Pubdate: Mon, 25 Feb 2002
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2002 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Contact:  http://www.news-observer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/304
Author: Angela Heywood Bible

DURHAM MAYOR SAYS RAID ON CHEEK ROAD LEGAL

Residents Say Children Were Pinned at Gunpoint

DURHAM - More than 80 people attended the Durham NAACP's monthly meeting 
Sunday afternoon to discuss complaints by Cheek Road Apartments residents 
about a police raid Feb. 15 through 17.

Residents of 1835 Cheek Road, who have said the raid was too aggressive, 
met with NAACP members to rally support and determine who will attend a 
meeting later this week with Acting Police Chief Steve Chalmers.

Curtis Gatewood, president of the Durham chapter of the National 
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he hoped to 
organize the residents and choose a place to hold the meeting. He blamed 
police for being tough on "poor black folks" and suggested they target some 
of the city's upper-class neighborhoods instead.

"We want justice," Gatewood said. "We want everyone's rights to be 
recognized and observed regardless of where they live. ... There's a 
difference in a police presence and police brutality."

Operation TAPS, The Aggressive Police Strategy, involved more than 100 
officers from Durham, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Guard 
and other organizations. It netted 35 arrests, including many on drug and 
weapons charges, and 65 motor vehicle tickets from Friday through Sunday. 
Officers seized drugs, guns and ammunition.

On Thursday, Chalmers received the NAACP complaint and 12 letters from 
residents describing terrified children, empty apartments being ripped 
apart, masked officers with guns and officers pressuring residents into 
searches.

On Sunday, residents complained about their phone lines being cut off and 
their children being pinned to the ground at gunpoint.

Robert Carrington, a Roxboro resident who said he drove to Durham during 
the raid to play cards with a friend who lived nearby, was pulled over at a 
roadblock in front of Cheek Road Apartments.

Carrington, 36, said that police searched his car, handcuffed him and his 
brother-in-law, then charged them both with felony cocaine possession after 
spotting a piece of plastic on the vehicle's floor.

Both men, who spent the night in jail, insist there were no drugs in the 
car and said tests were never done on them or the plastic. Carrington found 
his car the next morning at the apartments, his wallet on the seat.

"I don't know anybody down there," he said. His court date is March 8.

Police and Mayor Bill Bell have called the police actions legal and pointed 
out that they followed a six-week undercover operation that included drug 
buys and surveillance. Police took paramedics and teddy bears to calm 
children. Chalmers has said police intend to execute similar raids in other 
crime-ridden areas.

"I supported the raid," said Bell, who attended Sunday's meeting. "If the 
police did not handle themselves properly, I don't support that. ... If 
things were done wrong in that raid, they're going to be corrected. But 
that doesn't mean the raids are going to stop."
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