Pubdate: Mon, 07 Oct 2013
Source: Baltimore Sun (MD)
Copyright: 2013 The Baltimore Sun Company
Contact:  http://www.baltimoresun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37
Author: Leigh Maddox
Note: Leigh Maddox is a retired state police captain and a board 
member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of police, 
judges, prosecutors and other law enforcement officials opposed to 
the war on drugs.
Page: 15

MORE ARRESTS MEAN MORE CRIME

Gov. Martin O'Malley has recently made the case for beefing up law 
enforcement to battle this year's rise in crime, including in an 
op-ed in The Sun. "So long as levels of enforcement continue to 
decline," he argued, "shootings and homicides will continue to go up."

This argument overlooks the way an emphasis on enforcement prevents 
this city from tackling violent crime. In fact, overenforcement has 
the opposite effect and renders crime more pernicious in the 
communities that are most affected. To solve our problems with 
violent crime, we need to first repeal our drug policies.

By focusing on enforcement, we inevitably force police to measure 
success through arrest statistics. Under the current systems, it will 
always be easier to arrest someone for drug possession than it is to 
find someone in-house, on-demand treatment. In 2010, 47,633 people 
were arrested in Maryland on drug charges, of which 56 percent were 
related to possession of marijuana. This amounts to more than five 
times the number of people arrested in connection with violent crimes.

Baltimore, as David Simon has described it, is "the point of the 
spear when it comes to the drug war." While rates of incarceration 
remained roughly constant through much of American history, things 
began to change with tougher drug laws in the1970s. In1970, there 
were fewer than 400,000 people jailed in the U.S. Now, there are more 
than 2.2 million. Today, America has the highest rate of 
incarceration in the world.

As the creator and faculty supervisor of the JustAdvice law clinic, a 
product of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of 
Law in conjunction with the Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service and 
other legal service providers, I see the consequences of the war on 
drugs on a daily basis. A large portion of our clients come to us for 
help with their criminal records. Many of them have drug convictions 
that cannot be expunged. They often cannot obtain public benefits, 
employment and housing because of their records.

In the communities most affected by the war on drugs, the drug trade 
serves as the sole breadwinner. In Baltimore City, over 95 percent of 
incarcerated juveniles are minorities. Is it any surprise that half 
of young African-American men in this city are unemployed? When we 
direct our energy toward increasing enforcement, we condemn whole 
communities to subsist outside formal economic channels - where 
criminal records are not a barrier to employment.

These policies disproportionately affect African-Americans and 
minorities, and they only serve to marginalize already 
underprivileged communities. Despite an equal rate of drug use among 
racial groups nationwide, African-Americans account for 51 percent of 
people incarcerated on drug charges. Here in Maryland, even after the 
courts began monitoring the Maryland State Police for racial 
profiling policies, enforcement statistics have remained skewed. In 
2007, the Baltimore City Police Department was forced to settle after 
similar allegations of racial profiling.

Ultimately, these policies undermine our ability to address violent 
crime in three important ways. First, our police departments lose the 
trust of the city they serve. Police work depends upon a constructive 
and collaborative relationship with the city's residents. Without 
trust, the police lose their most important source of information.

Second, with a focus of resources on drug possession and 
misdemeanors, fewer resources are available for the more intensive 
work required to arrest those responsible for violent crimes. Zero 
tolerance emphasizes quantity of arrests over quality.

Lastly, as the city becomes weary of racial targeting and 
over-charging, it loses faith in the criminal justice system. 
Prosecutors routinely drop cases where arrests were made with no 
probable cause. We have seen judges forced to dismiss cases because 
of the strain on their dockets, and we have seen nullification 
because jurors simply no longer believe the evidence was the result 
of good police work.

The only way to sensibly tackle crime in this city is to get real 
about our drug policies. No society has ever fully rid itself of 
drugs, nor will we. But, if we eliminate the prohibition on drugs, we 
can abate much of the social and personal damage currently associated 
with its trade.

Drugs should be legalized and regulated to keep the trade out of the 
hands of criminal gangs who profit while enforcing monopolies through 
violence. By taking drug issues out of the criminal justice system, 
we can free our police to do the real work necessary to make our streets safer.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom