LIMA CITIZENS UNITED TO SUBDUE GANGS

Participants Say Effort Called On Broadest Array Of Agencies And Institutions

LIMA, Ohio - Mary Williamson watched news reports of the riot in
North Toledo two weeks ago and wished she could share with Toledo a
little bit of what her city has learned about confronting gang violence.

"I think Lima has come up out of the ashes," said Mrs. Williamson, a
lifetime Lima resident who stood by her city even when gangs were
terrorizing neighborhoods in the 1990s.

Lima officials say the key to their success at reducing gang problems
is the fact that no one expected one agency to solve the difficulties.

The city police and Allen County sheriff's office were involved, but
so were the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office. The city schools, the
courts, social service agencies, churches, and a strong network of
neighborhood associations literally joined hands to get the gangs off
the streets.

"It's a classic example of what can happen if all parties come to the
table and bring the resources to it," Lima police Chief Greg Garlock said.

"By everyone working together as a unit, it shows the wannabes or the
perpetrators: You're not coming into my neighborhood and destroying
my neighborhood or taking it over - and they got the message, thank
God," said Mrs. Williamson, who now serves as president of Lima-Allen
County Neighborhoods in Partnership.

Chief Garlock is quick to point out that this blue-collar city of
about 40,000 people still has its share of crime, but gang members
once responsible for drive-by shootings, arsons, and drug dealing are
mostly in prison or lying low.

Law enforcement officials, looking to keep things that way, joined
forces Thursday for a daylong warrant sweep that resulted in the
arrests of some 25 Lima-area residents - most on drug charges.

Chief Garlock admits he doesn't know what would happen if a radical
group like the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement, whose presence
triggered rioting in Toledo, came to his city.

"I don't know that I want to assume that the relationship we began
building 10 years ago is the same that it is today," Chief Garlock
said. "We still do have concerns where we still see the influence out
of Detroit that comes down here and some from Fort Wayne that may be
affiliated with gangs in Chicago."

The relative calm in Lima today is a far cry from what Deborah Kovac
Rump, a former assistant U.S. attorney, remembers from when she was
making regular trips from Toledo in the 1990s to work with local,
state, and federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute Lima gang members.

"There were armed home invasions. There were rapes. There were
arsons. It was very violent. It was a rough time in Lima," Ms. Rump said.

Gang members would "come in from Detroit, take over houses and
neighborhoods, and sell dope, sell guns, sell women. In Lima, though,
the attitude [from police and the community] was never, 'We can't do
it.' It was always, 'What do you need?' "

She recalled a roundup of violent gang members in which police raided
a drug dealer who had more than three dozen guns stashed in his
house. The neighbors came out banging pots and pans on the porch and
gave the officers a standing ovation.

"They were so thrilled that people listened to them and took back
their neighborhood," Ms. Rump said. "Everybody in Lima came together.
It wasn't just a law enforcement effort. It was a community effort.
And it wasn't just the sticks; it was the carrots as well."

Four-term Mayor David Berger traces the roots of the communitywide
effort back to 1992, when a local Korean store was firebombed the
night of the Rodney King verdict in Los Angeles. He assembled a group
of clergy for a news conference to call for order and discovered none
of the clergy knew one another.

"That really stimulated a process here where it became clear we had
to build some relationships," Mayor Berger said.

Lima became involved in a national program known as Study Circles, in
which diverse groups of citizens got together to discuss race, crime,
and youth. It turned out to be a 10-year process that has had lasting
effects. And Mayor Berger said the city never stopped looking for solutions.

"It was everything from passing ordinances about graffiti to
mobilizing the neighborhood associations to building partnerships
with the police department so that law-abiding people were known to
the police," the mayor said. "Often police only interact with
criminals. Everyone else is kind of there, but are unknown. One of
the virtues of community policing was it built positive relationships
with officers and neighborhood folks who helped with identifying
lawbreakers and nailing them."

Chief Garlock said his officers still do some community policing,
although federal funding that enabled Lima to put eight officers in
six neighborhoods in the 1990s has dried up. The focus now is on
homeland security.

"We don't want to minimize the importance of [homeland security],
however I don't get calls from people concerned about an al-Qaeda
cell next door. I do get calls about crack houses," the chief said.
"With a tank plant and a refinery and a chemical plant [in Lima], we
work very hard at those security-related things, and we need to. But
what is tearing up a neighborhood, destroying the fiber of that,
oftentimes are those drug complaints we're receiving."

Ms. Williamson, whose south-end neighborhood association has worked
to stop illegal dumping in the area and raze dilapidated houses, said
some neighborhood groups died out when gang activity ended, but about
15 are active today. She thinks they need to remain vigilant.

"The police cannot solve the problems by itself," she said. "The
police are really just an extension of the neighborhoods. They are
there to protect and serve, but the neighbors have to do their part
to help them."

Mayor Berger is proud how his city united, but he declined even to
suggest that Toledo could learn from Lima's example.

"I don't think I want to preach to anybody. These are different
issues, and you just need to stay focused on them, certainly as we
did," he said. "It wasn't always pleasant, but it was absolutely necessary."