Is Race Arrest Issue?

Sixty-five persons, including three juveniles, were arrested in South amp ton Town last week in a middle-of-the-night drug sweep that trailed charges of racism in its wake.

An army of more than 200 police from Southampton and Riverhead Towns and New York State participated in the early Thursday morning raid. Most of those arrested were picked up at their residences, on charges that they had sold cocaine or crack to undercover agents.

Local activists claimed the raid targeted blacks. Only one of those arrested is white, police acknowledged.

"A flag should go up," said Cynthia Richardson of Riverhead, a member of both the Southampton and Riverhead Town Anti-Bias Task Forces. "Something doesn't look right. There are whites and blacks doing it."

Cops: Followed Up Complaints

But Sgt. Barry Winkler of the Southampton Town police street crimes unit said the areas where the arrests were made - Flanders, Riverhead, Riverside, parts of Southampton Village, the Shinnecock Indian reservation, and a small section of Westhampton - were primarily black.

"These areas were hit as a direct result of [complaints from] neighborhood residents," Sergeant Winkler said. "Not a day goes by when we don't receive complaints. A lot of people are fed up."

Indictments were handed down against 72 persons altogether, after undercover agents made at least two buys from each of them during the summer, police said.

Thirteen-Year-Old

One East Hampton man, Rodney Simmons of Flaggy Hole Road, was among those arrested. He was picked up by East Hampton Town police at the request of the other agencies during the sweep and turned over at the town line.

Four Bridgehampton residents were arrested. They were Sam Cooper and Ronnie Street, both of the Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor Turnpike, Darryl Hemby of Montauk Highway, and Jason Hopson of Huntington Crossway.

Two of those nabbed in the raids were juveniles, and a third juvenile was picked up over the weekend. The youngest of the three is just 13.

Sergeant Winkler said police expect to arrest the rest of those indicted shortly.

"There is no question we were targeted," said Mary Killoran, president of the Eastern Long Island branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "Cocaine is a product that is brought into our communities by people with money, and I believe many of those people are white."

"A Positive Step"

The three law enforcement agencies involved said in a joint press release that they "believe this operation is a positive step in the right direction and an example of cooperative law at its finest."

"You know, a couple of years ago people were complaining from these neighborhoods about the drugs and they said to me, 'You don't do anything because it's a black neighborhood,'" said Sergeant Winkler. "Now they're going to say we did it because it was a black neighborhood."

Where Is The Source?

Susan Menu, a local attorney who has several clients among those indicted, questioned the value of arresting low-level dealers without cutting off the source of the drugs.

"Where are the people they are getting the drugs from?" she asked. "[The police] don't care about the getting the drugs from?" she asked. "[The police] don't care about the guys selling the big amounts."

"As a community, do we want to spend millions of dollars so that next week, on the very same streets, reincarnations of these individuals will appear doing the same thing?" she asked.

Ms. Menu wondered if the arrests were worth the cost. "A multimillion-dollar investigation . . . 200 officers, all the assistant district attorneys to prosecute, all the Legal Aid lawyers, the court time, and then the cost of incarceration."

Made Buys

Michael Johnson, a co-host of the TV show "On the Move" and a member of the African Leadership Council, agreed. "We could put one-tenth the money they spent on the street and solve the real problem by giving these kids something to do and a place to go," he said.

Riverhead Police Chief Joseph Grattan agreed that police had gone after "street-level dealers."

"You know," he said, "a big shipment can come in and no one says anything. It's when there are 30 cars next door that someone complains."

"I had to go to the neighborhoods where I get the most complaints," the chief added. "Some of these places, there are 40 or 50 people hanging out. We went to some white neighborhoods too, but we couldn't make buys."

White Neighborhoods

An interested follower of police affairs had a different view. Police "could get some shapely blonde undercover agent, sent her into [a nightclub] and she would end up buying from dozens of white boys."

Like others, he said cocaine was readily available at some nightclubs on the East End as well as in certain white circles.

The Flanders Neighborhood Watch applauded the drug sweep. "It's nice to drive through our streets after the bust without seeing dealers," the group wrote in a letter of thanks to police.

Russell Vicino, president of the Bayview Pines Civic Association in Flanders, said residents "were screaming and yelling" about drug dealers in their neighborhood at several Southampton Town Board meetings. "It's really bad, and there is no question about it," he said.

Three To Nine Years

All of those arrested were charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance and two of criminal possession of a controlled substance, all felonies. Jail sentences for convictions on those charges typically range from three years to nine years.

Police have the alleged drug transactions on videotape, a source said.

Sergeant Winkler said to his knowledge one white male and a "few" Hispanics were arrested, and the rest were black. Bails varied according to whether those arrested had criminal records. About half the men detained remained in jail as of press time.