Cocaine Busts Said Major Police Victory SHELBY - When the last of 19 drug traffickers was sentenced Aug. 3, it signaled a major victory for the police department that worked with several state and federal agencies put them behind bars. This week, Shelby police officials released more good news - crime overall is down 19 percent, if you compare the first seven months of 2006 to the same time period in 2005. The removal of those 19 people made a huge impact in the drug trade in Shelby and is one reason the overall crime rate is down so much, according to Shelby Police Chief Tandy Carter. [continues 775 words]
BOILING SPRINGS - "I don't do drugs, I don't do cigarettes," the fifth-graders sang. "I don't do alcohol, because I'm too smart to start." That's the theme song for a group of students who graduated from Drug Abuse Resistance Education Thursday. Students from Boiling Springs, Elizabeth, Springmore and Union elementary schools celebrated and confirmed that drugs aren't for them. "All of you kids will be successful in life if you are able to steer away from drugs, to steer away from people who sell drugs," Boiling Springs Elementary Principal June Lail said. [continues 173 words]
In the 1930s, J. Edgar Hoover inflated headlines and the FBI budget by wowing the public with the pursuit of outlaws such as Machine Gun Kelly and John Dillinger. The public did not know until later that Hoover virtually ignored the consolidation of organized crime. But the petty bank robbers of the Depression never contributed to a politician. Now history repeats itself with a drug war that any thinking citizen can only term "silly," if not for the fact that the real problem is being ignored once again. [continues 171 words]
