Target Practice

NEW YORK -- As a police officer and investigator, Stephen M. Zanowic Jr. spent 10 years on the streets, mainly chasing muggers and corrupt officers. In 1988, he thought he had found a prestigious law-enforcement niche when he was appointed a U.S. deputy marshal in Manhattan.But Zanowic says that his career is in shambles because he, a white man, complained to federal officials that white deputies were discriminating against black employees in the Marshals Service's Manhattan office.Zanowic claims that supervisors and other deputy marshals labeled him "a white rat" after he disclosed that about a dozen of them used a picture of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for target practice and openly voiced racial slurs and threats against a black deputy marshal.

PROBABLY NO one thought George W. Bush's election as president would doom the U.S. Navy's use of Vieques Island for target practice. The military, most Republicans and Puerto Rican demonstrators expected the opposite. President Bush's decision that the Navy go elsewhere within two years is cheering to many Puerto Rican citizens of the United States who found the bombardment of the island a relic of colonialism. It is welcome to the fewer than 10,000 persons, many of them fishermen, many of them hearing-impaired from years of bombardment, who live on Vieques, which is east of Puerto Rico but within the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

The ever tightening squeeze on Carroll County's limited recreational facilities was underlined again this month with public squabbles over a proposed private indoor pistol range in Westminster and the disputed use of Mount Airy school ball fields.The separate cases reflect the need for more comprehensive recreational planning in Carroll. The answers are not simple: the conflict between recreation needs and other public rights requires carefully studied case-by-case resolution.In the case of a proposed shooting range on Westminster Pike near Md. 97, the demand for a firearms training facility clashes with the rights of nearby residents to safety and tranquility.

THE CALLOUS destruction of a small Cessna plane by a Peruvian air force pilot, killing an American missionary and her baby, puts the program of drug interdiction in the Andes in jeopardy. A suspension of CIA surveillance flights in Peru was properly ordered. Congressional support for the aid package Plan Colombia is likely to plummet. This attack was on a flight by an experienced missionary pilot doing what he has done many times. U.S. sources were slow to admit CIA involvement, and then said its agents argued against the attack until further identification could be made.

About 300 works of art displayed on utility poles in Baltimore will remain until Sept. 20, city arts officials said yesterday.The artworks -- which, a city official said last week, violated municipal ordinances -- resemble official street signs and bear messages such as "Clean Your House," "Free Thinking Zone" and "Blowing Plastic Bags."They are located throughout the city.The signs actually are an art exhibit sponsored by Baltimore's Festival of the Arts Inc., the nonprofit organization that sponsors Artscape, the city's annual arts festival held last weekend.

Baltimore County police seized a cache of guns and 7,000 rounds of ammunition, and arrested the owner -- who had been ordered by a judge not to possess firearms, officials said yesterday.Richard M. Segel, 40, was arrested Monday after police recovered 18 rifles and semiautomatic weapons, a handgun and ammunition. He was charged with violating the order prohibiting him from possessing firearms.Mr. Segel, who does not have a permanent address, was ordered held on $100,000 bail and sent to Spring Grove Hospital Center after a psychiatric evaluation showed he may be a danger to himself or others, court records show.

While overseeing a manhunt for the killer of two armored car guards last week, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson took a moment to criticize the proliferation of gun crimes in America and the collective indifference to a problem that is uniquely ours: "Anytime you have in a country where there's 100,000 people shot or killed, and it's not even an issue in the presidential campaign, there's something wrong with that." It was a timely and well-deserved knock not just at the presidential contenders but also at a gun culture that impedes law enforcement efforts to contain the problem.

It was potentially a dangerous game for Loyola's highly regarded lacrosse team.An opponent of good quality in the middle of a grueling run of four games in nine days. The prospect of looking ahead to the Fleet Lacrosse Invitational at Brown on Saturday, where two tough foes wait.But Loyola, ranked No. 1 in The Baltimore Sun poll, was equal to the assignment yesterday, pressuring C.W. Post from the start for an 18-7 romp at chilly Curley Field. The win gave Loyola a 5-0 record."Normally, you'd worry about a letdown," said Greyhounds coach Dave Cottle.

A plainclothes city police officer and an unidentified suspect were wounded in an East Baltimore gunfight last night following surveillance of heroin trafficking in the 1700 block of N. Chapel St. Eastern District Officer Jerry Weaver, 42, was being treated last night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center for a nonlife-threatening bullet wound to his right arm and rib cage. The slug traveled near Weaver's stomach. Police Commissioner Ronald L. Daniel said last night that Weaver, an 18-year veteran and father of three, was conscious and talking to colleagues and family.

There's a job vacancy you might want to apply for in Pikesville. It pays $77,000 a year, with lots of government perks. You get to wear a uniform and carry a gun, too. And take all the free target practice you desire.The position: superintendent of the Maryland State Police. It became available after Elmer H. Tippett Jr. announced on March that he was resigning, after four-and-a-half years, effective June 1. Mr. Tippett had done a pretty good job, but just wasn't the strong, commanding figure Gov. William Donald Schaefer wanted.