6 OPINION gage 4 s. Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan, Wednesday, September 10, 1980 The Michigan Daily Vol. XCI, No. 6 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, M1 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of The Daily's Editorial Board A beautiful UGLI demand for a E WON THIS one so fast there in which to hit wasn't even time to organize It is of cour rotest, At this rate, we might have a UGLI open un dent Regent by December. and it is also Not twelve hours after it was repor- across the U t that University library directors backs in som d planned to close the Un- now-reversed rgraduate Library at midnight each UGLI early- t this term-two hours earlier than the only lib i past years-the same directors night-like th ranged'tacks. and decided to retain Campus bus e 2 a.m. closing time. propriate budg All it took, it seems, was a closer look There areo r how many students use the UGLI wholesale elim 1 e each night (about 150, librarians services, to w concede; they had said Monday students have t e number was about 50), some few days. Br essure from Michigan Student that the libr sembly President Marc Breakstone, mornings eac d a front-page story in The Daily. Campus coali Whatever the actual reasons for the ning one late b ange in plans, we welcome the Students ha storation of the 2 a.m. closing time. simply opposi udy space is at a greater premium at are willing t is University than seats in an Econ natives. W l lecture. ministration- And, although about 65 spaces will be nounce today ned in the Union for study within North Campu ks,they cannot begin to satisfy the listen. Anderson gets th Y ESTERDAY, THE League of a place in the Women Voters wisely decided to that he wants Tet John Anderson join President Car- least, to be he ter and Ronald Reagan in the The preside televised debates the League will threatened to sponsor in the fall. The group set a debate if Ande minimum 15 percent voter support Carter evid level for Anderson to be included, and the theory tha most polls, including the-one -most will work aga recently released by Time Magazine, season, the pr confirmed that Anderson had reached gains merely that goal., tial:" He refu The importance of the debates goes nedy, he hid i far beyond the mere fact that inclusion he neglected a lends respectability and viability to the the still-unsolv candidates in the public's eye. In both elections that have involved televised But the pub] faceoffs, political pundits believe away with h what appeared on America's television opinion polls screens had some lasting effect on the majority of th outcome of the election. that there be t This time, though, there is even Reagan, quit more at stake. Unlike the previous oc- pressure on C casions, one of the candidates in 1980 is from the very thought to have virtually no chance of viable candid winning unless something quite drastic the debate," R occurs. Anderson is hoping that the can't for the 11 debates will prove to be that something Mr. Carter is drastic. We can. Ca: President Carter, who stands to lose Democrats to more from Anderson's gains than does that there is Ronald Reagan, has been attempting who stands i to plant briars in Anderson's path to programs Car viability. After indicating originally It's just too that he would okay granting Anderson apply to politi aI 4 I P~A/1 . victory quiet place late at night the books. se true that leaving the itil 2 a.m. costs money, true that tight budgets niversity demand cut- e areas. However, the decision to close the -which is, incidentally, rary open past mid- e decision to cut North service, is an inap- et trimming measure. )ther methods, short of nination of vital student cut expenditures, as suggested in the past eakstone has suggested ary open later several h week, and the North tion has suggested run- us instead of several. ve shown they are not ng budget cutbacks, but o. suggest viable alter- e hope the ad- which is expected to an- its decision about the s late bus-is willing to .e nod debates, he is now saying his first confrontation, at ad-to-head with Reagan. nt, furthermore, has drop out of the first rson is included. ently is operating under t what has worked once in. During the primary esident made substantial by "acting presiden- ised to debate Ted Ken- n the Rose Garden, and UI the nation's woes (save ed hostage problem). lic may not let Carter get is tactics again. Public indicate that a large e voters think it only fair rilateral debates. Ronald e rightly, is putting the arter as well: "I've said first that if Anderson is a ate, he should be a part of Reagan said last week. "I ife of me understand why so afraid of him.'' rter simply doesn't want be reminded of the fact a candidate in the race for some of the liberal ter has tossed aside. bad anti-trust laws don't Cs. use IN-iA&NIR'A. f 00 -k 7' t/ r V.t 4 I 0 ~twc,- NPR. AW1b'e't2 'IJ6A 'T New York's drug connection:, The kids of 115th Street 0 NEW YORK-Slowly, strag- gling like an ill-trained army, the similarity in their dress suggesting a military or fraternal order, the dope kids begin to fill the block, taking their places on an empty stoop in the hallway of an abandoned building. By one o'clock the block is full of black young men. Their white-leather Converse sneakers with small red stars, synthetic knit caps pulled down over their ears, snorkel coats, leather jackets, and hooded sweatshirts unite them. In 1980, the dope kids on Harlem's 115th Street are an adolescent black army in America, and their objective is something less than collective liberation. Conservative estimates in- dicate that for at least four hours a day, 365 days a year, $400 worth of heroin is sold per minute on 115th Street. This is $24,000 an hour, $96,000 a day, $672,000 a week. Here 13-, 14-, and 15-year- old black kids sell heroin almost as fast as McDonald's sells ham- burgers. And the threat of being ripped off, or going to jail, or dying is just an incentive to figure out new and better ways of insuring that business will go on "as usual. MOST OF THE people selling dopeon 115th Street are under 16, primarily because of New York's 1973 drug law, conceived by for- mer governor Nelson Rockefeller The law raised the penalty for sale or possession of heroin and mandated sentences of 15 years to life for high-level adult dealers. But the kids who work on 115th Street are minors under the jurisdiction of Family Court, which hesitates to lock up young kids, and, in any case, is limited by law to sentences not exceeding 18 months. "What has happened is that the dealers have changed their tac- tics: They have gone inside, they use more women, bars, kids, things of that nature," says Sterling Johnson, special nar- cotics prosecutor for the City of New York since 1975. From November, 1976, to November, 1979, 50,598 bags of heroin, 24,244 tinfoils of cocaine, 34,980 nickel ($5) bags of reefer, 7,779 bottles of methadone, 29,463 assorted pills, and 61,820 hypodermic needles with syringes were seized by officers in Harlem's 28th Precinct. Nevertheless, police officer John Lluvera. of the "Two-Eight" ad- mits, sales in Harlem-and not just in the 28th-are booming. By Jill "YOU LOCK UP one pusher, there's three more to take his place," Lluvera says. "They get minors to do the transactions. We pick up the youth, take him down to the youth division, and they're back on the street until it's time for them to go to Family Court. Family Court usually gives them a slap on the wrist and they're back on the street." "It was really much better than it is now," says Ethel Jackson, who has lived on 115th Street sin- ce 1954. "The houses were kept up very nice. A lot of the buildings Nelson "These kids know the law," says Officer Lluvera. "And with each arrest they get smarter." The law demands continuity of observation in narcotics arrests. If the police see a kid approached by a buyer, see money change hands, and the kid go into a hallway, return with the dope and hand it to the buyer, they can arrest the buyer for possession and the kid for sale-but not coach to earn his daily bread. As with the other kids who work on the block, there is a swagger, a bravado about Daryl uncharac- teristic of his age. Head tilted back, knit cal set high at an angle, his long legs taking great strides, he has the walk of a prin- i ce surveying his realm with satisfaction. Despite the con- ditions that prevail for 'the vast majority of people in Harlem, Daryl possesses the complacent air of a man who owns the world. And maybe he does. "Hey,would you go to school if Syoucould make two, three thousand dollars a day?" Daryl asks rhetorically. FOR DARYL, alternatives are scarce in any case. Harlem is a dying community-with 70 per- cent unemployment among black teenagers, a paucity of basic city services, no senior high school, and an inadequate elementary and junior high school system. Nearly half the population sub- sists on welfare payments ($333 a month maximum for one adult with one child), Social Security, or SSI (Supplemental Security Income). Businesses have fled along with much of the middle- aged consumer population, leaving Harlem a community of the very old and very young. In such a landscape, Daryl is a big man. He has a job, lots of money in his pocket, the respect of his peers. He can buy whatever he wants. "After tasting $500 a week, why's he going to go stack shelves in some grocery?" asks Officer Gerald Robbins. John Lluvera guesses that of every five kids selling dope on 115th Street, in five years one will be dead from a drug-related gun- shot wound, one will leave the street and get a regular job, at least one will become a junkie, and the other two will make theirj livings by some illegal, and possibly drug-related, activity. "Maybe that's true," says Daryl. "But who's thinking about five years away? Anyway, that would probably happen even if I weren't selling dope, so I got nothin' to lose." that are abandoned now, there were people living in them," Jackson says softly, staring hard out the window of her third-floor apartment. "For the last, I'd say, three or four years, maybe more, that's when it began to get like the jungles,"she adds. HARLEM HOSPITAL IS the largest legitimate employer in Harlem, but the heroin trade on 115th Street and countless other blocks employs far greater num- bers of people and generates more revenue. The kids are tightly organized into crews of between four and six. Members of each crew perform a variety of jobs depending on. seniority, ex- perience on the street, and ef- ficiency. Several will be posted on either corner of the block as look-outs, warning the kids to "raise up" or "ness" (slang for cops derived from Elliott Ness of "The Un- touchables") when they spot the police. Another is responsible for taking the customers' money and a third for handing out the dope, usually stashed in a nearby building. Often, sales are made in the hallway of an abandoned building or in one of the alleys, when not right on the street. possession. "EVEN IF WE know they're stashing dope in the mailbox or basement, there's nothing we can do about it. It's nearly impossible to get a search warrant in these cases, and without one it's illegal search and seizure and inad- missible in court," says Officer Gerald Robbins of the precinct's Special Narcotics Enforcement Unit. At 15, Daryl is one of the kids who sells dope on 115th Street. He left school in the ninth grade and now earns more than $800 a week, tax-free. His product is the "P.C."-People's Choice-prob- ably the oldest brand of heroin on the street. On the basketball court, Daryl looks like any other teenager. He is tall and thin and plays fine ball; 10 or 15 years ago he might .have spent his days on the court polishing his game and hoping for a basketball scholarship, maybe the pros. Like most of the dope kids, he never uses heroin him- self. INSTEAD, DARYL SELLS heroin to junkies two or' three times his age. The money is con- stant, with little risk involved, and he doesn't have to count on the benevolence of a white e. \ t ,.-,,., ., ,. ." .. Jill Nelson is a New York- based freelance reporter who has, written for The Village Voice and Black Enterprise. She wrote this article for the Pacific News Service. 4 Editorial policies