Houston's Dirty Drug War: a reader writes...

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

a reader writes...

Apropos de Rien
one of our readers wrote in...
D. Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, was called: PEDRO DE ALCÂNTARA FRANCISCO ANTÔNIO JOÃO CARLOS XAVIER DE PAULA MIGUEL RAFAEL JOAQUIM JOSÉ GONZAGA PASCOAL CIPRIANO SERAFIM DE BRAGANÇA E BOURBON and we were supposed to know that in school!

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Did You Know?

Racism

Only 13% of drug users are African American, yet they account for 67% of those sentenced to jail for drug offenses.

Mass Incarceration

The U.S. has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoner population.

Lack of Recovery Resources

48% of the need for drug treatment goes unmet in the U.S.

Public Opinion

A Pew poll found that three out of four Americans feel that the Drug War has failed and can never be won.

Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

Even after spending more than $50 billion a year on the Drug War, drugs are more available and drug cartels are more wealthy than ever before.

War on Youth

More than 200,000 students have been denied financial aid simply because they have drug convictions.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is working to find solutions to these problems. Explore their site to learn about their mission & values, chapter network, campaigns, and events.
Even more facts can be found at DrugWarFacts.org

Federal Prisoners in Order of Offenses

Drug Offenses: 97,660 (53.0 %) Weapons,Explosives,Arson: 27,079(14.7 %) Immigration: 19,808 (10.8 %) Robbery: 9,146 (5.0 %) Extortion, Fraud, Bribery: 8,370 (4.5 %) Burglary, Larceny, Property Offenses: 6,751 (3.7 %) Homicide, Aggravated Assault, and Kidnapping Offenses: 5,601 (3.0 %) Sex Offenses: 5,401 (2.9 %) Miscellaneous: 2,077 (1.1 %) Banking and Insurance, Counterfeit, Embezzlement: 946 (0.5 %) Courts or Corrections: 747 (0.4 %) Continuing Criminal Enterprise: 560 (0.3 %) National Security: 102 (0.1 %)

Welcome to my END the WAR on DRUGS mini-center!

Hey, are you sick of HPD searching your car every time they pull you over for a busted taillight? Are you sick of Metro cops searching everybody they ticket for jaywalking? A busted taillight and jaywalking are NOT probable cause for a search. Do you have the nerve to stand up for your 4th Amendment civil rights? Are you willing to go to jail to take back some of the power that Houston's law enforcement thugs have given themselves over time? There are good cops, honest sheriff's deputies, fair constables and metro cops that are just trying to keep traffic moving. But there are a LOT of bullies, bigots and just plain evil bastards out there to "Serve and Protect."

Increasingly the good cops want to separate themselves from the bad by joining the call for drug law justice. Harris County, TX has unduly severe incarceration rates - the highest in the nation - and it prosecutes as felonies things like possession of drug paraphernalia and drug residue that places like Austin, Dallas and San Antonio handle by fine and citation. The worst thing of it all is that the DA's office (recently exposed as a sewer of dismal corruption - a dirty, rigged crime lab, a racist, philandering DA etc.) and cops pat themselves on the back for their GIANT arrest numbers, but the crimes are minor. Drugs are nothing more than contraband. Plain and simple. Felony records ruin lives, and we taxpayers foot the bill to incarcerate these minor offenders at $35,000 to $90,000 a head per year when drug education and rehab cost a fraction of that. Message: Houston WANTS to punish its people. Harris County is known as one of the most "punitive" counties in the US, in terms of drug sentencing. In practical terms that means by allocating huge amounts to drug busts, investigations and task forces, they incarcerate people at a higher per capita rate than elsewhere even though the per capita instance of crime is the same.

It is not crime run amok. It is law enforcement run amok. The District Attorney's Office run amok. And Republican Judges run amok. FYI, all Houston's Criminal District Court judges belong to the Republican Party of George Bush.

Dallas and San Antonio are similar to Houston in terms of size and demographics and crime rates are statistically even in all three towns. But Houston's incarceration rate is completely out of line with the per capita numbers in San Antonio and Dallas. The message Houston sends is that it trusts its people less, or it distrusts them more. However you look at it, Houston disenfranchises more people by putting them through the felony court system, and in doing so it robs taxpayers of money that could be used to build sports stadiums, light rail lines, to create cheap parking at the airport, all the quality-of-life things Houstonians want but have traded away for high incarceration rates of minor, non-violent drug "offenders".

People with felony records can't get jobs after being locked up. Background checks are merciless in the way they reduce minor drug possession felons to the same status as rapists, murderers and violent criminals. The word "felon" is so pejorative that no one reads past it to see whom that person is. So drug felons go from being tax-paying wage earners to being a burden on already under-funded social service agencies.

At the same time Houston wastes hundreds of millions a year on a drug war it has never been able to win, its people strain under $4 a gallon gas prices, 30% increase in the cost of eggs and milk in the last 6 months. Our homeless are miserably neglected. Our famous medical center ignores its responsibilities to care for the poor while they receive grants and tax breaks for choosing Houston as home. Money that should go for infrastructure and other services to improve the quality of life, is squandered on the War on Drugs.

It's Guns or Butter all over again, folks. Do you get value for your contribution to locking up drug users at such a shockingly high rate? Nearly 1500 drug arrests in Houston in February 2008 alone. Bravo HPD! Wouldn't it be better if they were solving murders or preventing rape? Don't be fooled by the argument that drug users are violent criminals, burglars and thieves. If they are, arrest them for those crimes. The statistics don't show that drug use causes rape, murder and violent crime at nearly the high rates associated with alcohol. And yet alcohol's legal. Weird huh?

What difference does it make to you or me, really, if someone wants to get high? What do you have to say about it?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

a reader writes...

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Houston's Dirty Drug War

The Editor

CIA Smuggles a Ton of Cocaine into US - 60 Minutes Audio part 1

Ethan Nadelman of Drug Policy ALliance on The Colbert Report

drug war clock gadget click or paste in browser to see real-time cost of drug war

CIA Cocaine Dealing Gary Webb San Jose Mercury News Interview

War on Drugs Architect: I Was Wrong, Mandatory Minimum Sentences Corrupt

William F Buckley: End War on Drugs 1996 Interview

my speech - click image for full view

Chris Crocker: End the War on Drugs

Johnny Cash - the man in black

Did You Know?

Federal Prisoners in Order of Offenses

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