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Sheriff, Police Chief Clash On Drug Raids

Sheriff, Police Chief Clash On Drug Raids  image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
October
Year
1975
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Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
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Sheriff Frederick J. Postül Saturday accused Ann Arbor Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny of subscribing to an "overthe-hill gang"]approach to pol jee work in the wake of the drug offender 'sweep here Friday. "We believe in enforcing the law," said Krasny when told of Postill's accusation, "if that's what he means by being 'over-the-hill.' If he wants to cali us over-the-hill, that's his privilege." Postill, whose department pulled out of the Washtenaw Area Narcotics Team (WANT) more than two years ago, also accused Krasny and other WANT leaders of deliberately not informing him that as many as 48 people could be headed for the already-overcrowded County Jail Friday. "There was nö legitímate reason for not informing me," Postill told The News Saturday. "They did it on purpose. They know how I feel about their Mickey Mouse rards." Postill pointed to the Friday jail populatión of some 146 Friday morning even before the first drug trafficking suspects were escorted by WANT officials to the jail about noon. The inmate count before the onslaught of drug offenders was nearly 20 more than the court-imposed limit of 124 inmates. (For less than 48 hours, as many as 140 inmates - but no more - are s'upposed to be lodged at the jail). "They started dumping these people on us without telling us," Postill said Saturday. Sometime after noon, Postill said, he learned of the drug arrests "when they (his jail lieutenants) started yelling at us." Contacted by The News, Krasny said if Postill was not notified, "It was probably an oversight more than anything else." Acknowledging the cramped quarters at the jail, Krasny added, "I guess we blew it." Postill said Saturday that some 200 prisoners, including some 136 who are lodged at the jail at Fourth Avenue and Ann Street, are under his custody. Some 50 have been sent to other jails as far away as Isabellá County near Mt. Pleasant and Eaton County beyond Lansing, Postill said. There are 14 in the county's irimate residen tial center. Postill said Friday's WANT arrests, which netted some 26 accused heroin and cocaine sellers with 22 still at large, is "a continuation of this law enforcement grandstanding that has been going on for the last three raids." But Krasny countered that "there are still 150 drug pushers who have been taken off the street in the last year. I assume there are still many more out there." Postill said the largest buys which led to Friday's warrants were for $350. Since, he said, heroin sells for $1,500 to $1,600 an ounce, "the largest buy they could have made was about a quarter of an ounce. That's still a legitímate buy, but a lot of those buys were $50, which means they were buying a spoon of heroin from an addict." WANT officials, charged Postill, "have to piek on these little people just to justify their existence."He pulled his men out of WANT, Postill said, because "the last real significant drug arrest they made was two years ago," when a man Postill described as a major dealer was nabbed. Now, charged Postill, "there isn't a creditable bit of law enforcement in this whole operation." "He can say anything he wants to," said Krashy. "The laws are on the books and the statutes are there and we have the responsibility to enforce the law." Krasny disputed' Postill's accusation about those arrested being small time addicts. "I don't think anybody can say who's big and who's small as a rfsult of an arrest," Krasny said. "They were selling pretty good stuff, which means they were selling to the street pusher, who's going to cut it down." Buys made prior to Friday's arrests, Krasny said, netted heroin of 20 per cent quality, which he said 'compares to 40 per cent purity for what Krasny described as "high quality heroin." Street sales, Krasny said, are of one to three per cent heroin, which he cited as evidence that Friday's net scooped up more than mere small timers. "I don't know how you'd classify a big time dealer," Krasny said. "Thére's a limited amount of money you can use (county and state funds) to make your purchases. If you've got $100,000 to throw away, sure you can" make bigger buys. Krasny emphasized that the drug problem is a complex 'one, but he stressed the effectiveness of "drying up the sources" as a means of attacking the proliferation of drug use. Nöting that Postill decided to pull his department out of WANT, Krasny said Postill could, if he chose, be a part of the squad and "he could be grabbing headlines too." "Why he chose to criticize somebody else for doing his job, I don't know," added Krasny, who is,rumored as a possible Republican contender for sheriff when Democrat Postill's term expires in 1976. Postill said Saturday he suspects that mighi have something to do with Krasny's role in Friday's raid, and with failure to notify Postill of the onslaught of prisoners. Asked about a political motive behind the raid or the failure to notify Postill, Krasny responded heatedly, "I don't think there is anything that is political or should be political in this."