Rensselaer County district attorney candidate backs drug laws reform COLONIE -- The Democrat running for Rensselaer County district attorney said the office is in disarray under the current administration and inexperienced prosecutors are handling local court dockets. "It is broken at levels they don't even know about," said Richard J. McNally Jr., a former county prosecutor, public defender and current county conflict defender. "Prosecution is not something you learn overnight and the office needs to apply that fundamental concept with leadership from top to bottom." [continues 443 words]
The U.S. government recently praised the arrest of Colombia's top drug lord Diego Montoya when he was captured earlier this month. Law enforcement and military officials say it was a powerful blow to Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, comparing it to the capture of Al Capone during Prohibition. Montoya, who had been on the FBI's top ten most wanted list, is said to be responsible for providing as much as 70 percent of all the cocaine in the United States. In 1999, a $5 million bounty for his capture and extradition was offered after he was indicted in a federal court in Miami. [continues 584 words]
Unless you have been on vacation or otherwise under a rock, a case that is rocking Black America involves the racist conviction of six black youths, by an all-white jury, to the tune of potential 100-year sentences, while white youths were given the comparative leniency of in-school probation and non-prosecution for committing violent acts. This legal lynching of six young Black students by officials in Jena, La. is not only a continuing manifestation of Southern justice, it is a symptom of a vicious period in American history now in existence emphasizing the use of the law to severely punish Blacks. So, while there are justified mobilizations taking place around the Jena 6 injustice, the heat of the Black community, activists, officials, church leaders, all, should be directed toward the changes in the law that have made these injustices easier to perpetrate by local criminal justice officials. [continues 563 words]
Editor of the Reformer: Most Vermonters have always opposed the Bush regime's illegal Iraq war, seeing through the false rationales for it, and understanding that it is ultimately a power-grab for control of Middle Eastern petroleum -- supposedly the most valuable military-strategic prize in the history of the world. However, we in our state, and we in our country, are still not taking a close enough look at another fantastically expensive war -- more costly in the number of human lives affected than the Iraq boondoggle. [continues 606 words]
While New York is focused on other matters unfolding in Albany, an important process is under way that could bring desperately needed changes to the state's broken criminal justice system. The state Commission on Sentencing Reform, established by Gov. Eliot Spitzer, has an ambitious agenda focusing on criminal justice reform. At the top of this agenda are the infamous Rockefeller Drug Laws. Over the next week, in non-public meetings, the commission will receive and vote on a first round of recommendations, made by a subcommittee. The commission will issue a preliminary report in October; its final report is due in March. [continues 625 words]
In New York, home to the Big Apple, one of the world's most diverse cities seen by many as the embodiment of the "melting pot" ideal, recent data illustrating high rates of racial disparity in the use of incarceration should sound alarms. African Americans in New York state are incarcerated at nine times the rate of whites -- the ninth highest rate in the country. Why do we see these inequities? The knee-jerk response might be that African Americans commit more crimes and, thus, are imprisoned in disproportionately higher numbers. [continues 695 words]
Whipping westward across Manhattan in a limousine sent by Comedy Central's "Daily Show," Ron Paul, the 10-term Texas congressman and long-shot Republican presidential candidate, is being briefed. Paul has only the most tenuous familiarity with Comedy Central. He has never heard of "The Daily Show." His press secretary, Jesse Benton, is trying to explain who its host, Jon Stewart, is. "He's an affable gentleman," Benton says, "and he's very smart. What I'm getting from the pre-interview is, he's sympathetic." [continues 5088 words]
Al Gore III's mug shot appeared in newspapers across the country Thursday thanks to his arrest Wednesday on charges of possession of marijuana and prescription pills. An Orange County sheriff's deputy pulled him over for driving his Toyota Prius at 100 mph. Police said the car smelled of marijuana and said a search found marijuana and prescription pills of Vicodin, Valium, Xanax and Adderall. Here are five observations after Gore's arrest: 1. Don't speed if you're holding weed. [continues 517 words]
I congratulate USA TODAY columnist DeWayne Wickham, radio show host Tavis Smiley and everyone else who participated in the informative Democratic forum held at Howard University ("Democratic forum gives historic nod to blacks," The Forum, Tuesday). As Wickham points out, the racist drug war received much needed attention. Former senator Mike Gravel of Alaska said that in order to help the African-American community, we have to end this discriminatory war. It was also encouraging to see so many presidential candidates speak out against the disparity in crack powder cocaine penalties as well as other inhumane mandatory minimum sentencing laws. [continues 135 words]
AL Gore III's mug shot appeared in newspapers across the country Thursday thanks to his arrest Wednesday for possession of marijuana and prescription pills. An Orange County sheriff's deputy pulled over Al Gore III for driving his Toyota Prius at 100 miles per hour. The officer said the car smelled of marijuana. A search found marijuana and prescription pills Vicodin, Valium, Xanax and Adderall. Here are five observations following Gore's arrest. Don't speed if you're holding weed. [continues 464 words]
Editor's Note: The following is a letter addressed to Minnesota Republican Senator Norm Coleman -- a strong advocate of the brutal federal drug laws on the books -- reminding him that he used to be a happy, safe, fun-loving pot smoker. My friend Norman, Years ago, in a lifetime far away, you did not oppose the legalization of marijuana. Years ago, in our dorm rooms at Hofstra University, you, me, Billy, your future brother-in-law, Ivan, Jonathan, Peter, Janet, Nancy and a wealth of other students smoked dope. [continues 731 words]
God works in mysterious ways. Sometimes life's path is cut out for you in ways that might not fit your liking. This was true for me when, in 1985, I was sentenced to 15-years-to-life stemming from my involvement in drugs. My life was dramatically altered forever. At the time of my arrest I was 29 years old, married, with a 6-year-old daughter. I made the biggest mistake of my life when I delivered a package of four ounces of cocaine for the promised sum of $500. [continues 665 words]
Two years ago, Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, was one of the few state leaders calling for New York to adopt a humane medicinal marijuana law. George Pataki, who was governor at the time, was opposed, perhaps because he was seeking to burnish his tough-on-crime credentials as a possible 2008 Republican presidential nominee. Eliot Spitzer, who was attorney general in 2005, and the state's chief prosecutor, was also opposed. The measure went nowhere. But now Mr. Spitzer is governor and he says he has had a change of heart on medicinal marijuana. Before, he says, he was thinking like a prosecutor. Now, as governor, he says, he has come to recognize the beneficial effects that marijuana can have for chronically ill people and he is prepared to sign a medical marijuana law that is "properly structured." [continues 171 words]
ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer and legislative leaders said this week that the use of marijuana for medical purposes should be made legal in New York State. But whether all involved can come to an agreement on how that should be done with one week left in the legislative session remains in significant doubt. One question they must answer: Should the state be in the business of growing and distributing marijuana to sick people? And if not, how should those people obtain it? [continues 819 words]
To the Editor: Emily Brady's Street Level column about the drug dealing at a Kennedy Fried Chicken in the Bronx ("A Corner Once Sunny, Made Dreary by Drugs," June 3) was disturbing and depressing. It is disturbing that the mother featured in the column is afraid for her children's safety while they eat their meal. It is depressing because the current strategies employed by our country to address the drug-dealing problems are destined to fail. The conventional wisdom is to call for more police to crack down on the drug dealers and send them away to prison for many years. The problem is that we have tried this failing strategy for 30-plus years, starting with the Rockefeller drug laws. These draconian laws have not delivered on their promise to rid our streets of drugs or keep people from using them. [continues 86 words]
The 34th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws passed this month without fanfare. Yet the more than 15,000 mostly African-American and Hispanic offenders incarcerated under some of the harshest drug laws in the land would surely have liked someone to notice. Too many non-violent drug offenders remain imprisoned under laws that in some cases require stiffer penalties for possessing small amounts of cocaine than for committing rape or manslaughter. And although almost every political leader, past and present (including those who drafted the lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key statutes in 1973), believes the laws are archaic, the momentum for change seems to have slowed considerably. Three years ago, the Drop the Rock campaign by celebrities such as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and other efforts from lawmakers and advocacy groups like the Drug Policy Alliance, brought some changes, but they didn't go far enough. [continues 261 words]
Thousands of parole petitioners are ready to return to society as productive citizens of New York but remain stuck in prison because of the politics of incarceration. This unwritten policy of former Gov. George Pataki persists in spite of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to change the nature of the criminal justice system. Offenders who commit crimes such as murder are actually less likely to return to jail than nonviolent offenders. Nevertheless, after coming to terms with their crimes, they are still wasting away in New York's prisons. Time and again, the parole board fails to weigh all of the relevant statutory factors together with the prisoner's positive accomplishments and productive behavior while incarcerated. Instead, the parole board focuses almost entirely on the nature of the petitioner's crime. [continues 630 words]
ESALEN America and the Religion of No Religion. By Jeffrey J. Kripal. Illustrated. 575 pp. University of Chicago Press. $30. People of a certain age will remember Esalen, the famous (or infamous) spa in Big Sur on the California coast, founded in the 1960s as a center of the human potential movement. In his book "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion," Jeffrey J. Kripal describes it as "a utopian experiment creatively suspended between the revelations of the religions and the democratic, pluralistic and scientific revolutions of modernity." In 1990, someone painted graffiti (unprintable in its entirety here) at the entrance: "Jive . for rich white folk." [continues 1225 words]
This April, the New York State Assembly passed important legislation to reform the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, increases drug treatment alternatives to incarceration, expands judicial discretion to restore fairness in our courts and, critically, allows for people currently serving harsh prison terms for low-level drug offenses to seek much-needed relief. The Assembly should be commended for passing smart reforms. But where are the governor and the state Senate on drug law reform? [continues 732 words]
Regarding "Spitzer ends charge on inmate collect calls" [News, April 15]: Gov. Eliot Spitzer did the right thing in ending the major ripoff of families of those incarcerated. They were forced to pay enormous amounts of money to telephone companies to keep them in touch with their imprisoned loved ones. My mother used most of her Social Security checks to pay for the collect calls I made to her while serving a 15-to-life sentence under the Rockefeller drug laws. [continues 135 words]
