The nation`s growing drug problem, and authorities` seeming inability to deal with it, are bringing civilian vigilantes into the streets and raising disturbing legal questions about citizen justice.
In Washington, young blacks wearing dark suits, white shirts and bow ties patrol a drug-infested, crime-ridden residential neighborhood-to the applause of the residents.
In New York, squads of amateur crime-fighters in red berets and T-shirts prowl streets lined with high-priced restaurants, hassling suspected drug dealers-at the invitation of the restaurant owners.
How to deal with street drugs? Here`s one way:
”If we see you lighting up crack or shooting up heroin, we physically grab you, throw you up against the wall and take your stem, your pipe or your hypodermic needle. We take any vials of crack or other drugs you might have, smash them, scatter it to the wind, push you out, maybe give you a swift kick to the backside and send you on your way with a strong verbal warning not to come back.
”If we see you dealing, we physically surround you, grab you and slam you to the ground.”
That graphic description comes from a volunteer watch leader of the Guardian Angels, whose members in recent days have been taking on drug dealers in fashionable Midtown Manhattan, which includes the theater district.
Street justice civilian-style seems to be becoming more popular. Earlier this year, the Nation of Islam came under fire for some of its tactics in trying to rid crack dealers from a notorious apartment complex in northeast Washington, D.C.
In April, a man allegedly wielding a shotgun was beaten up and a television crew that filmed the event was roughed up. Washington Mayor Marion Barry accepted and applauded the Muslims` continuing role, although no further incidents have been reported.
This could be described as a guerrilla brand of justice-a throwback to frontier days. It illustrates the depth of frustration over the seemingly intractable drug problem and the inadequate resources of official law enforcement agencies in combatting it.
It also raises disturbing questions about the changing nature of citizen law enforcement in a democratic society that has established a complex bulwark of civil liberties.
Citizen patrols convey an important message to the community, and particularly to its youth, experts say-that drug use is becoming intolerable, that some people honestly want a drug-free zone and will fight to attain it.
”Frontier justice was not a good justice, but it was the only justice people had in those days,” said Geoffrey Miller, a professor at the University of Chicago. ”This is very distressing, but in some parts of our society the streets are the urban frontier and the only place where one can go to get justice.
”In the urban frontier, the Guardian Angels and the Muslims are administering a form of frontier justice.”
What disturbs some is that the tactics of these groups go much further than those of other citizen patrols-such as the ”Mothers” of Greenwich Village, who gained renown for banging pots and pans to alert police when they saw drug deals going down, or the ”Soul Patrol,” a group of students using walkie-talkies and whistles to alert police to trouble at an inner city school in Detroit.
”What makes us different in terms of our street patrols is that we are not just the eyes and ears of the police,” says Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels. ”We do not just practice passive observance and report instances of criminality to the police, because that is a waste of time nowadays.”
The Angels` tactics were described by Sliwa and Fred Thompson, a 24-year- old who supports his wife and 2-year-old son by working as a bicycle messenger during the day. They talked from the former Cafe de France on Restaurant Row near the busiest tourist strip in midtown Manhattan, the theater district and Times Square.
Founded by the Sliwa in 1979 as a group of mostly teen-age black and Hispanic volunteers, the Angels were invited by the Restaurant Association to rid the midtown neighborhood of drug dealing and other crime after a surge in such activity that restaurant owners said resulted in a 20 percent drop in business.
No pay came in the deal, just free room and board in a former restaurant serving as a makeshift headquarters outfitted with Army cots, TVs and two telephones. The restaurants take turns providing meals for the Angels.
They roam the neighborhood around the clock, in squads of four or five,
”slammin` and jammin”`-in Sliwa`s words-the junkies who infest the doorways, alleys and vestibules, while uniformed police officers walk the same streets.
By most accounts, Sliwa`s patrols have been a success in ridding the area, at least temporarily, of unwanted elements. They have been heartily cheered by the businessmen and residents in the area, but Mayor Ed Koch, some police officials and others are skeptical.
”As a citizen of New York, I feel ashamed that we have a 16-year-old kid doing what the city government should do,” said Thomas Reppetto, a former Chicago police detective who is now president of the New York City Citizens Crime Commission.
”We have 35,000 cops and a $2 billion budget. If we don`t have enough cops, then the mayor and the police commissioner should tell us how many we need to run the drug dealers off the streets in every neighborhood. Maybe it`s 50,000, and then we`ll figure out what has to be done.”
Sliwa insists his members only go after those they see dealing. If the quantity of drugs being exchanged is large, they will restrain the dealer or user and contact the police. But critics question these tactics.
”One thing you don`t know is whether innocent people get abused, and in any event legal procedures exist even for people who are guilty,” said Geoffrey Stone, a constitutional authority on criminal law and dean of the law school at the University of Chicago.
”Certainly, it is illegal for a police office to slap someone and kick him in the backside. It`s not lawful or appropriate behavior, and should not be regarded as lawful or appropriate behavior if done by a group of vigilantes, even if they do think the person is guilty.”
”But to the extent they take into their own hands the power to discipline, our society has procedures and safeguards for a reason-and the reason is that even well-intentioned people make mistakes and overreact,”
Stone said.
According to criminologists, activist citizen patrols detract attention from the need for more law enforcement resources.
”This does not necessarily show a mistrust of law enforcement,” said James Q. Wilson of UCLA, who has written widely on criminal justice matters.
”I think this just demonstrates that people want police protection at the lowest possible cost.”
For example, Wilson says, one additional police cruiser on patrol could cost as much as $250,000.
A more appropriate tack, he said, might be to follow the lead of a group of businessmen in Oakland, Calif., who raised money from private sources and gave it to the city with the understanding that the city increase police patrols in their district.
There is also a real danger that the volunteer citizens` war on crime could escalate into more crime and violence.
Last weekend, one Guardian Angel patrolling Restaurant Row was stabbed in a fight with an alleged drug dealer. Two other Angels were arrested and charged with menacing a man they said was a crack dealer, but whom police said had a clean record.
On the Angels` complaint, the man also was charged with menacing.
