- Drug Dealing -

CLEAN IT UP – NOW!

    I have mentioned my friend, Ruth Cooper, several times on this website.  She was an artist and a teacher and a wonderful friend who died this year.  She lived at the corner of Howard and Pershing Avenues.  When a 19-year-old man was shot there last October 18, I ran an article on the “old” site which has since been erased.  But what I said, or actually screamed, was that drugs have been a problem there for years.  Why hadn’t anything been done?  Something had to be done. 

    I visited once when there was a long line of cars coming down narrow Howard Avenue and stopping at the corner as people came up to the cars.  This went on for hours.  A friend of mine once dropped something off at her house around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and was stunned to see three or four drug dealers on the corner right in front of her house in broad daylight.  She was afraid to get out of her car.

   And now, in the latest shooting, it is my friend Ruth’s daughter, LaQuita Cooper, whose quote is used as the headline, “It’s ridiculous that playtime is interrupted by gunfire.”  Why hasn’t something been done?  Why hasn’t blatant drug dealing that’s been going on for years been stopped?  Brett Lovelace, who wrote the article about the current shooting and the article about the shooting last October for the Intell, says in the current article, “It has been nearly a year  since the last shooting near Howard and Pershing avenues.”  He sounds as though this is a good thing.  Can you imagine if this happened in School Lane Hills?  Do you think he would say “It has been nearly a year” or would he be screaming that a shooting had occurred twice in less than a year? 

    Well, the drug dealing wouldn’t be allowed to continue in School Lane Hills for four and one-half years.  It wouldn’t be allowed to continue for one week.  For over four years the people living in the vicinity of Howard and Pershing avenues have lived in fear.  They can’t leave their homes.  This is absolutely disgraceful. 

    This brings to life what Democratic Mayoral candidate Rick Gray says on his website and which is also posted below on this site, “All City services and resources will be shared equally by all residents in every neighborhood in the City – regardless of economic status, class, or race.  In addition to sharing the economic benefits of City projects, we will make sure that a positive police presence is visible in every neighborhood.  We will have a fully implemented Community Police Program.”

    When I ran the story last October, I included an article from the Special Edition of LIP from September of 2001, “Lancaster Lynching – Twenty Years Later.”  What I didn’t say in that article was the friend I was talking about was Ruth Cooper – calling the police in May of 2001 about drug dealers at the corner of Howard and Pershing avenues.  That article is below.  This has to be stopped now.  I will follow up with LaQuita and others living at the corner of Howard and Pershing avenues to see if this is cleaned up immediately.

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 Could You Please Tell Me Your Name?

The Police Need It

   After the attack on Daniel Rhoads, Captain of Detective Luther Henry is quoted in the Lancaster Newspapers saying, “A lot of people saw them but no one could name them by name.”

    Twenty years later, little has changed.  A friend called the police in May to report that drugs were being sold at the intersection by her house.

    The police person asked her if she knew who the drug sellers were.  My friend said, “No.”  The police person then said to her, “Well, it would help if you could tell us their names.”

    They need to post signs as you enter Lancaster, “If you are attacked while in our city, please ask your attacker their name.  The police need it.”