Victims of the War on Drugs

Washington Post ^ | July 9, 2003 | Peter Moskos

[toothless]

In 1998 the Drug Enforcement Administration sent its Mobile Enforcement Team into Benton Harbor, Mich., while state troopers patrolled the crime-ridden streets. With 42 arrests, the DEA struck a major blow at the drug ring responsible for some 90 percent of violent crime in the city.

[toothless]

"Outsiders find it hard to believe that residents of dangerous communities -- those most in need of police services -- can be anti-police. Our drug laws create this paradox."

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[LadyDoc]

sorry, but I date before the "war on drugs". Gangs back then were into alcohol and knives. When the cops busted them, the families howled police brutality, since the loving mother's refused to see that their teen aged son had become a thug who terrorized neighbors. Since the police were a different ethnic group, the neighborhoods turned against the police as 'outsiders".

Nor was this a racial thing: The gangs were Italian, the cops were Irish...

NOthing is new under the sun...Ethel waters tells of growing up in the slums and not telling the police about crimes back then, for the same reason: they were outsiders and you helped them you were an outcast as a "snitch". She dates way way back when drugs were legal...and says she never got into drugs because her cousin did heroin/cocaine and Ethel saw how terrible the price of drugs were back then...that was prior to WWI.

YOu should also note this is a "liberal" newspaper, who doesn't care about that the crime rate in Washington DC is worse than Baghdad... partly because the rich who work in the government want to buy drugs, and partly because the Republicans don't want Washington DC to have a real say in how to run the place...

[toothless]

"who doesn't care about that the crime rate in Washington DC is worse than Baghdad"

but but but, I thought the war on drugs lowered crime?

war on drugs + war on guns = washington dc

[toothless]

"partly because the Republicans don't want Washington DC to have a real say in how to run the place..."

What? Please clarify. Oh wait, you won't post anymore.

[MrLeRoy]

'In congressional testimony the following year, the DEA boasted: "After the intervention of law enforcement officers. . . . Benton Harbor was being brought back to life. . . . They brought a sense of stability to the area."

'This was wishful thinking. Not only has there been no lasting effect on the drug trade, resentment of outside law enforcement in Benton Harbor recently has exploded into riots.'

ping

[jmc813]

WOD Ping