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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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time
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040389
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04038900.033
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1990-09-22
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NATION, Page 24Good Place for A Test CaseWashington may be the first front in Bennett's drug war
Driving home from dinner two weeks ago, Senator Mark Hatfield
was suddenly confronted by a reality that has become commonplace
for less exalted residents of Washington. Only six blocks from the
gleaming Capitol dome, the Oregon Republican watched as a man 20
yards ahead of him blasted away with a gun at another man. Hatfield
zoomed through a red light to flee the scene. He did not call the
police. "I assure you if in Washington you tell the police you saw
somebody shooting somebody, they'd say, `So what?'" Hatfield
explained.
Last week Washington recorded its 120th murder of 1989; there
had been 73 committed at the same point a year ago. At that bloody
rate, last year's record 372 killings will be surpassed by the end
of this summer.
To curb the violence, officials have been advocating steps that
may verge on martial law. A federal judge last week blocked on
constitutional grounds implementation of an 11 p.m. curfew for
minors. New Hampshire Senator Warren Rudman suggested putting the
city's 4,000 beleaguered police under federal control. Congressman
Stan Parris, a Virginia Republican, drafted legislation to appoint
a federal public-safety administrator. There were even cries for
deployment of federal troops or National Guardsmen.
Federal drug czar William Bennett is on the brink of declaring
Washington the nation's first "high-intensity drug-trafficking
area," making the city a "shock-treatment" test case in the war on
drugs. He will soon announce a federal-local strike force that will
try to close down the district's nearly 100 open-air drug markets.
Bennett's staff is also toying with the possibility of converting
abandoned military buildings into makeshift jails for drug pushers.
Since 1986, Washington police have arrested almost 40,000 suspects
in drug cases, but the District has long since run out of
courtrooms to try them and prison cells in which to incarcerate
them. Police Chief Maurice Turner said on TV last week that the
cops were virtually powerless to stop warfare between rival drug
dealers. Whether a cessation of hostilities will result from
Bennett's shock treatment for the nation's capital remains very
much to be seen.