by megra » Tue Jan 09, 2007 10:42 am
I used to work in a part of Brixton that was known as the drug dealers' patch. It was a street away from the police station and was overlooked by CCTV cameras. The police rarely bothered the dealers and I assumed that was because at least they knew where they all were. Of course, we didn't know all this when we moved into these offices.
Our front door was the only one on the block that was recessed and, of course, the dealers chose this particular doorway to do all their deals. The offices had been empty for about 18 months when we moved in so they weren't used to having their deals interrupted which, after our arrival, they were all the time by people coming and going.
We had an intercom and camera on the door and one day one of our work experience people was in general office watching deal go down on the monitor. He picked up the intercom receiver and shouted "BOO!!!!" down it at the top of his lungs. Dealer and customer leapt in the air and scattered! Very funny.
Another day, I was going down the stairs to the front door on my way out to lunch and saw, through the glass door, two guys obviously intent on a deal. For a moment, I wasn't quite sure how to negotiate this but decided to be bold. I opened the door and said in my politest voice, "Excuse me, please." The dealer half turned and replied, "Oh sorry love," as he and his customer stepped aside to let me through after which they concluded their transaction.
It seemed to me that the dealers knew they were there on sufferance and if they put a foot wrong all kinds of shit would be heaped on them. I never found any of them to be anything but unfailingly polite to us, our clients, the local tradesmen and the shoppers.
Now, I know that this is far from being how it is everywhere but I thought it would interest you as another side of the coin to the usual tales of violence and corruption. If I had ever seen one of those guys dealing to children, I'd have shopped them in a heartbeat but my attitude was that their customers knew what they were buying and it wasn't up to me to be their moral and legal guardian.