To the editors:
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Recall Juffer’s thesis. What is happening at the Harold Ickes Homes, to the Richmond family in particular, and to the poor residents of public housing across the city, “not only raises a question about the civil liberties of innocent people caught in the cross fire of the war on drugs but also leads to a related question about the nature of Operation Clean Sweep: When does such an operation become less of an effort to make public housing safe for its tenants and more of a convenient way to control a whole community of people, people with every reason to be angry at the system and people for whom eviction could easily mean homelessness?”
Now let’s turn to Kitchen’s assessment of Jane Juffer’s article. She can’t possibly know what’s what in the projects, Kitchen asserts, because she’s white and lives in a more affluent neighborhood. Worse yet, she’s one of those “outside white agitators,” genetically incapable of doing anything but causing trouble in places where poor, black people live, where there should be peace, harmony, and above all, gratitude.
Debra Mecher
