Pubdate: Fri, 11 Apr 2014
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Sarah Stuteville, Seattle Globalist

EX-CHIEF'S GLOBAL VIEW ON DRUG-POLICY REFORMS

I first heard former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper's name as a 
furious teenager with a face full of tear gas. It was at the WTO 
protests that roiled Seattle back in 1999. I didn't know much about 
globalization back then (I still remember learning the term 
"sweatshop" for the first time) but the experience launched me toward 
a career in international issues - and left me with a lingering fear 
of the police.

"It was a formative experience for you and for me, too," says Stamper 
14 years later in a downtown coffee shop not far from the epicenter 
of those long-ago protests.

Stamper's tactics against demonstrators ultimately led to his 
resignation and sparked what he calls a period of "very painful 
learning." Since then, he has reversed his opinion on the use of 
"chemical agents" during the World Trade Organization protests and 
now describes it as the "worst decision" of his career.

He's also become an advocate for drug-policy reform - one with a 
distinctly global view.

"We've got the drug war raging since 1971 and pitting police against 
low-level, nonviolent drug offenders," says Stamper, "creating 
natural animosity and tension between police and the community - in 
particular young people, poor people and people of color."

Stamper, who is part of the nonprofit LEAP (Law Enforcement Against 
Prohibition), says that the criminalization of drugs has in fact 
increased crime while degrading trust between communities and law enforcement.

He believes the recent legalization of marijuana for recreational use 
in Washington and Colorado is a positive step, but that it doesn't go 
far enough.

For radical solutions, says Stamper, we have to look outside our borders.

"Throughout Latin America, throughout the European Union, throughout 
the world we're seeing nation after nation come to the realization 
that the drug war is too costly for their economies," says Stamper 
who has traveled throughout Canada and Australia with LEAP to learn 
about alternative drug-enforcement approaches and to lecture on reform himself.

But it's not just about saving money for governments, Stamper says, 
it's about saving lives.

He believes criminalization of drugs empowers drug cartels, increases 
drug overdoses and raises incarceration rates of nonviolent offenders.

Stamper cites Uruguay's legalization of marijuana (including the 
growing, sale and smoking of pot) in December of last year as 
evidence of shifting global attitudes toward drugs and law enforcement.

An even better model may be Portugal, which completely decriminalized 
all drugs in 2001. The resulting decrease in drug use and 
drug-related deaths has been hailed as a model by policymakers and reformers.

"So we wind up in many cases with Third World countries and certainly 
more politically sophisticated countries in other parts of the world 
showing us the way," says Stamper who thinks American law enforcement 
could learn about more than just drug policies from other countries.

"In the Middle East and Southeast Asian countries, we're starting to 
see women take the lead and force governments to recognize the 
sanctity of personal safety," he says explaining that in some 
communities women bang pots and pans outside a home where domestic 
violence is occurring as a way of raising awareness, warning abusers 
and showing solidarity with victims.

"I think we should return to the earliest days of primitive law 
enforcement," says Stamper who believes that the police should in 
fact be "junior partners" to communities who take on primary 
responsibility for their own safety and security.

"Whether it's Belltown or Ballard or Capitol Hill," he says as he 
imagines a revolutionary new relationship between Seattleites and the 
police, "Wherever it happens to be, you have citizens that are 
attuned to, and actually carrying out, a public safety role."

I wonder if there would have been as much tear gas in the air during 
the WTO protests under that model.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom