just one
problem. Itës not just the drug dealers, itës not just the buyers, itës
not just the police, itës not just the management, itës not just the
housing ÇƒÓ itës all of it."
She said that she has received threats and feels in danger from drug dealers in her apartment complex.
Earlier, Jon
Haynes, a resident of Hillcrest Apartments, directed his ire at "a
system that is making money off the misery of others. Itës not force
and programs that change people ÇƒÓ itës people that change people."
Haynes also
praised councilës recent decision to take over and demolish McCormick
Heights to make way for a mixed-income housing development.
But Chad
Nesbitt, a member of the neighborhood watch program in Leicester, said
he had smelled meth labs in Hillcrest ÇƒÓ but not seen any police.
"South French
Broad Road is a haven for drug dealing and prostitution ÇƒÓ if I know
this and weëre seeing this, then why doesnët the police department know
this?" Nesbitt said. "People, weëve got a serious problem with our
police department."
Meanwhile, Gene
Bell, director of the housing authority, said that if he were "king for
a day," the major steps he would take to reduce drug use in public
housing would be full employment and child care.
"The problem is
that the people weëre losing arenët the people who are making the
decisions," Bell said.
"I would make sure that everyone is employed and
that thereës day care. If that happens, part of the problem dissolves.
Itës not normal in a capitalistic society not to be employed.
However, Bell did note that the Housing Authority was requesting more funds for police protection.
Councilman
Brownie Newman noted that Ashevilleës goal "shouldnët be to entirely
eliminate drug use ÇƒÓ thatës not realistic. Our goal should be that
mothers in public housing feel that itës safe for their children to go
out and play."
Later, Mayor
Terry Bellamy noted that she had felt media coverage of the earlier
controversy over Mumpowerës requests had improperly portrayed their
e-mail exchanges to be adversarial.
"He was asking
for clarification ÇƒÓ and we were giving it," Bellamy said. "The media
made it out like it was some sort of fight ÇƒÓ it wasnët."
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