Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2001
Source: News-Press (FL)
Copyright: 2001 The News-Press
Contact:  P.O. Box 10, Fort Myers, FL 33902
Fax: (941) 334-0708
Website: http://www.news-press.com/
Author: Andi Atwater

STORE OWNERS, POLICE AT ODDS ON HOW TO FIGHT DRUG BATTLE

FORT MYERS - Betty Hodge stands regally behind her wooden, candy-laden 
counter, dispensing single beer cans in paper bags as deftly as she hands 
bubble gum to sticky 6-year-old fingers.

"Thank you, Miss Betty," is the respectful reply of toothy children eager 
to exchange their nickels and quarters for sodas and marshmallow pies.

Hodge's small South Street grocery store, just across the road from rows of 
yellow Southward Village public housing, is a mainstay for youths seeking 
after-school treats and a convenience for nearby residents who need a loaf 
of bread, a bag of diapers or a cold can of beer.

But police say the corner convenience store is a blight in the 
neighborhood, a predominately black area.

The store became a target for hundreds of hours of police surveillance over 
the past year, racking up 27 documented drug transactions, police said.

"My guys have sat in covert locations and watched drug deals go on - on 
their property," said Fort Myers police Sgt. Jim Mulligan, who runs the 
narcotics unit. "It's not as if we make this up. We're buying the dope. We 
have the dope."

The Fort Myers Nuisance Abatement Board, which met with a quorum of four 
white volunteers on Tuesday night, voted to shut down Hodges Grocery and 
another Dunbar store until the owners do something to discourage crime there.

The decision has store owners bristling, wondering when it became their 
responsibility to do a police officer's job.

"Targeting me doesn't do any good. I'm not the one dealing drugs," said 
Hodge, 55, who took over the store in 1984, 16 years after her father 
opened it in 1968. "Putting me out of business - how is that going to help 
the community? How is that going to stop the drug boys?"

Police officers, many residents and Nuisance Abatement Board members say 
business owners are responsible for stopping crime on their property.

Fort Myers police Chief Larry Hart, who has pledged to wield a heavy hand 
against crime in his city, warned Hodge last August that there was a 
problem on her property.

He also sent a nuisance abatement notification letter to David and Mildred 
Fulcher, owners of Wright's Grocery on Price Avenue, the second business 
ordered to close Tuesday by the board.

The letters notify business owners that drug deals are taking place on 
their property and say Nuisance Abatement Board sanctions can range from a 
"warning to an outright prohibition of any presence on the property in 
question for up to one year."

A business need only two documented drug sales or prostitution events to 
take place within a six-month period to be subject to closure.

The city ordinances that govern this action grant the board the right to 
shut down - for up to a year - businesses it judges to be public nuisances 
based on evidence and testimony at a public meeting.

"I feel really, really bad about having to close anyone's livelihood, but 
every person that owns a business in this city needs to be responsible," 
said Kimberly Hoschar, a real-estate broker who is serving her second term 
on the board.

"I think they just need to work with the police department to combat the 
problem instead of staying in the store and acting like it doesn't exist," 
she said.

Drug-related arrests have gone up and down in the Dunbar area of Fort Myers 
since Hart became chief in 1995.

Generally bordered by Canal Street to the south, Ortiz Avenue to the east, 
Palm Avenue to the west and Billy's Creek to the north, the community has 
long been burdened by an active drug trade.

Police made 160 drug arrests there in 1996 and 174 in 1997. That dropped to 
92 arrests in 1998, but was back up to 123 in 1999 and 159 in 2000.

"I have to put my foot down," Hart said. "I told the community that if you 
want law enforcement and say you're not getting it -well ... now you got it."

A few blocks south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, at the corner 
of Price and Palm avenues, Sam Carter, 59, joins about a half-dozen other 
older men in their daily gathering spot adjacent to Wright's Grocery.

The men gossip, cajole and good-naturedly reminisce as they deal Dirty 
Hearts from a well-used pack of cards.

They see what's going on in their neighborhood and they don't allow the 
young hoodlums to hang out at the corner store. The drug deals, they say, 
don't happen on their time.

"We're a bunch of old-timers, all over 50, and we come here every day to 
socialize," Carter said.

"We all agree with Chief Hart that there is a problem in the community, but 
the store's not the problem," he said. "You can only chase people off your 
property and onto the street. After that, it's up to the police."

Their time, however, ends about 5 or 6 p.m. when they all go home. The 
store remains open until at least 9 p.m. and detectives say Wright's 
Grocery is the No. 1 spot to buy heroin in Dunbar.

Mildred Fulcher, 62, who opened the store with her husband in 1964 after 
the couple moved to Fort Myers from Georgia, says she's not arguing with 
police about whether there are drug problems in her neighborhood, but she's 
worried that Hart is getting carried away, punishing innocent business 
owners for the sins of others.

"This store has nothing to do with the problems in the street," said 
Fulcher, adding that she has no idea how she'll make ends meet for the 
three months before the store might be allowed to reopen.

"Instead of coming to help, he's coming to hurt," she said. "I have no 
problem helping the police any way I can. I've always told them that. So 
why are they closing me for someone else's mistake? How can I help if 
they're putting me out of business?"

Police say the businesses have had ample opportunity to figure out a solution.

A first step would be to pick up the phone and call the police anytime they 
see suspicious activity, officials said.

Hodge has never called the police and Mildred Fulcher's only complaint 
recently was that someone spit gum on her car while police arrested a drug 
suspect, Mulligan said.

"We can't afford to post officers at every convenience store in city - you 
have to let us know what's going on," he said. "We're not going to sit here 
and baby-sit these people. If you choose to ignore the problem, we'll work 
to declare your property a nuisance."

Police point out that no single store is individually targeted - police are 
looking at all problem areas.

And some businesses have been quick to make changes.

At least two Palm Avenue grocers avoided a nuisance closure after police 
sent them a notice in 1999 and 2000.

Abu-Khadier Hassan, owner of Palm Grocery Store at 1936 Palm Ave., 
installed cameras and hired security during business hours.

Instead of drowning in the expense, the owner's business actually increased 
as the store became safer, Mulligan said.

"We even tried to buy drugs again there and we got thrown out," he said.

So far this year, police have sent five businesses warning letters - 
including a duplex, a house and an apartment complex. Watkins Grocery and 
The Palm Avenue Discount Grocery stores also received warnings.

"This isn't personal - I have a job to do and I'm going to do it," Hart 
said. "I'm attacking the drug problem and wherever it leads me, it leads 
me. They have choices, and they chose to turn up their noses at the 
law-enforcement mechanism."

Both Hodges and Wright's groceries owners have three months to submit a 
security plan to Hart and then to the nuisance board for approval.

If approved, they may reopen as early as June. If they do nothing, they 
must remain closed for six months.

For Hodge, the closure seems personal and unprecedented.

Her customers say they feel that way too.

"Hart needs to clean the damn projects up, not pick on Betty. This lady's 
doing the best she can," Moses Whitfield, 44, said.

"You're hurting everybody when you have a few rotten apples in the barrel 
and you throw away the whole barrel," said Walter Benjamin, 51.

"It's not her fault," added Cookie Best, 44, who lives across the street. 
"All she can do is run people off her property. She can't beat them up. 
They got guns nowadays."

Hodge, who works 12 hours a day in her shop - mostly by herself - says she 
feels like a scapegoat to make police look good.

"I love this store - it's my life," she said quietly, framed by a collage 
of photographs of dozens of neighborhood children who gave her their school 
pictures to hang on the wall.

"No one wants to stop him from cleaning up - but clean up the problem. I am 
not the problem."
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