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. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek