Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2014
Source: Record, The (Hackensack, NJ)
Copyright: 2014 North Jersey Media Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.northjersey.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/44
Author: Richard Cowen

AFTER MAJOR DRUG BUSTS, BATTLE AGAINST DRUG DEALING IN PASSAIC 
HOUSING PRESSES ON

PASSAIC - Two drug busts within the past year, one big and one small,
have combined to deliver a somewhat muddled message to the people who
live in public housing.

The first bust occurred last Thanksgiving, when federal, state and
local police swooped down on the Alfred Speer Village housing complex
and arrested more than 70 people in connection with buying and selling
drugs on the property. Since then, 10 families have been evicted for
being involved in the drug trade.

The second, smaller bust occurred Aug. 5, when local police arrested
Darien Allen, the chairman of the Passaic Housing Authority, and
charged him with dealing cocaine. Allen, who is also a Passaic school
district employee, is to make his first appearance in Superior Court
on Wednesday.

Police say both busts evolved out of an investigation into drug
dealing on Passaic public-housing complexes that has been under way
for more than a year. And that crackdown has recently expanded,
despite a lingering controversy over the police tactics used in the
Thanksgiving raid and the embarrassing arrest of Allen, who as housing
authority commissioner helped set policy.

The message to residents, according to Passaic Housing Authority
security chief Jeffrey C. Gorley, is that drugs, and the dead-end
culture that goes with it, have no place in public housing - no matter
who you are.

"This type of stuff is not going to be tolerated," Gorley said. "It
doesn't matter whether you are a regular employee of the housing
authority, a manager, a tenant, or a commissioner."

Gorley said the hidden security camera system that recorded dozens of
Speer Village residents purchasing crack, marijuana and the party drug
called Molly in a first-floor stairwell during the sting operation in
2013 has been expanded. The camera system is operated remotely and
linked to the Passaic Police Department, which allows police to
conduct surveillance 24 hours a day. The cameras can pan 360 degrees
and zoom in and out, allowing police to watch illegal activity and
record it on video.

Gorley said that since the Thanksgiving roundup, police have continued
to make arrests based on video evidence. As of last week, the number
of suspects arrested in the continuing drug sting was up to 87, he
said.

At the same time, a community activist and Passaic Department of
Public Works employee, Kasim Washington, has put together a Scared
Straight program for young people at Speer Village and Vreeland
Village. Washington is working with the Passaic County Sheriff's
Department and intends to bring kids to the county jail to see what
life behind bars looks like. He also plans to bring in ex-cons and ex
gang-bangers to tell the kids what "the life" is really like.

Renee Griggs, a tenant advocate who lives in Speer Village, said the
culture has changed somewhat since the Thanksgiving roundup, "now that
residents know there will be consequences for their behavior."

"Before the bust, we would just tolerate it," she said about rampant
drug dealing. Since the raid, she said, "it has opened the eyes of
residents. We are now more willing to be part of the solution and not
turn a blind eye to the problem."

Part of the solution, Gorley said, is calling the tip line that he set
up when he became head of security in 2012. "The toughest thing in
public housing is to get people to partner with you," he said. "We get
a lot of calls now."

While many of the drug purchases have involved residents, most of the
alleged drug dealers arrested do not live at Speer Village or Vreeland
Village, which is nearby on Sixth Street. Most come from out of town,
from Newark and Paterson, but frequently recruit tenants and children
for the drug trade, Gorley said.

Gangs, like 301 and Dominicans Don't Play, operate in public housing,
Gorley said, and they often recruit young people, who frequently are
too afraid not to go along.

Much of the dealing takes place amid gangs of teenagers that are
loitering in the hallways and the common areas. To combat that, the
housing authority has taken to charging people with "wandering," an
offense that is different from loitering, because it implies that the
person is in the area to participate in illegal activity. The housing
authority also charges the parents of children who get in trouble with
"failure to supervise," Gorley said.

The authority keeps an ever-growing list of people who are barred from
public housing because they have been convicted of crimes, most of
them related to drugs. Gorley said police issue summonses for
trespassing, which carries a fine of around $300.

But it isn't much of a deterrence, he said. "I see them in municipal
court, paying their fines," Gorley said. "And then I see them back at
Speer Village."

Carmen Quirindongo has lived in Speer Village for 11 years. She lives
with a daughter and her three grandchildren. At night, she said, when
the drug dealing begins, "we're afraid to go out."

"At night, we don't go anywhere. We just stay inside," Quirindongo
said, adding the situation has improved somewhat in the past year, but
there's still a long way to go.

Another tenant, Florence Levister, is 49 and has lived in public
housing all her life. She said the drug trade at Speer has "calmed
down a whole lot" recently. But she says Allen's arrest was troubling.

"I was shocked," she said. "He was a churchgoing guy. What a bad
example."  
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