Last Spring Canada proposed legislation that would make the possession of up to 15 grams of marijuana no more of a crime than getting a parking ticket. Though it may seem as though Canada's policy towards pot-smokers is as lenient as they come, there may be a governing unit that is a little more laid back; LSU. It has been speculated that if an LSU student is caught on campus in possession of marijuana, the student is merely reprimanded with a disciplinary referral to Dean of Students. Is this an urban myth or is it LSU policy? [continues 665 words]
I am the same age as Rod Amis, I am white, and I have known him for a good number of years ("Reasonable Suspicion?" Sept. 2). Indeed, he worked for me during the dot-com boom. More than once, I have handed him small sums of money, and he has handed me similarly small sums. These transactions were all on the order of "Hey, I'm going to the corner store. Want me to pick something up for you?" Friends and co-workers do this sort of thing all the time -- unless, apparently, they are New Orleans police officers. [continues 83 words]
With thousands of vehicles traveling the interstates in Shreveport and Bossier City each day, state troopers like Sgt. Don Campbell never know when the truck they see bumping the yellow line is simply a sleepy driver or the key to bringing down a major drug cartel. During the 15 years Campbell has been involved with the state police's drug interdiction unit, he's helped take millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs off the streets and put hundreds of drug traffickers behind bars. [continues 1027 words]
A community that does not tolerate drug use can be an effective method for fighting drug abuse among young people in Jefferson Parish, the U.S. deputy drug czar said Wednesday in Gretna. Mary Ann Solberg, deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, was in Jefferson Parish to address a workshop on building community coalitions to fight drug abuse held at the Jefferson Parish district attorney's office. Speaking to prosecutors, law enforcement officials, educators, and members of volunteer agencies and the business community, Solberg said the community can set standards of behavior that send a message to young people that drug use will not be tolerated. [continues 237 words]
Issue: Councilman's proposal for drug offense trials in city court fails. We Suggest: He and other officials should continue quest for solutions to problem. City-Parish Council member Chris Williams failed in his effort to pass an ordinance he believed would help to combat illegal narcotics traffic in Lafayette. While his proposed solution was apparently not viable, Williams deserves credit for at least working to find a way to deal with the problem. As he told the council, "Whatever we have now, it's not working." [continues 247 words]
A retired teacher and noted humanitarian was widely defended in his hometown of Kingston, Ont., when he and three other men were arrested two years ago in Louisiana with more than $1 million US of cocaine. Despite Ed Shaw's guilty plea and seven-year sentence, friends and acquaintances said that Shaw, 76, must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time. They raised $20,000 for legal bills and established a web site called Free Ed Shaw. [continues 376 words]
VERMILION PARISH -- A Delcambre resident is one of five arrested in the removal of marijuana that was being destroyed in Vermilion Parish. Dustin Fleniken, 17, was charged with possession of marijuana, according to reports from the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigation-West District Narcotics Office. The other four suspects were charged with possession with intent to distribute. The charges are the result of an investigation that reveals the suspects allegedly burglarized a facility in August where the marijuana had been brought for destruction. [continues 215 words]
The combination of miscommunication, ignored warnings and general hubris -- all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism -- virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 520 words]
Rod Amis Says He Was Arrested Because Cops Saw A Black Man Handing Seven Dollars to a White Man. Police Say the Arrest Wasn't About Skin Color, It Was About Drug Dealing. It was almost too easy. The two New Orleans Police Department officers looked out their passenger-side window and saw green currency in the air, passing from one hand to another. It was May 19, just past midnight, and NOPD officers Steven Lindsey and Joseph Lusk were working the night shift for the Eighth District -- the French Quarter station. With Lindsey at the wheel, the car approached the corner of Dauphine Street and Esplanade Avenue, right outside a Circle K store. There, the two officers saw what they describe in their Incident Report as "a hand-to-hand transaction, believed to be drug-related, between a white male and a black male standing at the corner of Esplanade and Dauphine." The black male was Rod Amis; the white male was his 28-year-old roommate. Both were taken away in handcuffs. [continues 1776 words]
SHREVEPORT (AP) - Barksdale Air Force Base will begin random drug screenings of soldiers who pass through its gates. A new program at the base, Operation Nighthawk, will randomly select active duty personnel of all ranks to take a urinalysis test when entering or leaving the base, said Col. Jerry Owen, commander of the base's medical group and the man responsible for the testing portion of the base's Drug Demand Program. The random screenings will help detect drugs that might otherwise be flushed out of a person's system in a couple of days. [continues 309 words]
Humanitarian's Case Drew Wide Notice When Ed Shaw, a 76-year-old retired teacher and noted humanitarian, was arrested with three men near Covington two years ago with more that $1 million worth of cocaine, he quickly became a cause célèbre in his hometown of Kingston, Ontario. Shaw's friends and acquaintances were convinced of his innocence, arguing the frail, trusting Shaw must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, unaware of what his associates were up to. [continues 730 words]
Williams Wanted To Move First-Offense Marijuana Cases To City Court. LAFAYETTE - An attempt to send first-offense possession of marijuana cases to city court was narrowly rejected Tuesday by the Consolidated Council. Councilman Chris Williams asked the council to move to city court all first-offense possession and attempted possession of marijuana cases in the city of Lafayette. The change would give local government more jurisdiction over drug cases and make it easier to track the outcome, Williams said. All drug possession cases go to district court under state law. That means the district attorney's office prosecutes all cases and collects court costs and fines, said District Attorney Mike Harson. [continues 328 words]
Bringing DARE to classrooms could help children be serious about staying away from drugs and resisting peer pressure. In an Aug. 21 article, it was reported that the Opelousas Police Department has been incorporating Druge Abuse Resistance Education into school lessons at local schools. The students take nine lessons during the second half of the year, with grades 5 through 7 participating. All but one Opelousas school is currently taking part in the program. Capt. Mark McLendon said this year's classes will differ from others because students are asked solve situations. Students will be paired off and asked to handle problems on their own. They must come up with, in their own words, why they would say no to drugs and other such situations. [continues 172 words]
LAFAYETTE -- The City-Parish Council voted down an ordinance Tuesday that would have made possession and attempted possession of marijuana a city violation. Those crimes are already prohibited by state statute. Several councilmen, a city prosecutor and District Attorney Mike Harson said the proposed ordinance would have added an unneeded extra layer of bureaucracy. Councilman Chris Williams, who proposed the ordinance, said he wanted to make possession of marijuana and attempted possession a city crime so that the cases would be handled by city prosecutors in City Court, not state District Court. [continues 450 words]
Hundreds turned out for the candidate forums at Hammond's Rockwood Inn Wednesday and Thursday nights, packing the large banquet hall to the walls. Clerk of court, sheriff, tax assessor and parish president candidates faced the audience in separate sessions to answer questions posed by moderator Roop Raj of WDSU TV in New Orleans. Northshore Broadcasting and The Daily Star were the event sponsors. The first session Thursday featured the sheriff's candidates, who were originally scheduled to speak Wednesday before a power outage forced their session to be moved back a night. The six candidates were seated at a long table facing the audience with Philip Monteleone on the audience's left next toDaniel Edwards, then Arden Well, Joey Piazza, Tim Gideon and Fred Falgout on the right. They made opening statements and then answered questions about how they would handle crime, drugs, the budget and challenges facing law enforcement, exactly how safe residents are from terrorist acts, poor response time and the department's low pay and low morale. The questions had been offered earlier by the community and approved by Eloise Dotey, general manager of Northshore Broadcasting. Each candidate had one to two minutes on each question posed by moderator Roop Raj of WDSU-TV in New Orleans. [continues 2022 words]
About 50 suspects wanted on drug charges received an early wake-up call Thursday morning from a multi-parish task force led by the Iberia Parish Sheriff's Office. In a coordinated, early-morning sweep, the Iberia and St. Mary sheriff's offices served warrants on more than 50 people for drug-related charges, said Iberia Parish Sheriff Sid Hebert. About 60 officers hit the streets at 5 a.m. to serve 105 warrants in Iberia, St. Mary Vermilion, and other parishes, the majority of which were for drug distribution. "We expect about a 50 percent catch rate," Hebert said. "And we also expect to get a better location for some of the people who have moved on us since the warrant was issued." [continues 377 words]
Candidates running for sheriff of Tangipahoa Parish said one of their top priorities upon taking office would be fighting the drug flow in and out of the parish. Others said delivering good service and helping people would be among one of the more important priorities and a thorough examination of the budget would show exactly where tax dollars should be spent to make a difference. Candidates Daniel Edwards, a former assistant district attorney for the 21st Judicial District Court, Reserve State Trooper and Hammond businessman Philip Monteleone, attorney Arden Wells, Ponchatoula Police Chief Tim Gideon and long-time Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office law enforcement officer Fred Falgout discussed their top priorities and how they would achieve those priorities upon taking office. Candidate Joey Piazza, an employee of the Tangipahoa Parish School System, didn't return The Daily Star's telephone calls on Thursday, Friday or Saturday. "My top priority is to deliver good service and help as many people as I can," Wells said Friday. "I've heard a lot of talk from the other candidates about what they'll do and some of that can't happen with the budget they're gonna get," Wells said. "I'm gonna clean out the criminal department ... fire and replace most of them. Most of the civil division can stay," he said. "My deputies will go out and protect life and property. [continues 785 words]
A 13-year-old guilty plea to distribution of marijuana stands between Abozar Shahsavari and U.S. citizenship. That roadblock may soon be gone. The Louisiana Pardon Board voted unanimously Wednesday to recommend that Shahsavari, owner of New Orleans Poboys and Gyros in Baton Rouge, receive a full pardon from Gov. Mike Foster. A pardon would eliminate Shahsavari's criminal record, making him eligible to become a naturalized U.S. citizen. "Believe me, he wants that more than anything," Joe Thompson, Shahsavari's attorney, said. [continues 394 words]
The St. Landry Parish Solid Waste Commission will review an updated drug policy for its employees at its monthly meeting tonight. It will also consider a new criteria for pulling bins in the recycling program among other administrative decisions at the meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. in the commission office in Beggs. Under the new drug policy, employees will be given two opportunities for rehabilitation if they test positive for drugs. Under the first offense, an employee will be given a three-day suspension without pay and a two-year probation with regular drug testing. An employee can utilize hospitalization insurance to participate in a voluntary rehabilitation program. [continues 201 words]
State's Firefighters Warned Of Hazards When firefighters from the Schriever Volunteer Fire Department in Terrebonne Parish responded to a 911 call of a house fire about a year ago, they found a dead man and several containers of unidentified chemicals inside the burning house. The firefighters later learned they had stumbled across a hidden laboratory manufacturing methamphetamines, an illegal and addictive stimulant sometimes referred to as "the poor man's cocaine." Although Schriever Department President Phil Schexnayder said no one was injured, the danger to firefighters who respond to blazes sparked by volatile chemicals used to manufacture drugs in these secret labs is growing. Those dangers include explosions or toxic fumes. [continues 360 words]
The new school year brings new teachers and football season - prime time for personal drug tests in the Rapides Parish School District. About 50 percent of randomly selected student athletes must submit a urine sample for the drug test without notice. This also is the first school year that any student involved in any extracurricular activity is subject to a random drug test. Dr. C.L. Washington with Central Louisiana Medical Laboratory has all of those students listed by Social Security numbers (not names). He will randomly pick half to get a urinalysis this year. [continues 475 words]
Two Arrested After Police Find Meth Chemicals In Car LAFAYETTE - Police arrested two men who abandoned a car Thursday morning containing toxic chemicals used to make methamphetamine on Evangeline Thruway. Rexwell Kennington, 36, and Robert Beasley, 35, both of Mississippi, were arrested by police Thursday afternoon, said Lafayette Cpl. Mark Francis. They were charged with handling of hazardous materials. The men were transporting propane tanks full of anhydrous ammonia, a chemical fertilizer used by farmers, Francis said. The material is also used to manufacture methamphetamine. [continues 442 words]
Forty percent of some 850 pregnant women who were seen in prenatal clinics at Earl K. Long Medical Center in the past year screened positive for use of alcohol, tobacco or illicit drugs during pregnancy. "Of those, 63 percent had used alcohol or tobacco and 37 percent had used illicit drugs," said Jan Kasofsky, executive director of Capital Area Human Services District. Some of those women were occasional drinkers, though others were identified as having significant substance abuse problems, she said. Some were directed to education programs where they learned that "no alcohol is safe during pregnancy," and others were referred to treatment programs. [continues 1117 words]
BUNKIE -- A local car dealership found more than gas in the tank of one its trucks Monday. The service crew at Lamar Ford found 200 pounds of marijuana hidden in the gas tank of a truck, said Bunkie police Chief Mary Fanara. The marijuana, which was compressed into two separate containers, is worth about $200,000. Bunkie officers placed the marijuana in a police evidence room, but the odor still permeated the air at the back of the jail. Many officers said they could stay in the room only for a little while before the odor forced them out. [continues 289 words]
VIDALIA - A case of mixed up property landed a Concordia Parish sheriff's investigator behind bars on a charge of drug possession earlier this month. However, the charges were dismissed Monday in Pike County Mississippi after the rightful owner of the property stepped forward. Investigator Jimmy Darden was arrested July 4 during an outing on the Bogue Chitte River in Mississippi. He remains on leave pending the results of a drug test administered by the Sheriff's Office, Sheriff Randy Maxwell said. [continues 166 words]
Nonviolent Addicts To Get 2nd Chance Facing a stiff prison sentence for a heroin arrest, Melonie Cook, 18, of Meraux has gotten a second chance: to avoid jail and to kick her addiction. With the encouragement of her grandmother, Darlene Cook, who has raised her since she was a baby, the teenager on Thursday became the first person to enter St. Bernard Parish's new drug court program, pleading guilty to heroin distribution and possession. The idea behind the program, financed by the state Supreme Court, is to give addicted criminals who don't have a history of violence a chance for treatment and close supervision rather than send them to prison. [continues 527 words]
Problem 'Out Of Control,' He Says Saying the parish has a "methadone problem that is out of control," St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens said Wednesday he hopes the arrest of 12 people and confiscation of more than 200 methadone tablets this week will put a dent in the illegal distribution of the prescription drug, which can be deadly when taken with other drugs. More than 700 doses of prescription drugs worth about $6,800, including methadone, Xanbar, Vicodin and Percocet, were seized from a bedroom safe in a Chalmette home where four people were arrested Monday night, authorities said. Three of the people in the house, along with a fourth person arrested elsewhere Monday night, have been booked with possession with intent to distribute the pills. [continues 695 words]
When does the age of innocence end? After being in the journalism profession for more than 15 years, I have had the opportunity to find out plenty of things that would devastate, depress, disgust or delight most folks. I have been in situations that called for sensitivity and others that have called for sternness. Yet nothing would have prepared me for what happened Sunday. Parenting is certainly not an easy vocation. Some are called to it, some fall into it and others flee from it. I know that parenting is different from when my mother and father began. Well, parenting may not be different, but the times certainly are. [continues 559 words]
Nearly a third of all killings this year have occurred in the 5th District, an area that includes most of the 9th Ward. Police there have started cracking down on even the smallest offenses, hoping to interrupt the cycle of violence before it escalates. Dressed in midnight blue military fatigues, the "jump-out boys" crept cautiously toward the yellow shotgun house, guns drawn, ready for battle, should it come to that, as they went about the business of taking another criminal suspect out of circulation. [continues 2535 words]
SPRINGFIELD -- Just a few minutes before midnight, a Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office cruiser and an unmarked sedan pulled off La. 22 and into the driveway that led to a couple of rickety brown trailer homes. Curious to know what had brought two detectives and a uniformed deputy to his home on this dewy August evening, Dawes Ratcliff left his friends at the metal-walled mechanic shop next door and wandered over to greet them, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration report. [continues 1499 words]
I appreciate The Times of Acadiana publishing two outstanding letters by Robert Sharpe (Letters to the Editor: Government misinforms On Marijuana, Dec. 11) and Kirk Muse (Letters to the Editor: Marijuana's History a Benign One, Dec. 11). Take marijuana out of the drug war. The war on drugs today is mostly about marijuana. Marijuana arrests, convictions, incarcerations and the seizure of property in marijuana cases constitute the great majority of "drug-war incidents." Without marijuana prohibition, the War on Drugs and its bloated budgets would simply not be justifiable, nor the DEA, nor foreign intervention, nor political anti-drug posturing; without marijuana prohibition the whole War on Drugs would soon fall apart. [continues 119 words]
Tonja Myles has never been to prison, but she does know what it's like to be behind bars -- well, at least mentally. Whereas most prisoners are physically in correctional facilities, the cell she lived in was her own mind. The 39-year-old Zachary resident used to be bound by marijuana, cocaine, crack and even prostitution in her teen to early adult years. She says she was molested at age 7. She credits God with coming into her life at age 21 and setting her free from the reckless lifestyle that had her bound and suicidal. [continues 663 words]
New Orleans- When Jose Leocadio Silva walks the halls of the local immigration office, the agents greet him like an old friend. He's a regular, a cheerful retiree with a heavy Spanish accent and goofy fishing hat. One of the agents, Bob Smith, squeezes Silva by the elbow and, with his other hand, gives him an affectionate clap on the shoulder. "So how's the family? . . . Something's gotta happen with this case. . . . We've been working on this for a while, huh, Jose?" [continues 862 words]
Issue: Students can lose driving privileges for serious offenses. We Suggest: Undesirable student behavior could be strongly impacted. The state Legislature has passed a bill known as the "Driving is a Privilege" act which allows for taking driving privileges away from students suspended for at least 10 days for serious violations. It could be effective in improving discipline on school campuses. For many high school youngsters, driving is one of the supreme privileges. We believe the threat of losing their drivers' licenses would make such students think carefully before deliberately breaking school rules. [continues 158 words]
Dear Editor: All my life I have resided in either Livingston or Tangipahoa Parish. I am finally fed up with the corruption that lies within our local political system. One of the worst problems that is not being dealt with properly is the control of crystal meth dealers. Many of you may have never heard of or know very little about meth. The lab name is methamphetamine, but the street name, as most know it, is crank. What our local politicians forget to inform us of is the severity that this drug has grown to. This drug is flooding our streets and neighborhoods. It is not a low-income or projects problem. It is known as a suburban area, ma and pa selling, cheap manufacturing drug. It cost around $100 to manufacture with a production profit around $6,000. An important issue with meth is that it is more addictive than crack, heroine, cocaine, or any known controlled substance. [continues 256 words]
Shame on U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer for sentencing medical-marijuana maven Ed Rosenthal to one day behind bars - time already served - followed by three years' probation. In doing so, Breyer sent the dangerous signal that if you don't like a law, you don't have to obey it. Readers of this column are aware that I believe medical marijuana should be legal. Truth be told, I think marijuana should be decriminalized. But there's something wrong when a federal judge allows a convicted criminal to basically get off because he disagrees with the federal law. [continues 493 words]
NEW ORLEANS - Federal prosecutors hailed a federal appeals court ruling Friday as a victory in their efforts to curb illegal drug use at high energy, all night dance parties known as raves. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an agreement, worked out between the government and a rave club in New Orleans, can be enforced although it bans legal playthings like giant pacifiers, glow sticks and mentholated inhalers. Prosecutors say the stuff is Ecstasy paraphernalia that promotes illegal drug use. [continues 411 words]
NEW ORLEANS - Federal prosecutors hailed a federal appeals court ruling Friday as a victory in their efforts to curb illegal drug use at high energy, all-night dance parties known as raves. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an agreement, worked out between the government and a rave club in New Orleans, can be enforced although it bans legal playthings like giant pacifiers, glow sticks and mentholated inhalers. Prosecutors say the stuff is ecstasy paraphernalia that promotes illegal drug use. [continues 372 words]
No Inalienable Right to Glow Sticks, They Say Saying a federal judge overstepped his bounds by blocking the government's ban on glow sticks and pacifiers during raves at the State Palace Theater, an appeals court Friday tossed out a decision that sided with the American Civil Liberties Union. U.S. District Judge Thomas Porteous can't stop federal prosecutors from enforcing a condition of a plea bargain made in the criminal case against the rave promoters, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled. [continues 619 words]
Just what are Rapides Parish school officials doing with the Trace Detection drug reports that show the presence of illegal narcotics in their schools? They aren't calling the cops. No local law enforcement agency has been called to investigate the discovered drug traces, including residue of heroin and marijuana. "We've had very little participation in that," said metro narcotics Cpt. Mike Villard. "I don't know of any arrests made that were based on those reports in the school system." [continues 512 words]
Traces of heroin were found at seven Rapides Parish schools last school year, including three middle schools. Nine schools tested positive for cocaine, three showed methamphetamine residue and seven have had the club drug ecstasy inside the building in the last few months. Those results came out of a detailed Trace Detection drug report released by the Rapides Parish School District Tuesday that shows exactly which schools have traces of illegal drugs. The report shows which schools tested positive after swabbing various areas within the school, although more schools may have undiscovered drug traces as well. [continues 1192 words]
That illegal drugs are prevalent in all areas of many Rapides Parish public schools is alarming although, sadly, not surprising. That Superintendent Patsy Jenkins dragged her feet on providing requested public information on that prevalence is also alarming. More on that later. The School Board commissioned an Alexandria company to look for evidence of illegal drugs in schools, and that work was paid for with tax money, let us not forget. But the information garnered from the work is what is disturbing. Traces of illegal drugs ranging from heroin to marijuana were found not only in students' lockers and other areas frequented by students, but they were als o found in areas not frequented by students. [continues 411 words]
Humanitarian Called A Victim Of Bad Luck In a letter written from his cell in the St. Tammany Parish jail, Ed Shaw, a noted humanitarian and retired teacher from Canada, lamented the slow pace of justice and his inability to help his adopted countrymen recover from a devastating hurricane in Belize. "It doesn't make any sense that I am rotting in here instead of helping them rebuild," the 75-year-old Shaw wrote in a March 2002 letter scrawled with the ink tube from a ball-point pen. As a maximum-security prisoner, Shaw was not allowed to have the pen's casing because it could be used as a weapon. [continues 843 words]
Codeine The Most Common Drug, But Heroin Also Discovered The drugs most frequently found in Rapides Parish schools are legal and can be prescribed by a doctor, but heroin and marijuana have also been discovered. Detailed tests taken by a private company reveal the most popular drugs in parish schools are the painkiller codeine and ephedrine, an over-the-counter stimulant available at convenience stores and gas stations. Harder drugs like heroin and methamphetamines, commonly called "speed," were found in some schools, although much less frequently. [continues 977 words]
Hair Samples Will Be Required By Policy Jefferson Parish public school students without a certain amount of head or body hair will be barred from playing sports or participating in other strenuous activities under a tightened drug-testing policy that will go into effect in the fall. Closing what they described as a loophole in the year-old policy, which they said resulted in some students shaving most of their hair so they could provide urine samples instead of hair for testing, school officials have tossed out the option of urine samples except for medically documented reasons. [continues 913 words]
Idea Gets Mixed Reaction In Edgard A LaPlace minister wants to open a residential rehabilitation center in a long-vacant Edgard school, stirring concerns from residents and school officials about whether such a facility is appropriate at the site in the small riverfront community. The 15-acre parcel is home to the former Second Ward High School, vacant since 1988. The Rev. Neil Bernard of New Wine Christian Fellowship on Airline Highway hopes to renovate the school for a faith-based rehabilitation center catering to young adults who have run into trouble with drugs or the law. [continues 389 words]
Manslaughter Alleged In Friend's Beating Death Cocaine always seems to get Jack Cuccia in trouble. He gets ripped off trying to score, or some greedy drug buddy plows through his stash, or he buys coke that has been stepped on so many times he can barely catch a buzz. His habit has led to numerous run-ins with the law, such as the case three years ago when somebody accused him of stealing 11 crab traps and officers found four rocks of crack during a routine pat down. That led to a felony conviction for possession and one year of probation, which was almost revoked after two subsequent coke busts, but those cases never made it to court. [continues 1916 words]
Jerry Bowman stands on the front porch of his business, Jerry's Barber Shop on Murvon Avenue, where a new sign warning of video surveillance, was put up. The signs and cameras are designed to deter crime. Shreveport police laid the groundwork on Thursday to begin video surveillance of area neighborhoods, a crime-fighting initiative that will focus first on the Mooretown community and target street-corner drug deals and residential break-ins. It's a law enforcement tactic that drew immediate opposition from some Mooretown residents and members of the American Civil Liberties Union, who contend it's an invasion of privacy and infringes on people's rights. [continues 1149 words]
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate of any state in the United States. If Louisiana were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. The fact that there were 45,400 Louisianians in prison and jail in 2001 (more than double the number locked up in the early 1980s) represents just a glimpse into the deep impact of our increased dependence on prisons, prisons and more prisons. While prisons have multiplied across the United States, the results have been especially dramatic in the South, where approximately 800,000 people are incarcerated. [continues 610 words]
I never have and never will use "recreational" drugs like marijuana, heroin, opium, cocaine, methamphetamines, etc. I've long agreed these should be outlawed, but I've changed my mind because such drugs remain readily available despite drug busts, fines and jail time. It's a modern failed prohibition like the Volstead Act which tried in vain to eliminate alcohol use, and like banning tobacco advertising which, by and large, has failed to curb smoking. In fact, the federal government is scared to death of losing tobacco and alcohol revenues from overtaxation of both. [continues 103 words]
Inside Louisiana
