Key West The Newspaper - November 30, 2001

Two Years After Chief Says Drug Activity Has Been "Cleaned Out" Here, Dealers Continue To Work Openly In Bahama Village

VILLAGE RESIDENT SAYS COPS LOOK OTHER WAY AND THAT HE IS CONSIDERING TAKING MATTERS INTO HIS OWN HANDS

COMPLAINT CONFIRMED BY KWTN REPORTER. DEALERS WORKING OPENLY IN BROAD DAYLIGHT

by Kip Blevin

"Operation Sundown has cleaned out just about all the drug activity in Key West, from the top on down. The kingpins are going to prison."

That was the assessment of Key West Police chief Buz Dillon on Dec. 8, 1999, during the heady aftermath of a joint-agency drug sweep, which netted 23 suspects, including one Key West police officer. The chief's announcement came during a press conference in the sheriff's department board room.

But now, nearly two years later, drug-related crimes in the Key West area are continuing. And a 10-year resident of Key West's Bahama Village said he's getting tired of the drug activity in his community and he's not going to take it any more. Moreover, he said he would really like it if more of the Key West police would adopt his "fed-up" philosophy.

The 50-year-old resident, a state agency employee, asked that his name be withheld to minimize the likelihood that he and his wife might targeted by the drug dealers.

His complaint includes the caveat that there are local police he's met who are conscientious and doing their job. However, he said it's getting so bad in his neighborhood, he's tempted to take matters into his own hands.

And he's not just talking about suspicious activity in the wee hours of the morning."It's happening in broad daylight. At least four times a week, in the middle of the afternoon, they set up shop," he said.

"I see them making their hand-to-hand transactions. Two cars park in the vicinity of the community pool and the park. And then the cellphones start ringing," he added.

"About 5-10 minutes later, the bikes come first. Then scooters; and finally, cars start appearing. A person comes up to the dealer. There's a handshake, with cash in one hand and the product in the other."

The outraged resident lives in the area where there are a lot of childen. Although his children are grown and gone from the area, he said it's still upsetting.

Not only doesn't he like what's taking place, he's even more angry about where it's taking place. "While I'm watching all this drug-related activity, there are kids playing nearby in the park," he says.

He said he and his wife have called the police, but are not happy with some of the responses they get from the dispatchers. "Well, how do you know they're dealing in drugs," the dispatchers reportedly say. His response is that it's not rocket science. "I don't believe they're exchanging recipes or police trading cards."

Police spokeswoman Cynthia Edwards said the reason some dispatchers probe the caller closely is that judges require solid evidence before they will sign a "probable cause" search warrant.

Meanwhile, the local resident is dismissive of the idea that only the so-called "Miami boys" are behind the drug activity here. He said he's convinced the majority of the alleged drug dealers are local.

"I think some are out-of-towners, but a lot are local, probably from down deep in the village. My guess is that the Miami boys are not going to stay down here 3-4 days. They want to get in and get out."

While much of the activity he's witnessed have been in the pool and park area of Bahama Village, occasionally it shows up even closer to home.

"One time I confronted a seller on the sidwalk in front of my house and told him: `I don't sell drugs in front of your home. Why are you in front of mine?'" He said after some harsh words from the alleged perpetrator, he chased him away, but recorded the number of his Monroe County scooter license tag.

"The police should do something. It's absurd. You shouldn't have all this in front of a person's house," he said.

The prevalence of drug-selling in the village is not a popular theme while attempts are underway by the local neighborhood association to sell Bahama Village as a popular tourist destination.

A few years ago, at the urging of City Commissioner Carmen Turner, Chief Dillon issued a memo warning police officers not to frighten away visitors with tales of village crime.

And not much was said about an Ohio woman, severely beaten and robbed in the village, while her 8-year-old child looked on from the back seat.

Or the man who was beaten by Bahama Village residents when he chased a young purse snatcher.

Our source says he is sympathetic toward efforts to improve the economy in Bahama Village. He said he used to be a local businessman in the area and supported the association's efforts to improve the neighborhood.

"But all they cared about was attracting the tourist dollar. They didn't want to talk about increasing police patrols in the area to fight crime," he said.

Despite years of a growing affluence and its attendent slow change in community complexion, called gentrification, Bahama Village still maintains a closeness to its black Bahamian roots. That's why when a Caucasian visits the park dealers, it gets the resident's attention.

And that's why the disgruntled resident noted a recent incident involving a white woman in a Cadillac. "She was 50-ish and yelling at some guy, claiming he had taken money from her. But when I offered to call the police, she asked me not to, saying it was partly her own fault."

Despite his local anecdotal evidence, nationwide, drug arrests are down slightly, according the Bureau of Justice Statistics on Drug-Law Violations and Enforcement. But drug-abuse arrests still lead the other six categories of arrests the bureau compiles.

Of the 14 million total arrests in the U.S. in 1999, drug arrests comprise 1.53 million, followed by DUIs at 1.51 million.

Monroe County Sheriff's deputy Becky Herrin provided a report by a University of Michigan study, on the other hand, that shows marijuana use by students as young as 14 is up.

The report noted that among high school seniors in 2000, 48.8 percent said they have used marijuana or hashish. And between 1992 and 2000, marijuana use grew from 12 percent to 22 percent among seniors, 8-20 percent among 10th graders and 4-9 percent among 8th graders.

The growth in youth drug-use apparently continues to worry law enforcement. Drug Enforcement Agency arrests are showing a 229 percent increase in drug referrals for juvenile offenders over the last decade.

But the picture in Monroe County and Key West continue to be rosy, to a certain extent. Herrin said sheriff's department numbers of drug arrests are improving, with 277 drug arrests made countywide by the department's special investigations division during the period Oct. 1, 2000, and Sept. 31, 2001.

She said that number does not include road-patrol arrests, in which drug charges are often of secondary consideration. "But that number certainly shows we're paying attention to the drug issues of the county and the detectives in that unit are making considerable headway in keeping those numbers down," she said.

Edwards, the city police department's spokeswoman, said it looks as though the 380 drug arrests so far for this year by police are only slightly above 1997, but expected to be down considerably from 2000.

Numbers of drug arrests in Key West between 1997 through Nov. 27, 2001, according to figures by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Unified Crime Reporting System, were 361, 421, 550, 552 and 380, respectively.

Some police have observed that there are many reasons drug arrests may be down— such as diminished activity from the South American connections; impacts wrought by the Sept. 11 terrorism; and also, perhaps, local enforcement efforts have slowed since the demise of the high-profile "Jump-Out Boys"— a special drug-arrest team disbanded shortly after Dillon took over as chief.

At least one prominent attorney here had lobbied City officials to disband the Jump Out Boys after his prominent white client had been arrested during a drug sting.

"If you don't go out and arrest anybody, drug-arrest numbers will go down," the Bahama Village resident said.

As for the local assistance of residents, Chief Dillon seemed to be encouraging that back during 1999s glowing news conference proclaiming the near-eradication of drug activity in Key West.

"This is an historic opportunity for residents of our community not only to take back their neighborhoods, but to strive with us to keep them drug-free. Now let's get to work on that," he urged.

Our local neighborhood watcher said he applauded Dillon's statement. "On occasion, the police presence is stepped up for a couple of days. The drug activity drops off and then resumes. They're just not doing the job to control it, in my opinion."

A visit to the Bahama Village pool area by this writer on Tuesday and again on Wednesday confirmed the presence of a number of older adolescents and adults in the parking lot area. A couple of them asked if this writer was in the market for anything. I just said no.

The resident believes if undercover police in non-descript cars would come down to the park, they would be amazed.

"I don't know if somebody's getting a payoff or not, but it's almost like the police are afraid to come down here," he said. "Maybe they're too busy stopping bicyclists with no lights."

But Cynthia Edwards says stopping a drug transaction is easier said than done. "Officers have to set up a surveillance of the activity first and gather evidence before any arrests can be made."