Suspects & Drug Dealers?

We’ve read the term “alleged suspect” twice recently—once in a UNA press release and once in a local online news site. No, gentle readers, there is no such thing as an alleged suspect. He may be an alleged miscreant, but he is either a suspect or not; and if he’s named or referred to in an article, you can bet the farm he is a suspect.

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A local police officer spies a vehicle going 41 mph in a 35 mph zone; at the same time, he receives a radio dispatch that First Monopoly Bank has just been robbed by a gang of five terrorists brandishing AK47s. Which event do you suggest this officer attend to first?

We believe our local police look at drug dealers in the same way. Authorities could spend thousands of dollars in capturing, prosecuting, and housing corner dealers who sell just enough to keep themselves in their product of choice...or they can go after the traffickers, thereby taking down a cell of 20 smaller dealers at once.

The sad thing is that those affected by the small time dealers—the neighbors or parents of young victims—are left with the feeling that local authorities just don’t care. The even sadder thing is that perhaps most don’t care any longer. They’ve dipped their tin cups into the ocean too many times to believe that what they’re doing is stemming any real flow of drugs to this area.

Is there an answer? We certainly don’t have one. What prompted this line of thought? We hear that as West Florence once was, so now are some areas of East Florence, particularly the no longer home-owned small markets that dot Huntsville Road. We welcome comments.

Shoalanda