Pubdate: Sat, 26 Nov 2005
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Contact:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Address: PO Box 1171, Pittsfield, MA 01202
Fax: (413) 499-3419
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc
Author: Alan Chartock
Note: Chartock is a Great Barrington resident, president and CEO  of
WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones)

I Publius

PROSECUTE LITTLE CRIMES, TO REDUCE THE BIG CRIMES

Let's go back to the once-infamous Great Barrington parking lot, 
where, thanks to the good work of the Berkshire County Drug Task 
Force, a number of young people were arrested for selling marijuana, 
cocaine, ecstasy and other illegal substances. You will recall that 
the situation had become intolerable, with kids from all over the 
place congregating at the lot, making it not only uninviting, but 
also dangerous for our citizens.

There were taunts and physical provocations, and the good people of 
the town were not happy.

Since those arrests, the parking lot has been a much friendlier place 
to walk through.

In other words, law enforcement works. The arrests were made, and 
District Attorney David F. Capeless stuck to his guns. The kids would 
be charged under the commonwealth's law that imposes stricter 
penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, including 
a minimum mandatory two-year jail sentence.

The stupid kids and some of their parents must have known about the 
consequences, since, from time to time, the papers had reported about 
others who had violated the law and done the time. Why it took the 
Berkshire County Drug Task Force to make the arrests is anybody's guess.

My theory is that the local Police Department, for whatever its 
reasons, didn't care, or even want the parking lot cleaned up. It 
only called in  the county task force because of the outrage over 
drugs in the town.

It has always been one of my taxpayer gripes that we pay our huge 
Police Department a fortune, yet we virtually never see a cop where 
we ought to, patrolling the streets of Great Barrington. That may 
explain why my hero, Pam Drumm, is wailing about how much new 
graffiti there is in town. What's more, she says, the tough Mayor 
Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioners, and the mayors  and 
police commissioners who succeeded him, found that, when you make 
arrests  for the little crimes, the big ones take a nosedive, too. In 
New York City, they keep files and do active investigations looking 
for the folks who do the  graffiti damage. The problem, of course, is 
the mandatory two-year-sentence law. It's just too much time in jail or prison.

Our state representative, William "Smitty" Pignatelli, said he would 
file legislation to change that, but so far he hasn't. The first of 
the parking lot kids came to trial and was acquitted after his first 
trial ended in a mistrial, a frustrating situation for the DA. The 
law was  clear, and I think the evidence was clear, but the good 
citizens sitting in that  box would not convict.

Perhaps they believed that the law was flawed and the  penalties too 
great, and that they all undoubtedly knew someone who had 
smoked  some weed. Since that time, there has been an additional 
guilty plea and a conviction involving two other defendants. So here 
we are, back to square one. How does a district attorney tell all 
those people who have done their time that "community service" should 
substitute for jail time? The papers have been filled with letters 
that look pretty organized to me. On the one hand are the folks who 
think that the kids should basically walk, and on the other, the 
law-and-order folks who say that the little darlings of the middle 
class did the crime and should do the time. I would not like to be 
the district attorney.

I think that the people in Great Barrington, including lots of 
merchants who were suffering terribly with the old situation, leaned 
on the DA to do what was right, and he did. The DA knows, and I think 
he is right, that if everyone gets off the hook, the kids will be 
right back in that parking lot selling drugs.

Some say that the kids have learned their lesson.

My hope is that the parents and their friends come to their senses 
and understand that there are consequences for illegal and antisocial 
actions. Although a two-year sentence for a first offender may be too 
much, walking free  is too little.

We've got to send the message that laws will be followed.

I think that we need regular police patrols on the street.

I think that if we do not resolve this, we'll go right back to a 
parking lot or a main street where kids endanger our tourist business 
and our citizens with their unruly and irresponsible behavior.

We have recently been hearing tales of drugs in our high school. This 
is serious stuff.

It may well be that marijuana will have to be decriminalized. If that 
is appropriate, do it. But allowing people to break the  law is the 
road to hell, pure and simple.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman