Pubdate: Wed, 15 Sep 1999 Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA) Copyright: 1999 San Francisco Examiner Contact: http://www.examiner.com/ Forum: http://examiner.com/cgi-bin/WebX Author: Jim Herron Zamora, Of The Examiner Staff S.F. COPS RAID A DOZEN HOMES IN DRUG CRACKDOWN Target Areas Where Gangs Have Terrorized Citizens San Francisco police launched a series of drug raids in the Western Addition and other neighborhoods Wednesday, where drug gangs have terrorized citizens and contributed to The City's high homicide rate. By midday, more than 50 San Francisco police had raided at least a dozen homes and at least 10 suspects had been arrested on charges related to drugs, weapons and parole violations. More arrests - including, police hoped, murder suspects and material witnesses in murder cases - were expected. Police confiscated a gun they believe was used to shoot Kionta Dean on Feb. 28 at 1843 Eddy St. The man with the gun has not been charged but police were questioning him as of noon. Several other weapons and a half pound of heroin were confiscated. "There are whole bunch of locations involved here," Officer Sherman Ackerson said Wednesday morning. "The goal is to target gangs who are selling drugs in the public housing projects and on the streets of the Western Addition." The raids began about 10 a.m., near several public housing projects in the Western Addition. Although the focus was closer to downtown San Francisco, officers also served search warrants in the Alemany housing projects, in Bayview-Hunters Point and one in the Richmond. Some 30 officers fanned out at 10 a.m. to join 20 officers already in the field staking out alleged drug locations. The officers were planning to serve about 30 search warrants, including the homes and cars of numerous suspects before the day's end. The raids were designed to break up a gang that has allegedly sold drugs and terrorized the Western Addition for the past year, according to police. The loosely affiliated drug dealers also operated in other parts of The City, police said. So far this year, drug-related violence in the Western Addition has taken the lives of 10 people - more than a quarter of The City's homicides, police said. Most of those cases are unsolved. Nearly all the cases involve African American male victims. Last month the Police Department announced a new team to combat black-on-black crimes. "We believe that some of these same gang members may be involved in homicides," Ackerson said. "Even if we cannot arrest them for homicide, we believe that taking these guys off the street for other charges will reduce the violence here." Police said some of the violence stems from the closure and rebuilding of public housing projects in Hayes Valley and the Fillmore District in 1996-98. Homicide Inspector Napoleon Hendrix said the closure of the projects forced drug dealers to seek new corners and sparked a bloody competition among dealers. "All these recent homicides, one way or another, come back to drugs," Hendrix said. "It could be direct fight over turf or it could be something personal or more complicated. But the level of violence goes up when these groups are trying to claim different corners." The raids marked the second major anti-drug operation in less than a year in the Western Addition. In a controversial predawn raid Oct. 30, 90 San Francisco police and state and federal law enforcement agents arrested 11 alleged gang members and confiscated seven handguns, a large quantity of marijuana, some powder cocaine and crack cocaine and about $4,000 in cash. Many residents of the Martin Luther King / Marcus Garvey apartment complex later complained about that raid to the Police Commission, including one family who said cops killed their pit bull. But police have defended that raid, saying that the only people targeted were suspected criminals. They have since noted that complaints of drug dealing and violence have decreased since that raid. More than 40 residents have since filed legal claims against The City, alleging the raid violated their civil rights. Police Chief Fred Lau and Deputy Chief Richard Holder both promised the department would be more careful in such raids with innocent people. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea