Nice Old Lady Shows How Politeness Can Make a Difference in Miami War on Drugs

The drug dealers along 3rd Avenue in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood all know Ann-Marie Adker.

She’s the nice old woman who will bid them a good day, then call the police.

“I walk down the street and give them a wave and they say ‘Hi, Mom,’ and I keep walking,” Adker said. “It’s when I get home, behind closed doors, that I let the police know. You’re just asking for trouble if you go confront those dealers. Your life to them is not worth a damn.”

For more than 12 years, Adker has used her inner-city crime prevention group to persuade residents that the best way to battle drug traffickers is behind the scenes. Direct involvement can lead to violence and retribution, she says.

Her message is ringing with added clarity among community leaders these days following last month’s slaying of an outspoken anti-drug activist in the crack-plagued community of West Perrine, about 10 miles south of downtown.

Metro-Dade police last month arrested two 21-year-old men on charges that they opened fire on Lee Arthur Lawrence outside his grocery store. Authorities called the slaying a contract hit and were searching for three suspects who allegedly ordered the killing.

Police would not say how much they believe was paid to kill Lawrence, 51, who had been the target of several shootings and death threats since 1986.

One of the suspects, Ronnie Johnson, is also accused of killing a reputed Perrine drug dealer the week before the slaying of Lawrence, whose funeral was attended by more than 800 mourners including President Bush’s son, Jeb.

“At our meetings we never discuss who is doing drugs, because you never know who might be listening,” Adker said. “To be boisterous is to be foolish. This is no penny-ante game.

“The United States has won wars on foreign soil but they can’t subdue the drug dealers. We are in a war, and if you’re not smart you can get yourself killed.”

“Sure, it puts fear in your mind,” said Georgia Ayres, founder of the Citizens’ Advisory Council, an anti-crime panel that works with police. “Self-preservation is the first law of nature. Most people are going to back down if they or their family is threatened.

“The shooting of Mr. Lawrence shows how little regard they have for human life. If you get in their way, they’ll kill you.”

Police, who have a tip-line to encourage citizens to report suspected criminal activity, expressed regret at Lawrence’s shooting but said they couldn’t offer round-the-clock protection on the basis of vague death threats.

Metro-Dade Police Director Fred Taylor, who had met with Lawrence and other community leaders three days before the slaying, said after the shooting: “You don’t know how bad I feel. They were going to assist us by identifying some of the individuals. We just can’t live in this kind of society.”

But he said: “We can’t assign a policeman around the clock to stay with somebody unless we have specifics. I don’t know what we could have done.”

For some residents, a call to Irby McKnight at Miami’s Urban League chapter is as far as they will go in reporting suspected drug activity.

He says he senses the growing apprehension among the formerly bold tipsters.

“The fear of retaliation is strong in the community,” said McKnight, a crime-prevention specialist. “They think the drug dealers are in control and the best thing to do is keep quiet.”

But others hope the much-publicized Lawrence slaying will awaken more residents to challenge the strong-arm reign of drug traffickers in some poor neighborhoods.