A Time for Action

LAST week the trial proceedings began for three of four men charged with the 1988 murder of Edward Byrne. A 22-year-old rookie cop, Byrne was slain execution-style while seated alone in his patrol car guarding a home in a Queens neighborhood notorious for the proliferation of drug trafficking and drug-related crime.

Byrne's death drew the sympathy of the nation. Moreover, it revealed to us, starkly and irrevocably, that all the rhetoric about the necessity of a war on drugs--particularly on crack--is all too true.

The memory of Officer Byrne, and of the thousands of police officers who lined the streets for his funeral procession, was brought back into grim focus by the trial of his alleged murderers. His fellow police officers wanted not only to honor him, but also to reveal their own growing frustrations about the crack epidemic plaguing our inner cities.

The trial also gives us a chance to ponder the consequences our society must face if proper action is not taken.

IN New York City crime statistics related to the influx of crack were released last week. The sheer numbers are staggering in their implications; and New York City is only the most visible example of a problem spreading throughout the country's urban and inner city areas.

According to police reports there were 1867 murders in New York City during 1988. Of these, 38 percent were drug related, with crack--a cheaply made, highly addictive form of cocaine--as the greatest contributor.

The report also indicates that crack's evil influence has tripled the number of child abuse cases involving parents under the influence of drugs. The number of reported cases has swelled over the past five years from 2627 to nearly 9000 in 1988.

Moreover, the population of New York City jails has risen nearly 80 percent since 1985, causing severe strains on the city budget and law enforcement.

And between January and October of 1988 there were more than 31,000 felony and misdemeanor arrests related to crack.

Statistics such as these need no further elucidation--they plead for action and reveal costs on a human level that our society can no longer tolerate.

UNFORTUNATELY, the response we have been given about the need to wage a war on crack have been the stuff of symbolism and hollow rhetoric. It is all too obvious that the war has already begun and that society is suffering severe losses.

The problem deserves to be seen realistically--as a disease that feeds on all levels of society. To see the influence of crack as a minority or underclass dilemma is a partial and unaceptable view of this problem. The problem, needless to say, touches us all.

One part of a solution is clearly increased law enforcement--not only in numbers but in intensity.

After Officer Byrne's execution, New York began the development of Tactical Narcotics Teams, designed to fight the proliferation of crack and the crime and murder which it breeds.

Rather than trying to prevent the sale and distribution of drugs by dealers, the four teams that operate today are saturating neighborhoods with undercover officers to make as many arrests as they can. The effort is directed at stopping the daily rhythm of the drug trade and killing as many local markets as possible.

While it is too early yet to tell the long range effects of these programs, it is an active response that recognizes the immense activity necessary to halt the street level trade, the life-force of the growing crack industry.

Law enforcement, however, is only part of the answer. We must understand that clinical and medical assistance must be provided to help addicts free themselves from the drug's influence. We need to have compassion for those suffering from a serious, though curable, illness.

We also need to attack this problem before it enters our society. It is time for government to place greater emphasis on patrolling our borders to combat the daily and illegal influx of drugs. Rollbacks in funding to the Coast Guard, like those that occured during Reagan's tenure, are no longer justifiable.

OF course, all of these programs and intensified efforts will require money. With a government and large portions of society antithetical to a raise in income taxes, it seems that we must for the moment look elsewhere.

Perhaps it is time that some of our leviathan military budget, huge portions of which are channeled into conventional forces in West Germany and $500 million individual aircraft, could be given to the professed war on drugs that rents the fabric of our own society.

This is not intended as a call to weaken our defenses in favor of social programs, but to understand that with greater fiscal responsibility in our overgrown military budget we can begin to attack this war going on already within our own borders.

During his presidential campaign, George Bush came to New York and held aloft the badge of Edward Byrne, and pledged himself to a war on drugs.

It was a symbolic effort, but we have had enough of symbolism and rhetoric.

If he wishes to do justice to the memory of a courageous youth, and to match his fervence for symbolism with action and understanding, it is time that Bush and other government officials begin in earnest the war on drugs. Because, in an all too true sense, the war has already begun.