Pubdate: Sat, 24 Jun 2006
Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright: 2006 Courier-Post
Contact:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

STREET-LEVEL DRUG WAR MUST GO ON IN CAMDEN

For residents of the city, keeping suburban drug buyers out of their 
neighborhoods is a quality-of-life issue.

Sadly, police in Camden could probably set up a drug sting every day 
for the next six months and have no shortage of people to arrest 
every one of those days. Many would likely be repeat offenders.

But while some may consider this a waste of time and effort in our 
nation's war on drugs, it's important for the people of Camden that 
police keep doing these stings and arresting drug buyers.

If Camden is ever to become a desirable and safe place to live, the 
message must be sent to the rest of the region that if you come to 
Camden to buy drugs, pick up a prostitute or engage in other criminal 
activity, you will face consequences.

To the people who live in Camden's neighborhoods and try to raise 
families there, it's impossible to ignore a steady stream of people 
coming into neighborhoods to buy drugs. Just as criminals who live in 
Camden erode the quality of life for law-abiding residents, so, too, 
do criminals who flood into the city from elsewhere.

That's why police should do these stings as often as they can. Only 
repeated enforcement will begin to get the message across that Camden 
is not an open market for drugs.

On Monday and Tuesday, narcotics officers took over a drug dealing 
operation at the corner of 5th and Grant streets. They arrested 39 
people Monday and 50 Tuesday in just a few hours each day.

Of the 89 arrested over the two days, 69 were from outside the city. 
Three came from Marlton. Three more came from Cherry Hill. One even 
came from as far away as Flemington, Hunterdon County. Others came 
from other, mostly suburban communities across South Jersey, 
everywhere from Mantua to Mount Laurel to Merchantville.

All came to Camden to buy heroin or crack cocaine from street 
dealers, even while a deadly form of heroin was hospitalizing others. 
The names and hometowns of all those arrested were printed in the 
Courier-Post's South Jersey section Tuesday and Wednesday and remain 
available at courierpostonline.com.

And these are just a drop in the bucket. There are dozens of corners 
in Camden where people can buy drugs every day. And they pour into 
the city in droves to do so. Fifty arrested at one corner in one day 
only scratches the surface.

Still, police should keep scratching. They should keep doing stings 
in neighborhoods across the city to keep the dealers and buyers 
nervous that they'll be caught. They should keep arresting people and 
releasing their names so perhaps the embarrassment will convince them 
not to come here to buy drugs anymore and to seek rehabilitation.

The good, hard-working people of Camden don't deserve to raise their 
kids in neighborhoods where drugs are available, literally, by 
opening the front door. Kids who grow up seeing drug deals happen 
every day right in front of them certainly are more likely to either 
use or sell drugs themselves some day.

For Camden to truly lift itself up and become a strong, safe 
community that people want to live in, police need to keep hammering 
away at the drug trade.

They need to convince drug users that Camden is not the place to come 
to buy drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman