PREPARED STATEMENT OF REV. OBERIA D. DEMPSEY, COORDINATOR, NATIONAL CONCERNED COMMITTEE AGAINST NARCOTICS SMUGGLING, NARCOTICS TRAFFIC, NARCOTICS ADDICTION, AND CRIME Mr. Chairman, members of the House Select Crime Committee, ladies and gentlemen. On behalf of the anticrime and antinarcotics committee of the Upper Park Avenue Baptist Church, Inc., and the National Concerned-Citizens Committee against narcotics smuggling, trafficking, addiction and crime, I wish to thank you, your committee members and our Congress of the United States for concerning yourselves about, which beyond a shadow of doubt, is our Nation's most serious problem, narcotics. This insidious drug monster, long nurtured in New York City, New York State, and in other large cities throughout our Nation, by apathy, complacency, weak laws, and weak programs, and which reaps a harvest of wealth for dope pushers and death for our Nation's children, demands the concern of every American now. I have battled drugs, juvenile delinquency, and adult crime for 25 years in New York City. I have seen narcotic addiction spread from ghettos into suburbs and practically all across our Nation. I have cooperated with Federal, State, and local law enforcement officers in trying to prevent narcotic trafficking, narcotic addiction, crime, and also in apprehending suspected law breakers of every dimension. I regretfully report to you today, Mr. Chairman, that dope mobsters have made New York City the dope capital of the world, and New York State an open State for mobsters, thugs, dope addicts and hoods from other States and other countries to come and go as they please. These same mobsters made Harlem the No. 1 dope dumping ground of the world. During the past 15 years in Harlem alone, my committee, the Anti-Crime and Anti-Narcotic Committee, registered and referred 51,000 heroin and cocaine, hardcore addicts. Based on our experience and knowledge, we know that there are more than 150,000 hard-core addicts moving in and out of Harlem daily. We know that there are between 40,000 and 50,000 children and teenagers hooked on dangerous drugs, and experimenting with drugs in Harlem right now, and another 50,000 throughout the city. In every housing development, on every street and in every block in the ghettos, children are using dope and dope is there. In one housing development in Harlem, namely, the St. Nicholas Houses, on West 127th Street and Seventh Avenue, a 12-year-old narcotics user reported that nine out of every 10 youngsters ranging from the age of 10 through 17, were either hooked on dangerous drugs, or they were being used to sell drugs to other children, or recruit them into the dope racket. (Actually dope mobs controlled hundreds of youngsters in and outside of the ghettos.) Mr. Chairman, we estimate that there is a total of 500,000 addicts in New York City alone, and 200,000 or more, throughout New York State, making a total of 700,000 drug users in New York State. Our city today is a city of fear. Decent citizens are afraid to walk the streets even in broad daylight. Merchants and storekeepers are forced to keep their doors locked, and armed guards stationed on the inside. Drug addicts are constantly violating the constitutional rights of blacks and whites in Harlem and throughout New York City. On January 14, 1969, the narcotic problem became so horrifying in Harlem and throughout the city, until, acting on behalf of the Anti-Crime and AntiNarcotic Committee, I launched a complaint against the State of New York, through U.S. Attorney Robert Morgenthau of the southern district of New York to the U.S. Department of Justice. The letter dispatched to Mr. Morgenthau follows: ANTI-CRIME AND ANTI-NARCOTICS COMMITTEE, Hon. ROBERT MORGENTHAU, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, HONORABLE SIR: On behalf of the Anti-Crime and Anti-Narcotic Committee of the Upper Park Avenue Baptist Church, Inc., the citizens of Harlem and New York City, I complain through you, to the U.S. Department of Justice against1. The State of New York for permitting the illegal narcotic traffic to grow and thrive in such great proportions that it is rapidly destroying the property, lives, and religious and educational institutions of the people of our city. 2. Against the organized crime syndicate which has made of the United States, a huge dumping ground for dope and, of New York City, the dope-addict capital of the world. As you know the Harlems of New York City and elsewhere, have been raped, ravished, and scourged by the illegal actions of the organized crime syndicate, its agents, servants, and 250,000 dope-addict slaves, 100,000 of which reside in Harlem alone. We demand freedom to come and go without fear of being assaulted, mugged, robbed, and brutalized by drug crazed dope-addict victims of the organized crime syndicate, whose activities have been so terrifying and violent that 200 churches of this community have been compelled to close their doors to evening worship. Finally, we know that New York State as a sovereign State of the United States, has the constituted authority and the responsibility to protect the rights, lives, and properties of all its citizens against any form of violence and intimidations, and we call upon you and the U.S. Department of Justice to use your constituted authority to guarantee to the people of Harlem, New York City, and other dope-ridden sections of the State of New York, justice and protection. Your immediate considerations will be deeply appreciated. Very truly yours, Rev. OBERIA D. DEMPSEY, I received no reply from the U.S. Department of Justice. Yet and still, dope deaths and dope casualties are rising every day, and the rights of decent people are being trampled on in our city and elsewhere by these addicts. Mr. Chairman, we are told that the narcotic racket is perhaps the biggest and most deadly illegal industry in the world. And I am afraid that in some way, our inaction as citizens of the greatest country in the world has helped to make it so. Because all of the hard drugs, heroin and cocaine, are smuggled into our country, which means that our airports, seaports, and borders are inadequately protected. The hard drugs get into this country and the thousands of hard-core addicts and thugs mug, rob, steal, and brutalize decent citizens almost 24 hours a day to get the money to supply their habits which can run from $50 to $75 a day. Mr. Chairman, despite the theories on the cause of drug addiction, I contend, and I believe I am right, that the No. 1 cause for the high rate of drug addiction and the huge growing population of drug addicts is the availability of drugs. Approximately 85 percent of the crimes committed in ghettos of our city can be traced to narcotics. Narcotics breed crime, contempt for law, and corruption in practically every level of society. It breeds a lack of faith in police officers and in government in general. This stems from the fact that most people in ghettos believe that a primary function of government is to regulate society and protect the people. We have Federal laws against narcotic smuggling, however, our borders, airports, and seaports are inadequately protected. We have State laws against narcotic trafficking, yet drugs are peddled in Harlem and throughout New York City 24 hours a day. Practically every day I personally report incidents of suspected narcotics trafficking to the local police and some arrests are made. Although convictions are not always gotten as a result of arrests; sometime, the suspect caught in the act of violating narcotic laws actually beats the arresting officer back uptown and starts peddling drugs again. I understand law to mean, the social control of the use of force in a democratic society, and that laws are made to regulate human conduct. I personally feel that all bona fide laws should be enforced and obeyed, and if a law is weak, it should be strengthened, and if it is undesirable, it should be changed. It is almost inconceivable to believe that narcotics can be peddled so openly in broad daylight as it is, on the streets of Harlem and in other sections of New York City. Mr. Chairman, I only wish that you and your committee could have toured Harlem and communities throughout New York City to see for yourselves, the ungodly acts of narcotic racketeers. I turned over information to the police a few days ago concerning a 7-year-old child on West 143d Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, who is being used by adult dope peddlers to deliver dope. We also know that teenage boys and girls can and do often earn from $400 to $600 a night for pushing dope for their slave masters. We also know that dope kingpins on Seventh Avenue from 110th Street to 145th Street, park their flashy Cadillacs, Eldorados, Continentals, three and four deep in front of certain night spots, while they conspire inside these night spots, collect and deliver bundles to local hoodlums, and recruit girls to work in their dope factories for $40 to $100 an hour to cut and package heroin and cocaine. Decent citizens wonder why these flashy cars owned by dope kingpins are not ticketed and towed away, just as illegally parked cars are ticketed and towed away in other sections of our city. These very people, Mr. Chairman, who are illegally parking their cars are the very ones who are destroying our Nation's young people with dope. These gangsters have practically all the latitude they need to operate. Their rights are protected to the hilt, if, and when justice catches up with them, while decent people live in fear and our children are forced to live like savages and die like monsters. In addition to this, hundreds of children are being born into the world addicted to dangerous drugs, and millions of dollars worth of hypodermic needles, syringes and other paraphernalia are supplied to addicts by so-called legitimate business enterprises for the purpose of getting money and creating an everwidening circle of drug addicts to fatten on the helpless. Mr. Chairman, we believe that our Federal Government has the responsibility, the authority, and the resources to halt the smuggling of dangerous drugs into the country. We strongly urge that the FBI be directed to aid in halting the smuggling of drugs into this country and that enforcement of all narcotic laws on all levels be placed under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government. We urge the Federal Government to erect health camps cross the Nation, away from the cities and place hard-core addicts in them with a program to fit their needs. We further urge you and your committee, Mr. Chairman, to recommend tough legislation to deal with dope dealers and corrupt officials who consort with them. There are thousands and thousands of knowledgeable and loyal citizens in New York City and throughout the country on crime prevention, apprehension of criminals and narcotic peddlers. We urge you and your committee to recommend to Congress legislation to set up immediately a civilian crime force to assist in dealing with the dreadful narcotics rackets and restoring respect for law in this country. We also recommend that you and your committee urge our Federal Government to impose economic sanctions against countries where illegal drugs originate and provide funds for reimbursing foreign governments for not producing narcotics. Mr. Chairman, I warn today, that we as citizens of the greatest country in the world, the United States of America, and as citizens of Harlem, New York City and New York State, are not going to stand idly by any longer and permit criminals, regardless of whether they are black, white, Puerto Rican or Cuban, to destroy the young people of our Nation with dope. We pray to God to inspire you and your committee, the House, the Senate and the President to act and to act fast, for we are in the midst of chemical warfare. Drug addiction is extremely dangerous and the worst is yet to come. It distorts the mind of a human being. It drains a human being, and it drains a nation not only of its economic resources, but of its most precious jewels, its youth. But who knows, Mr. Chairman, positive action by your committee could mean the salvation of our Nation. Inaction could spell disaster. We want to save our young people, black, white, Puerto Rican and all, so that this great and powerful Nation under God, of the people, for the people, by the people shall not perish from the earth. Mr. PEPPER. We have one more witness to hear, who was subpenaed, and we gave him time to return with his attorney. Mr. Arnold Feldman. Is Mr. Feldman here? Mr. Feldman, will you raise your hand and be sworn. You do solemnly swear that the testimony you will give before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Mr. FELDMAN. I do. Mr. PEPPER. Mr. Perito, will you question the witness, please. STATEMENT OF ARNOLD FELDMAN-Resumed Mr. PERITO. Mr. Feldman, you were previously given an adjournment of your subpena by Chairman Pepper for the express purpose of securing counsel. However, I notice that you are now appearing here today without counsel. Mr. FELDMAN. I had two possibilities and they were both busy, so I am going to take it on my own, if it's OK with the committee. Mr. PERITO. That decision is yours, sir; it is not the committee's choice for you to proceed without counsel. (Mr. Feldman nods.) Mr. PERITO. Now, Mr. Feldman Mr. DENNEY. In think the record should reflect the fact that Mr. Feldman indicated "yes" to Mr. Perito's question by the nod of his head. Mr. PERITO. Thank you, Mr. Denney, for clarifying the record. Mr. Feldman, Chairman Pepper, in his opening statement, said that one of the purposes for holding this committee hearing is to examine the narcotics trafficking problem in New York City. The examination of this problem, and all its multivarious aspects, could lead this committee to the drafting and submission of remedial Federal legislation which, hopefully, would help to alleviate this menacing national problem. As a result of the authorized purpose of this congressional inquiry, a detailed investigation has been conducted by the staff of the House Select Committee on Crime. You, sir, are appearing before this committee pursuant to an authorized committee subpena. Be advised that if any answers to any questions which I or a member of the committee asks you may tend to incriminate you, you have a constitutional right to refuse to answer those questions, on that basis. Do you understand that, sir? (Mr. Feldman nods.) Mr. PERITO. I assume by the shaking of your head you understand and assent. Mr. FELDMAN. I will say "Yes." Mr. PERITO. You understand, Mr. Feldman that you are testifying under oath? Mr. FELDMAN. Yes. Mr. PERITO. Do you further understand that since you are testifying under oath, you could violate a Federal statute if you knowingly and willfully lied under oath. Mr. FELDMAN. Yes. Mr. PERITO. Mr. Feldman, are you now associated in some capacity with the Bishop Pharmacy? Mr. FELDMAN. That's correct. (The photograph reflects the name of Goody Drugs at 273 West 125th Street, however, Mr. Arnold Feldman's testimony indicates that Bishop Pharmacy is also 273 West 125th St. The photograph also shows the Bishop Building to be 271 West 125th Street.) Mr. PERITO. And the Bishop Pharmacy is located at 273 West 125th Street, New York? (A photograph of Bishop Pharmacy (Goody Drugs) follows:) Mr. FELDMAN. Yes, sir. Mr. PERITO. And what is your association with Bishop Pharmacy? Mr. FELDMAN. I am a partner in the corporation and chief pharmacist. Mr. PERITO. And the corporation is called Bishop Pharmacy, Inc.? Mr. FELDMAN. That's right. Mr. PERITO. How long have you been associated with Bishop Pharmacy? Mr. FELDMAN. Since April 1, 1969. Mr. PERITO. And you are a licensed pharmacist, licensed by the State of New York; is that correct? Mr. FELDMAN. Yes, sir. Mr. PERITO. How many people do you have working in your pharmacy? Mr. FELDMAN. Two drug clerks, two more pharmacists, three people on cigars, cosmetics, cigarette counter. Mr. PERITO. Now, do you presently sell glassine envelopes in your pharmacy? Mr. FELDMAN. No, sir. Mr. PERITO. Did you ever sell envelopes in your pharmacy? Mr. PERITO. When did you stop selling them? |