Pubdate: Tue, 18 Jun 2013
Source: Register Citizen (CT)
Copyright: 2013 Register Citizen
Contact:  http://www.registercitizen.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/598
Author: Rich Scinto

ACTIVISTS SAY THE 'WAR ON DRUGS' HAS FAILED

NEW HAVEN - On the 42nd anniversary of President Richard Nixon 
declaring the start of the war on drugs, about 30 people gathered 
near the steps of city hall Monday to protest what they consider to 
be a failed war.

"What I fail to understand about this whole thing, the war on drugs, 
is it really attacking the war on drugs or is it attacking black and 
Hispanic young men?," said Robert Lee Sr., a former New Haven 
alderman whose son, Robert Lee Jr., was arrested in a widespread 
federal drug sting last May dubbed Operation Bloodline. "It seems 
like that's what it's doing cause they are not accomplishing the 
mission that was supposed to be the war on drugs."

Operation Bloodline was the largest federal sweep of its kind in the 
state's history. More than 100 alleged gang members were arrested. 
Dozens of arrestees who have pleaded guilty have already been 
sentenced and trials are being scheduled for the later months of the 
year. The operation involved federal and local agencies. It is often 
credited with helping reduce violence in the city by law enforcement officials.

Groups including My Brother's Keeper, The Connecticut 
African-American Emancipation Challenge, the Unitarian Society of New 
Haven and Unidad Latina en Accion participated in the lunchtime 
protest near city hall.

Activist Kevin Muhammad advocated for the legalization of drugs and 
compared the current war on drugs to alcohol prohibition.

"You don't see any more gangsters fighting over gin, vodka and 
alcohol," he said.

He also said the choice to sell drugs is economically sound for many 
in the country's inner-cities.

"Brothers will not sell dope if they knew they were only going to get 
as much money as working at Wal-Mart," he said. "They are not hanging 
out there because they want to be cool, it's economically sound for 
them to make more money than they are making at McDonalds or Wal-Mart."

The protest was organized by Barbara Fair, who is with My Brother's Keeper.

"As people were celebrating Father's Day' yesterday, I was thinking 
about all the dads who had to call home to talk to their kids," she said.

Fair is a cousin of the Lees. She said she was more than surprised to 
see Lee Jr. arrested during Operation Bloodline.

"When we seen him even listed with supposedly all these gang members 
we knew there was something behind this besides just gang members," 
she said. "We know he definitely isn't a gang member."

Lee Jr. and many of the other Operation Bloodline arrestees are being 
held in federal custody at The Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in 
Rhode Island. The facility is a quasi-public corporation, according 
to the facility's website.

Several passersby stopped and watched the protest. A man who only 
identified himself as Harold and "a victim of this war," said that 
the government shouldn't wage a war on its own people.

Lee Sr. proposed that the aim of the war on drugs should focus on 
curing addicts instead of arrest them and drug dealers.

"If you can take the person on the corner and give them some help and 
clean them, that means the drug dealer don't have a customer," he 
said, "That's how you fight the war on drugs... if take him and 
incarcerate him... another guy stands on the corner because you still 
got the addict."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom