All others will have to justify their presence to police. This is sure to rattle those who make civil liberties into a blind abstraction. But opposing police intervention will put the objectors on the side of evil. This action is as much aimed at giving residents normal breathing room in their own neighborhood as it is at sweeping the streets of criminals. During these two weeks, police will work with residents to increase cooperation while social service agencies will offer help to those who need it.
Drug traffickers are mobile enough to move their operations to other sites.
Guarding against that is paramount, and should involve those police forces responsible just outside the city. In the end, though, Operation Splash has to be part of an overall plan not only to dislocate troublemakers but to keep them on the run until they no longer threaten law-abiding people in the entire urban area. Stepped-up enforcement was prompted by more than 20 cases of alcohol poisoning last season and numerous reports of vandalism to cars outside Delaware Stadium, presumably by fans who stayed outside to party. But at last week s sold-out homecoming game, eyewitness reports indicate university, state and county police patrols timed their tailgate roundup so that primarily students were herded into the stadium at kickoff time. Season ticket holders with reserved parking spaces in front of Delaware Stadium apparently were ignored by officers as they continued their parties into halftime.