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Civic leaders say law, not lawbreakers, rules streets
By BRYAN GILMER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- After two recent attacks on police officers, African-American civic leaders gathered Sunday to proclaim that most black residents want officers to put lawbreakers in jail and respect law-abiding residents. "The sale of drugs and drug paraphernalia is not only against the law, it is unacceptable in any community," City Council Chairwoman Rene Flowers said at a news conference held near the spots where someone threw small explosives at police officers Tuesday and Friday. "We cannot call for a war against crime and drugs on one hand and admonish the police when they enforce the law on the other hand," Flowers said. Flowers, council member Earnest Williams, Pinellas County Commissioner Ken Welch, local NAACP president Darryl Rouson and others spoke to reporters on the steps of a new drug abuse treatment center on Dr. M.L. King (Ninth) Street S. "It is very clear that we need to send a message," Welch said. "Drug dealers are not a reflection of the African-American community -- never have been, never will be. Yes, we want respect for the greater community. We are also saying we are going to take our neighborhoods back." Rouson rebutted an idea often voiced by black activist Omali Yeshitela: that a strong police presence in majority African-American neighborhoods just south of downtown represents a city policy of "police containment" of its black residents. "Safety comes in all colors and in all communities," Rouson said. "This is not about police containment; this is about (a need for) self-containment" on the part of lawbreakers. Flowers sought to allay any fear that the recent attacks on officers could lead to the civil unrest experienced in the same neighborhoods in 1996. "This is not an act that would cripple the progress that has been made in our city; however, it does have the potential to push us back a step or two," she said. She pointed to the drug treatment center behind her as proof that the city is working to improve those poor neighborhoods, which Mayor Rick Baker refers to as Midtown. Baker has named former police Chief Goliath Davis III as deputy mayor for Midtown economic development. Davis did not attend the news conference Sunday. But Baker spoke, voicing agreement with much of what Flowers and others said. "Law enforcement officers must continue to follow the precepts of integrity, accountability and respect," he said. "We must enforce the laws of our city. We have done that. We will continue to do that." Police Chief Chuck Harmon said officers handled the two explosive device incidents properly and avoided serious injury. "We have not been dissuaded from being in the neighborhood," he said. "It emphasizes the need for us to be there." Harmon said he is devoting "a lot of resources" to finding those who threw the explosives. He has previously said the devices may be M-250 or M-1000 explosives, illegal devices sold underground. They are are 270 to 500 times as powerful as a legal firecracker and can cause disfiguring injuries, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Flowers asked residents to offer information about who threw the explosive devices. And she urged people to be courageous and report drug dealing and other crimes to the police. For his part, Williams called for residents in every neighborhood of the city to share his concern over the attacks on officers and over wide-open drug dealing in the city's poorest areas. "This is not just a south side problem," he said. "This is a St. Petersburg problem."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
