
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 12, 1994                   TAG: 9404120138
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium

RESIDENTS: SAFETY BEFORE RIGHTS

Mothers say it is like trying to raise children in a war zone: Daily gunfire keeps them from their windows. Others run from building to building to avoid bullets.

Even without warrants, police should search apartments for guns to try to curb violence, many Chicago public housing tenants say. But a federal judge last week ruled the searches violate constitutional rights.

"When you kill me, you done took away my rights," resident Artensa Randolph told U.S. Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros on Monday.

Cisneros and President Clinton via telephone discussed the sweeps and violence with community leaders and about 100 residents at a church near the Robert Taylor Homes.

Two weeks ago, more than 300 reports of gunfire in five days at the housing complex prompted a renewed push for the sweeps.

The Clinton administration promised more federal money to help the Chicago Housing Authority bolster security and favors gun sweeps "within the letter of the law," Cisneros said.

Most residents spoke in favor of the searches, but others disagreed.

"This is what they did in [Nazi] Germany," cried Roy Brown, a World War II veteran from suburban Chicago.

Angry residents said nonresidents had no idea what life in the projects is like.

Cisneros, Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun, D-Ill., Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., and Housing Authority President Vincent Lane said they will report to Clinton on the meeting and return to Chicago on Friday.

by CNB