“How can you talk about the Fourth Amendment when bullets are whizzing around your head?” Father George Clements asked me more than a decade ago when I was writing an article about the American Civil Liberties Union's effort to thwart the Chicago Public Housing Authority's random sweeps for drugs and guns.

“It is the height of arrogance to take the role of being the messiah for the downtrodden when you yourself are divorced from those people,” Clements added.

The uproar over Police Chief Cathy Lanier's decision to implement “Neighborhood Safety Zones” triggered my memory of Father Clements and an elderly, wheelchair-bound Artensa Randolph. Defenseless against the violence, she and her neighbors pushed for the sweeps. The ACLU swept away their hope for peace, filing a lawsuit against the housing authority for violating the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

I'm not an enemy of the ACLU. But I sometimes wonder whether the ACLU is an enemy of the people. 

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D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas, who represents Ward 5 including the Trinidad section of the city where the first NSZ has been established, said what he sees driving around is “people in fear.” Some residents are under de facto house arrest.

Community leaders agreed to police blockades after more than a half dozen homicides in recent weeks. They weighed the disadvantages or inconveniences of the temporary measures against the loss of human life. Not surprisingly, they prefer having the police stop motorists to having the medical examiner collect dead bodies.

Someone, probably my good ACLU friend Johnny Barnes, will remind me of the importance of protecting the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. He will no doubt talk about that proverbial slippery slope, reminding me that the erosion of individual rights will lead to a less-free country. I appreciate that argument. But not unlike Thomas and Trinidad residents, saving lives ranks equally high in my book.

Lanier and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty have said the NSZs are not a long-term strategy. That's good. Band-Aids won't help the city get ahead of the rising and wanton violence brought by drugs and gangs. Rigorous, sustained policing and vigilance are required.

Authentic community policing combined with zero tolerance have proved successful. The mayor, like others in the city, thinks zero tolerance and imagines the arrival of Rudy Guiliani. The District can achieve the results witnessed in New York under its former mayor but without the sins of excessive force exhibited by some police officers there. 

Residents and organizations, including the ACLU, which don't favor Neighborhood Safety Zones should join with the police chief, working to identify the corrupt among them, and shaping a long-term strategy that saves lives without violating the Fourth Amendment.

Just remember this: Kid gloves and effusive coddling have never prevented any crimes or put any criminals behind bars.