Putting a Finger on Drug Dealers Pays Off

Rosa Perez no longer has to carry a baseball bat for protection whenever she steps outside her house. She doesn’t have to watch drug dealers sell cocaine on the street corners. And no one has called her La Dedo-- “The Finger”--in months.

Perez, who was honored by President Bush earlier this year for her fight against drug dealers, moved out of one of the worst crime areas in Santa Ana seven months ago and is settling into a new suburban life elsewhere in Orange County.

Perez, police say, was responsible for reporting more than 400 crimes and helping police make more than 100 drug-related arrests. Thus, the nickname the drug dealers gave her-- La Dedo . She has asked that her new location not be disclosed. She does not want the dealers to know where she lives.

“I’m getting used to the peace here,” the 38-year-old mother of three said in an interview at her new home. “It is so strange not having to fight all those drug people all the time.”

At her family’s old one-bedroom apartment on South Baker and Cubbon streets in Santa Ana, Perez carried a bat with her every time she left her building. Even shopping for a quart of milk was a hazardous endurance test. The drug peddlers would threaten her and taunt her children.

At night, gang members often sprayed the exterior of her home with graffiti. One time, a neighbor slashed the tires on the family car, which had been burglarized at least seven times. Perez used to pray every night for a way to move out of the neighborhood.

Jose Vargas, Santa Ana’s Latino affairs police officer, said Perez went through “combat training.”

In June, officials from a nonprofit organization, who did not want to be identified, helped Perez find a three-bedroom apartment for low-income families. They had heard about Perez’s fight against the drug dealers when she was invited by the Police Department to meet President Bush during his stop in Santa Ana last March.

When Perez looks outside her window now, she sees well-manicured lawns, children playing in the streets and no graffiti. Perez said she hasn’t heard a police siren yet. She can’t even find her old baseball bat. She thinks she tossed it in a dumpster right after she moved.

Sometimes at night, it is too quiet. During the first night in their new home, she and her husband, Salvadore, kept tossing and turning. It has taken them several months to get used to the peace and tranquility.

“The only noise I hear are the crickets,” Perez said. “I don’t hear glass breaking. I don’t hear sirens. I don’t hear doors being broken in. I don’t hear people yelling outside in the street. For this, I am so thankful.”

Perez said her children, Salvadore, 14, Angelica, 11, and Hugo, 9, have changed as well. In their old home, they used to stay indoors after school.

“They felt tied up and trapped because they weren’t safe outside,” Perez said. “Here, they go fishing and play sports. They do whatever they want, and I’m not worried about them getting hurt.”

Now, young Salvadore plays sports with his friends; Angelica has been invited to join the honor club at school; and Hugo doesn’t mope anymore.

Perez said she has one more big goal in the near future and that is to get her U.S. citizenship. She received her temporary residency card two weeks ago. Now in her free time, she practices English with her children and is planning to take classes soon.

“Nobody deserves U.S. citizenship more than Perez,” Vargas said. “This woman deserves every good thing in the world.”