The Fruit of Islam patrol neighborhood and run dealers out (1988)
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jono
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To some who live here, what happened this week at the Mayfair Mansions housing project at first seemed a shocking exercise in vigilante justice.
But to those who live in Mayfair Mansions, a small world ruled for the last two years by drugs, gunfire and fear, what happened was a deliverance of a rare sort in big-city America.
On Monday, at the tenants' invitation, members of the Nation of Islam from a nearby mosque began patrolling the housing project in Northeast Washington in an effort to drive out ? and ? dealers. The dealers, residents say, had converted Mayfair Mansions' central courtyard into an open-air drug market. People could not sleep at night for the shooting. Parents kept their children indoors.
''Whatever you imagine hell to be, that's what we've been going through,'' said Annette Bowie, who would cringe in the night whenever her grown son was out and she heard a gunshot.
Now, members of the elite black Muslim corps, the Fruit of Islam, unarmed except for nightsticks but stern and forbidding with their short haircuts, dark glasses, neat suits, bow ties and walkie-talkies, are patrolling the project on foot and in vans. They came Monday, with a reputation for disciplined, relentless toughness. The drug dealers left the same day. The courtyard is alive again with music, basketball, volleyball, laughter and children.
Read the rest here a slight controversy comes out of this but it's a cool story.
But to those who live in Mayfair Mansions, a small world ruled for the last two years by drugs, gunfire and fear, what happened was a deliverance of a rare sort in big-city America.
On Monday, at the tenants' invitation, members of the Nation of Islam from a nearby mosque began patrolling the housing project in Northeast Washington in an effort to drive out ? and ? dealers. The dealers, residents say, had converted Mayfair Mansions' central courtyard into an open-air drug market. People could not sleep at night for the shooting. Parents kept their children indoors.
''Whatever you imagine hell to be, that's what we've been going through,'' said Annette Bowie, who would cringe in the night whenever her grown son was out and she heard a gunshot.
Now, members of the elite black Muslim corps, the Fruit of Islam, unarmed except for nightsticks but stern and forbidding with their short haircuts, dark glasses, neat suits, bow ties and walkie-talkies, are patrolling the project on foot and in vans. They came Monday, with a reputation for disciplined, relentless toughness. The drug dealers left the same day. The courtyard is alive again with music, basketball, volleyball, laughter and children.
Read the rest here a slight controversy comes out of this but it's a cool story.
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This is similar to what IRA sects did in their neighbourhoods , anyone they found dealing would be knee capped on the spot.They are not saints but speaking to alot of people that were around during that time , crime was non existent on those housing estates.
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I don't agree with the Nation on a lot of things, but for some reason, those brothas get respect that the average dude can't. It's unfortunate due to political differences that the FOI was removed from these projects at the expense of people's safety.
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anyone... or those not operating with their approvalThis is similar to what IRA sects did in their neighbourhoods , anyone they found dealing would be knee capped on the spot.
no doubt there were IRA/INLA dudes who were anti-drug (as well as their Nationalist counterparts), but when you look at some of the internal feuds, this stuff gets a little more hazy
