In the row house-lined streets of the East Baltimore community of Oliver, seven children between the ages of 10 and 14 have been arrested by police in the past month on charges ranging from armed robbery to selling cocaine.
The arrests have provoked soul-searching among residents looking for reasons why so many young children are getting ensnared in the drug trade and street crime.
"It's sad to see young children involved," said Officer Ed Bochniak, a narcotics investigator assigned to the Eastern District's "Zone 4" -- the Oliver community and parts of three adjoining neighborhoods. "We're not immune to the feelings of the residents. When we have to arrest a child, we get upset."
The crime statistics of Zone 4 -- one of seven such zones in the district -- are staggering. So far this year, there have been 170 drug-related arrests and 19 shootings.
While the arrests of younger children are seen as a disturbing trend in the war against drug trafficking, many community residents see it as a sign of overburdened single parents losing control of their children at earlier ages -- putting them more at risk to negative influences in communities under siege by drugs.
"We have a lot of social ills in the African-American community, and right now the major problem, more so than drugs or teen-age pregnancy, is the lack of parental sensitivity to parenting," said Hilton O. Bostick, president of the Oliver Community Association.
Mr. Bostick said a major effort is needed by residents, churches, city government and the school board to get parents to act responsibly.
"I'm still optimistic that we have time to turn it around," Mr. Bostick, an Oliver resident for 40 years, said last week. "We've waited too long before confronting it."
Neighborhood resident and barber Faye Williams, a slightly built single mother with a 14-year-old son, said there is no excuse for parents who only watch as their youngsters run the streets and get caught up in crime -- or parents who have a tacit agreement to share money brought home by children paid for holding or selling drugs.
"There is no excuse for these kids telling their parents what they're going to do and what they're not going to do," said Ms. Williams. "They [parents] are constantly letting these kids take control."
She said younger children were being encouraged to follow the example of teen-agers who sport expensive clothing and jewelry purchased with drug profits. "They [the older youths] don't care what they're teaching them. They're not thinking about the future. . . . It's too easy to go wrong. It's hard to go right."
At a police-community relations meeting in the Eastern District's old courtroom Wednesday, police Maj. Alvin A. Winkler told about 40 activists that the arrests of young children were sadly becoming routine.
He also responded to complaints about district policemen allowing a newspaper photographer to take a picture of a 10-year-old arrested for allegedly pointing an unloaded .22-caliber revolver at the head of a 9-year-old boy and stealing his propeller-topped beanie.
Major Winkler said he would not have allowed the picture had he been present. The photo, illustrating a front-page article on the arrest, showed the shirtless suspect from the back -- in handcuffs, with the gun and beanie on a table behind him.
The Sun also received complaints from people who felt that the picture perpetuated racial stereotypes about black youths -- and calls from others expressing frustration and helplessness at the arrests of children on serious criminal charges.
Concerns are especially acute in Zone 4, where, according to the 1990 Census, nearly 99 percent of the 19,821 residents are black -- and a third of them age 18 or under.
"That [photo] hurt," said Major Winkler. "It portrayed a horrifying
picture of black youth, and I think
people were appalled by it. There are more good kids than bad kids, but it's true. It's going on.
"This community needs to make a commitment to its youth. It's bad enough when 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds quit school to deal drugs. Now, they're putting the weight on our 10- and 11-year-olds," the major said.
"The real problem is in the home. How do you go to the home and fix the problem? We've got parents who aren't parents. We've got to accept this. Some of us have got to go out there to be parents to some of these kids."
In interviews last week, the parents of four of the children arrested in the district recently -- all single mothers -- said there was little they could do to keep their children out of trouble on streets where drugs are being dealt in front of their homes and the daily gunfire between rival street dealers is commonplace.
Some area residents felt there were few alternatives for single parents, many of them young mothers trying to raise too many young children by themselves on little more than government assistance. Bombarded constantly by images on the streets, television and movies, children are lured by the drug trade's immediate gratification.
"These kids are constantly shown the dollar value over anything else," said Alex Bland, 28, sitting in Tom's Barber Shop on East Federal Street -- just a block from where an 11-year-old was picked up for dealing drugs earlier this month. "You show them they can get a job that pays minimum wage of $4.75 an hour. Then [traffickers] show them they can make $500 to $600 a week dealing drugs. Come on, you're not giving them a chance.
"You could say that he shouldn't do that. But, you live the life that he lives, and there's no alternative," Mr. Bland said.
Around the corner at another barber shop, a 40-year-old customer who asked not to be named said residents have grown accustomed to younger children getting involved in crime. "It ain't no shocker because they caught a few kids, man," he said. "It's still going on."
The barber, a father of two who acknowledged making money styling popular high-top fade haircuts for young dealers, placed the blame squarely on their parents.
"My parents raised me and yours raised you," said the barber, cutting the hair of a young teen-ager and also asking to remain anonymous. "I'm raising mine. When an 11- or 12-year-old is not in school, he's not supposed to be running the streets."
A Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. worker who also asked not to be named said he regularly walks into homes in East Baltimore where he is confronted by young teens openly defying their parents by staying home from school dealing drugs and handling guns.
"There's no fear," said the utility employee. "When I was younger, if an older man said something to me, no matter what it was, I said, 'Yes sir.' Now, if you say something to a 14- or 15-year-old, he'll get in your face and fight you. . . . When I get home at night, I thank God for saving me for another day."
At the corner of Spring and Federal streets, where the 10-year-old was arrested last week, about 20 community residents held a rally Thursday to express concern over the recent arrests and to encourage young children to turn in guns.
"I think the picture of the 10-year-old was uncalled for," said the Rev. Harley Wilson, the pastor of the Israel Baptist Church, which reclaimed its neighborhood from street drug dealers last fall. "But it and the story raised the consciousness level.
"It's a real problem, and something has to be done. The home has failed. There is no respect anymore. Something has to be done. These children are just prime targets. They peddle drugs; they knock people off. Parents who don't take care of their children are just recruiting them for the drug dealers," the minister said.
Sharon Ford, a mother of three children, said the arrests were a result of "babies having babies" -- generations of young, single mothers giving birth to children.
"How can you tell me that you can't control a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old kid?" said Ms. Ford, who is 40. "That's a lot of bunk. There's no way you can tell me that. It disturbs me. I can see maybe a 15-, 16- or 17-year-old, but a 10-year-old baby? No. That doesn't say much for you as a parent."
Residents and police officers said they realize that dramatic social change is not going to happen overnight and that young children will continue to be exposed to the danger and bad influences.
With temperatures rising and the school year drawing to a close, residents in several city neighborhoods like Oliver also face a three-month summer vacation season with larger numbers of unsupervised children at play in streets often hit by violence.
There is a growing fear among many community residents and police officers that inevitably the combination of drugs and guns will leave one of the children, perhaps a 10-year-old, lying dead in the street -- or that a spark of violence could bring on civil disorder.
"It's going to happen this summer, and it's going to be terrible around here," said Ms. Ford, placing her arms around her two young daughters. "It's going to be a living graveyard here. . . .
"I'm not wishing bad luck on any child," she said. "But they're getting younger. It's reality."