Newark: The bloodbath, the wing nut and drugs

You may have heard about the execution-style killing of three college students in Newark, New Jersey 2 weeks ago. This Monday, August 20, 2007, the Republican anti-immigrant wing-nut, demagogue, and candidate for president, Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, came to Newark this week. You know that he doesn't give a hoot about the safety of Newark's residents. But he had a point when he blamed officials of responsibility in the slayings of the college students by failing to report the prior arrests of two suspects to immigration authorities.

Bob Herbert, one of my favorite columnists, concluded "the most effective anticrime effort begins at home with parents who raise their kids to know better than to point a gun at another human being." This has merit too.

I was reminded of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, during which, as in Newark, gang victims were lined up against a wall and shot. Although the victims in the horribly sad Newark incident, unlike the criminals in Chicago, were innocent, we don't know yet whether this is gang related.

Whether it is or not, we do know that gangs and drugs have exacerbated the problems of violence in our cities.

When alcohol was prohibited, gangs of bootleggers spilled blood in the major cities' streets. With the legalization of alcoholic beverages, this violence stopped. Our fruitless "War on Drugs," has created far more violent crime, hypocrisy, disrespect for the law and bloodshed than Prohibition. In Newark, Camden and Philadelphia, heavily armed, drug-selling gangs engage in turf wars and inspire young recruits to show their mettle through extreme violence.

In the name of law and order, politicians subject young minority men to Draconian penalties for possession of small quantities of crack cocaine and heroine while in the suburbs middle class whites are given a pass for possession of cocaine and ecstasy. Blacks and Hispanics convicted of possession or sale of drugs are warehoused in high security prisons where they are beaten, raped and otherwise hardened into cold-blooded killers. After long sentences, they are released into the streets of our communities where they wreak havoc that leaves us appalled.

Herbert, Tancredo nor any other public official called for or even mentioned decriminalizing of drugs. The day after decriminalizing, gangs will shrink and street crime in the ghetto will plunge. True, the law enforcement/corrections establishment will lose valuable jobs and benefits. Perhaps they can be re-trained as teachers and drug counselors.

Comments (1)

Nora Thomason

Great post, John. You are so right to draw this back to the criminalization of drugs. One wonders if the drug addiction rate among urban youth would be as rampant without the whole underground drug market. In Sunday's Washington Times, Misha Glenny did a piece called The Lost War, making the point that the trade in illegal narcotics begets violence, poverty and tragedy.

The problem starts with prohibition, the basis of the war on drugs. The theory is that if you hurt the producers and consumers of drugs badly enough, they'll stop doing what they're doing. But instead, the trade goes underground, which means that the state's only contact with it is through law enforcement...
Prohibition gives narcotics huge added value as a commodity. Once traffickers get around the business risks -- getting busted or being shot by competitors -- they stand to make vast profits.
Now the drug war is undermining Western security throughout the world.

Another interesting article was this one, Legalise drugs to beat terrorists in the Financial Times, making the point that drug trade from Afghanistan and Columbia would be nipped, taxes would increase, health and safety would improve and terrorists would be less capitalized.

Posted by Nora Thomason | August 22, 2007 6:46 PM

Posted on August 22, 2007 18:46

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