Pubdate: Sun, 30 Jul 2000
Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY)
Copyright: 2000sRochester Democrat and Chronicle
Contact:  55 Exchange Blvd. Rochester, NY 14614
Fax: (716) 258-2356
Website: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/
Author: Donna Jackel

EVENT RALLIES HUNDREDS IN FACE OF DRUGS AND VIOLENCE

Police Department And Church Groups March
And Sing Protests In Neighborhoods

They slowly traveled down Plymouth Avenue, singing
hymns and praying for peace.

Every few minutes, one of the 100 or so marchers would step out of
line to pray for troubled neighborhood residents or ring the doorbell
of a suspected drug house.

"I pray for them because they don't know any better," said 83-year-old
Beatrice Blanding, who has lived on Plymouth Avenue for almost 60
years. "If they knew better, they wouldn't use drugs."

The march and rally were dubbed "Rally for Life 2000 -- Let's Stop the
Violence Together." It was the first of three summer rallies planned
by the city Police Department and community churches to combat
violence and drugs. Police Chief Robert Duffy has said that a third to
one half of this year's 26 homicides were drug-related.

Saturday morning, groups of marchers spread their message through
three southwest city neighborhoods -- the Plymouth Avenue area,
Jefferson Avenue and Genesee Street -- meeting at Genesee Valley Park
for a rally. About 750 people participated, organizers said.

Marcher Joanne Bittle lives in Greece, but she said the city's drug
violence is the entire county's problem.

"If one part is diseased, every part is affected," she
said.

Edward Fickess of Perinton, whose son Gregory was murdered in the city
in 1993, stopped to pray with an elderly man on his porch, two young
women sitting on their lawn and an elderly woman watching the marchers
from a lawn chair.

"The Lord loves the cities and he wants them restored," said Fickess,
a member of Bethel Full Gospel Church.

Before the march, police provided ministers with the addresses of
suspected drug houses.

Police said that standing outside the drug houses lets dealers realize
the community knows who they are and that they're not welcome in the
neighborhoods.

But not all on Plymouth Avenue were happy to see the
marchers.

Mahogany Brown of 895 Plymouth Ave. looked out her window to see
scores of people praying outside her home.

"They were standing in the street with their hands in the air, like in
that movie Beloved," said her husband, Broderick Brown. "It's like a
TV show."

The couple have been living at the now boarded-up, three-story home
for about a year. Brown said there was a drug operation being run out
of one of the apartments in the house, but police raided it few months
ago -- a raid he said he and his wife assisted police in.

But the house is now deserted except for the Browns. The angry couple
told Mayor William A. Johnson Jr., who was there at the time, that
they had planned to temporarily move into an apartment across the
street, but were afraid the landlord wouldn't rent to them now that
they had been fingered as residents of a drug house.

"I will personally work on your case," the mayor said.
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