ACLU: Feds Picking On Crackheads Transforming Prisons Into Institutions Dedicated To Locking Up Blacks

Posted on October 27, 2006

To mark the 20th anniversary of the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, the American Civil Liberties Union today issued the report, “Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of the Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law.” The report details discriminatory effects of the drug law that devastated African American and low-income communities.

“This anniversary marks two decades of a tragic mistake, when lawmakers allowed emotion to overtake reason.” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “The result is a drug policy that makes a false distinction between powdered and crack cocaine and perpetuates a racial caste system when it comes to our criminal justice system.”

What a load of crap! Suddenly, because a certain race tends to be involved and caught with a certain illegal drug it is a racial caste system? Talk about overexaggerated rhetoric! Even crackheads know that what they are doing is a crime. If people make a choice to commit a crime that makes them criminals, not victims. It isn’t the law that is the problem, it is the choice to break that law. People who make a conciouss decision to disregard the law take the risk of the consequences involved.

One of the report’s key findings indicates that sentencing policies, particularly the mandatory minimum for low-level crack offenses, subject people who are low-level participants to the same or harsher sentences as major dealers. As law enforcement focused its efforts on crack offenses, a dramatic shift occurred in the incarceration trends for African Americans, relative to the rest of the nation. This trend effectively transformed federal prisons into institutions increasingly dedicated to incarcerating African Americans.

The race card play here is unbelievable! Transforming prisons into institutions dedicated to incarcerating black people? Give me a break! Anyone making a decision to break the law takes the risk of getting caught. It isn’t just black people who smoke or deal crack, but if there is a “trend” among African Americans as the ACLU states, the best way to stop the trend is to stop committing the crimes. Painting the criminal into some kind of victim of society is a favored tactic of the ACLU. Throwing a little racism on top is just icing. Prisons are dedicated to incarcerating criminals no matter what color they are. If a white person gets caught trafficking five grams of crack they will get the same amount of prison time as a black person. If there is a trend within the black community towards a particular kind of crime then that community should work on stopping the problem at its source, not blame the law.

On whether the law is fair or not, I’m not even going to argue. The ACLU say that crack and cocaine are basically the same thing in different forms yet crack offenses are punished 100 times more harsh than cocaine offenses. Whether crack is a more dangerous and addictive substance than cocaine…I don’t know. There are arguments for both sides of this. If the ACLU thinks this law is unfair, I have no problem with them fighting to change it. Increase the punishment for cocaine offenses for all I care. If I wanted to criticize the ACLU on their philosphy on dangerous drugs I would write about their policy to legalize all drugs or their stance on pregnant women doing drugs. What I take issue with is the ridiculous victim and race card the ACLU tries to play here. The ACLU cooks the books on the stats in order to make it all seem like some racist conspiracy!

Because of its relative low cost, crack cocaine is more accessible to poor people, many of whom are African Americans. Conversely, powder cocaine is much more expensive and tends to be used by more affluent white Americans.

So, what? There are no poor white people? The ACLU seem to be implying some kind of racial motive behind the law which is baseless and ridiculous. The penalties apply equally to criminals regardless of their race. The law is based on the belief that crack is more addictive, dangerous, and associated with violent crime. If that can be proven false then prove it false, but to imply racist intentions to the law is without merit. There is absolutely no evidence to any discriminatory intent from Congress in creating different penalities for different forms of drugs.

The report includes recent data that indicates that African Americans make up 15 percent of the country’s drug users, yet they make up 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, 59 percent of those convicted, and 74 percent of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense. More than 80 percent of the defendants sentenced for crack offenses are African American, despite the fact that more than 66 percent of crack users are white or Hispanic.

So African Americans make up only 15 percent of the country’s drug “users” but where are the stats on what percentage by race are dealers? Could it possibly be that many of those making, dealing, and trafficking this drug might not use it or answered a poll question admitting to do so? Surely not!!! So break it down for me here. 66 percent of crack users are white or Hispanic? So whats the stats on that? Is it half and half? All we know is that a combined total of whites and Hispanics using crack totals to 66 percent? Yet 80 percent of people convicted for “crack related” charges, which would include many more things than just use, are black?

Look, these people are not victims and there is no racist institution with a conspiracy to lock up all the black people through this law. If the law is flawed then by all means work to fix it, but please shut up the whining that it is racist…by doing so, you are the one stereotyping. The law is clear and those that make the decision to break it know the consequences and have taken the risk. Stop painting them as victims. Of course the ACLU will continue to paint the criminals as victims…they aren’t called the American Criminal Liberties Union for nothing.

» Filed Under ACLU, Illegal Activities, News

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3 Responses to “ACLU: Feds Picking On Crackheads Transforming Prisons Into Institutions Dedicated To Locking Up Blacks”

jasontromm on October 27th, 2006 12:11 pm

I guess our country didn’t learn anything in the period from 1920 — 1933 because we made the same mistake in 1986 and the second period of Prohibition in the U.S. hasn’t ended yet. The 20’s and early 30’s created a criminal class that didn’t exist before that time. We created another criminal class in 1986 when the current, draconian anti-drug laws were passed. Hopefully it won’t take another twenty years before we realize our mistake.
David Needham on October 27th, 2006 12:17 pm

*sigh*

The solution to ending the “drug wars” is to offer drug users a choice:

Therapy or all the drugs they can use—free!—in a closely-supervised, otherwise “safe” setting.

Self-regulating. Sure, we’d be letting them kill themselves via their drug use, but it’d be their choice.

No food-clothing-shelter support for ‘em, just all the drugs they could ingest. Away from operating heavy machinery, driving, doing open heart surgery, whatever.

If they really want to poison their systems, let ‘em. As quickly and thoroughly as possible. Give ‘em their out up front, but let ‘em make their own bed and lie in it… alone.

That’s stage one. Next, anyone (yeh, including congresscritters) who uses mind-altering substances and harms someone else while impaired forfeits their worldly goods. All of ‘em. Period. to the person or persons harmed or their families. Next, kill someone while drugged up (including alchohol), no “impaired” defense. Ya chose to be impaired. Forfeit all your worldly goods and die.

And public executions for ‘em.

Preferably blooody ones. “Off with their heads!” (That useless wart on top of their shoulders.)

Pour encourager les autres, as it were.

And all of this because, frankly, prisons are inhumane.

But so is letting peope destroy the lives of others through their choice to operate their lives “under the influence.”
kerwin_brown on October 28th, 2006 8:41 pm

jasontromm,

You should beware of propaganda as prohibition worked fine. The number of cirrhosis of the liver cases declined. Alcohol sales and distribution makes a lot of money and the Great Depression was around in 1933. The federal government could not trust the state legislators to ratify the appeal so they arranged direct vote. The bottom line was money not liberty or morality or even effectiveness.

Some administrations seem sincere on ending the drug war and actually make an impression in the market while others use it as an excuse to forward their political agenda. I believe both Clinton and Bush the younger have done the later.