Word: cracking
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...force is up to a doddering 46 1/2 years. "We just don't have the money and the personnel to keep the peace," sighs Inspector Lawrence Brewer, a veteran of nearly 22 years in the department. "There are guys literally jumping on our car hoods to sell us crack, but there's no money to pay informants or make buys. We have the highest homicide rate in the state, and people come across from Missouri to buy crack and dump bodies here. The bad guys know we can't handle...
State police, moved in to supplement the understaffed local force, are concentrating on drug arrests and housing-project security. Selling crack has become the city's biggest business, and is so widespread that peddlers sometimes flag down motorists on nearby I-70 to hawk crack packets at $20 a pop. Traffic backups on city streets often turn out to be buyers lined up at drive-through crack houses...
Much of the crack trade is conducted in the housing projects, which have been run by a private firm since 1986, when the corrupt local authority was ousted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "Living here is hell," says Villa Griffin resident Rosie Kimble, 44. "I'm scared to go out to church at night for fear someone will break in while I'm gone. It's already happened once. With all the dopeheads around here, there's shooting almost every night. You walk out the door, they're liable to shoot you dead...
...ticket in East St. Louis is a ticket out of it. The two high schools produce perennial state champions in football and basketball, putting - a few gifted athletes on the road to college, hoping for stardom in the N.F.L. or N.B.A. For other youngsters, there is profit in peddling crack but not much else...
...many instances, the violence is fueled by easy access to guns, alcohol and drugs, particularly crack. Users often "fall into a sadomasochistic ritual after smoking together," says Terry Williams, a senior research scholar at the New School for Social Research. "They are angry, hallucinating, and get into violent fights." Crack can also leave users sexually aroused. When they do not find a willing partner, Williams asserts, they may be tempted to rape...