Daily Archives: April 5, 2017

In Texas, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has drawn a direct line between marijuana arrests and the overburdened criminal justice system.

Harris County

When Kim Ogg ran for district attorney in Harris County, Texas, she pitched herself as a progressive whod change the war on drugs ideology that has clogged the county jail with nonviolent marijuana users. Upon her election, Ogg made good on that promise, announcing a program that will allow county residents caught with 4 ounces or less of marijuana to stay out of jail in exchange for taking a four-hour, $150 class on decision-making. The new district attorney estimates the program will divert 12,000 people from jail each year and save the county, which includes the city of Houston, more than $10 million annually.

For a long time, Houston was known for its incredibly harsh drug penalties. Oggs predecessor, Devon Anderson, was also known for prosecuting trace cases, in which a minuscule amount of cocaine is detected, as felonies. Anderson launched a meek diversion programit was open only to first-time offenders who possessed less than 2 ounces of marijuanaafter Ogg first presented her own plan during her unsuccessful 2014 district attorney campaign. Ogg, by contrast, has drawn a direct line between marijuana arrests and the overburdened criminal justice system. At 107,000 cases over the last 10 years, we have spent in excess of $250 million collectively prosecuting a crime that has produced no tangible evidence of improved public safety, she told reporters in February.

The Harris County district attorney isnt going out on a limb here. Local law enforcement, including Harris Countys sheriff and the Houston police chief, advised her on the diversions programs design and support its implementation. One of the reasons [Harris County jail] is costly is because we cant manage the population we have, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said during a local media interview about marijuana policy. The war on drugs has been a failed policy for over 40 years. We tried it. It didnt work. We need a new direction.

Oggs progressive platform also extends to bail reform. Since taking office, she has directed prosecutors in her office to release people awaiting trial for misdemeanor offenses on their own recognizance rather than relying on a cash-bail system that leaves the less affluent no choice but to lose their freedom.

This approach to low-level offenses comes at a time when the federal government seems poised to crack down on marijuana under the false guise of public safety. In a speech about violent crime, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the drug only slightly less awful than heroin. During his tenure as a U.S. attorney in Alabama, 40 percent of the convictions from Sessions office were for drug offenses. Sessions recent comments about marijuana were also in step with Trumps law-and-order presidential campaign, which relied on fearmongering rhetoric and misleading statistics about rising violent crime rates.

Anxiety around the tension between state and federal marijuana laws is nothing new. Though the Obama Department of Justice was less overtly hostile toward marijuana reform than Sessions has been thus far, the Obama administration did oversee numerous busts and raids of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.

The tension between federal and local authority here stems from the fact that both have the authority to enforce drug laws. Historically, the federal government has depended on states to enforce laws prohibiting low-level drug use, although the feds are technically well within their rights to enforce federal laws prohibiting such use.

As public opinion shifts dramatically toward support of legalization and decriminalization, district attorneys are paying attention.

In practice, the existence of programs like Oggs demonstrates the power that local district attorneys maintain when it comes to reform. The choice to prosecute low-level marijuana offensesor notremains in the hands of local prosecutors, and many local officials are choosing to move forward with reform efforts that are not in keeping with the harsh rhetoric emanating from the Trump White House and the Sessions Department of Justice.

In Nueces County, Texas, home to Corpus Christi, newly elected district attorney Mark Gonzalez announced plans in January to stop sending people to jail if theyre caught with 2 ounces or less of marijuana. Instead, county residents will have the option to take a drug class and pay a $250 fine. Those who cant afford the fine can perform 25 hours of community service instead. And this program isnt limited to first-time offenders: People in Nueces County wont be looking at jail time for a second or third marijuana-related arrest.

Local officials, too, remain free to side with the Sessions approach if they so choose. D.A. Brett Ligon of Montgomery County, Texas, north of the Houston area, was quick to express his disgust with Oggs diversionary efforts, telling reporters in February that his turf will not become a sanctuary for dope smokers.

In Arizona, Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall campaigned against a proposition to legalize medical marijuana in spite of the initiative garnering support from 57 percent of voters. In the time that LaWall, who is serving her sixth term, has been in office, the percentage of black, Latino, and Native American residents in the county jail has skyrocketed. When pressed to discuss the racial disparities in the incarcerated population, as well as the large percentage of nonviolent drug offenders, LaWall said in April 2016 that the right people are in prison.

Then theres former county prosecutor Aaron Negangard of Dearborn County, Indiana, who last year told the New York Times that he is proud of the fact that we send more people to jail than other countries and (in the spirit of Sessions) believes that marijuana is a gateway drug to heroin.

Oggs policy will likely reduce arrests and prosecutions for marijuana use and possession, but it wont be a panacea. Consider the case of Brooklyn, New York, where former District Attorney Ken Thompson announced in 2014 that his office would stop prosecuting some low-level marijuana offenses. That same year, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and thenPolice Commissioner William Bratton announced that the New York Police Department would begin issuing summonses instead of making arrests for low-level marijuana possession. A failure to appear in court for a summons triggers an arrest warrant. According to Harry Levine, a Queens College professor of sociology who has collected and studied data on marijuana arrests in New York City, there are now 1.5 million open criminal, arrestable warrants for noncriminal offenses. The system continues to produce arrests as a matter of course, said Levine.

If Harris County residents who are diverted out of the jail system fail to pay their fines or show up for decision-making classes, will the county issue criminal arrest warrants? (Oggs office has not responded to requests for comment.) In New York City, Levine notes, blacks and Latinos have been disproportionately targeted for drug offenses. In Harris County, too, black residents are three times more likely than whites to be arrested for marijuana possession. Theres absolutely no attempt [in New York or Harris County] to remedy the massive racial disparities, which are at the heart of this thing, said Levine.

While marijuana legalization and decriminalization campaigns have done little to address the disproportionate arrests of blacks and Latinos across the country, a decline in arrest rates for drug offenses doesnt just benefit white marijuana users. One common myth pushed by district attorneys who oppose decriminalization and legalization is that marijuana use contributes to rising crime rates. But places that have taken these steps have seen no such increase. In Colorado, property crime and homicide rates actually dropped slightly in the two years after marijuana was legalized. And in Washington, violent crime rates fell by 10 percent between 2011 and 2014. Both states legalized marijuana in 2012.

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The legalization movement in Washington was preceded in 2003 by a Seattle initiativethe first of its kind in the countryto make marijuana possession the lowest enforcement priority for the Seattle Police Department. Marijuana-related arrests, prosecutions, and jail sentences were reduced by 67 percent in 2004, and property and violent crime didnt rise in tandemnumbers that paved the way for the state to fully legalize marijuana less than a decade later. Dominic Holden, who led the campaign for the Seattle initiative, faced strong opposition from City Attorney Tom Carr. After the campaign won, Carr continued to push back against Holden. The blowback finally stopped in 2009 when the city attorney was defeated in a re-election campaign by an opponent who ran on a plan to stop low-level marijuana arrests and prosecutions. Politicians are afraid of looking soft on crime or drugs, so you have to create a punishment that is worse than that, said Holden. You have to create an environment that makes it toxic to their career to be accused of wasting resources for their office by punishing otherwise law-abiding, productive citizens [for marijuana offenses].

Twenty-six states plus D.C. have now legalized marijuana in some form, whether for medical or recreational use. As of last fall, 57 percent of Americans were in favor of legalizing marijuana, according to the Pew Research Center. As public opinion shifts dramatically toward support of legalization and decriminalization, district attorneys like Ogg are paying attention. Her win in a county that has historically opted for conservative candidates signals a shift that more hard-line prosecutors would be wise to heed. Voters are ready to elect prosecutors who recognize marijuana isnt a threat to public safety. District attorneys who dont understand that will get a good sense of the will of the people when they lose on Election Day.

More here:

Local Prosecutors Have the Power to Resist Jeff Sessions' Push for Stricter Drug Laws - Slate Magazine

MANILA Pastor Emil Ybanez painfully described the horrific condition of his son AJ's body on CBN's 700 Club Asia program, broadcast from Manila. His son was the victim of an extrajudicial killing.

"A wire was tied around his neck. Duct tape covered his face. His hands tied at his back and there was a very big slash in his neck. It was so big. That was when I broke down. Why did they treat my son like an animal?" he asked.

Pastor Ybanez admits his son was a drug user, but he says he quit drugs and became a police informant just weeks before his death.

AJ is one of nearly 8,000 people who have died since Philippine President Duterte began his war on drugs seven months ago. Most of the alleged drug users and pushers were denied due process.

A creeping culture of societal impunity prompted the Catholic Church to issue a rare pastoral letter condemning the rising death toll.

Catholic leaders called the government's approach to the drug war a reign of terror, aimed largely at the poor.

"The Catholic Church, believing in the gift of life of every Filipino, directly confronts the incident of what's happening now, how to speak and how to get out of the fear that's being planted because of what's happening in the country," Fr. Nonong Fajardo with the Manila Archdiocese told CBN News.

A woman named Linda says she fears for her life. Five of her drug-dealing friends surrendered to authorities, she said, but they were still killed. Linda says poor people like her friends should also be given a chance to change and have a new life.

Poverty is one of the main reasons these men and women resort to selling drugs as their source of income. And this is why the church and human rights groups are calling out to the government to resort to more humane means of solving the drug problem, which is providing basic needs for these families, such as education and livelihood programs.

Friends in the police and military are helping Pastor Ybanez solve his son's case. He believes God is using his son's death as a wake-up call to all Filipinos.

"We should repent as a nation and come together to put a stop to the extrajudicial killings because this kind of evil only begets evil," Ybanez said. "What has happened to my son has inspired me to be more active in a ministry that teaches values formation to policemen, who in turn teach values to students." Farjardo said, "Let's give a chance to the users and pushers because we believe that everybody can change and that is the same thing that we believe that the president can do. That's what we've been praying for that President Duterte would really change his way of running the drug war."

Read the rest here:

Church Calls on Philippine President to Modify His War on Drugs ... - CBN News

wbur COMMENTARY Mayor Dan Rivera's defense of an aggressive police officer, writes Alex Ramirez, is deeply troubling. Pictured: In this file photo, Luis Rivera, of Haverhill, is arrested by Lawrence Police Officers Carmen Purpora, front, and Eli Bernabe, in a supermarket parking lot in Lawrence on March 14, 2006. Rivera was charged in connection with shoplifting, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to sell. (Steven Senne/AP)

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After college, in 2012, I moved back home to Lawrence, and nearly every dayI noticed unfamiliarcars, usually with New Hampshire plates, parked brieflyon the street outside my familys gray triple-decker.

I had grown up in that neighborhood, in that city, and I knew the occupants wereprobably buying drugs. My small street saw a lot of action it was a popular spot to abandon stolen cars. Unmarked police cars camped outside our home for drug busts a block or two away. Once, there was a murder in the neighborhood. During the manhunt, my dad and I were painting our garage. A man the suspect emerged from some nearby trees. Seconds later, a cop popped out of aminivan that had been driving down the street and aimed his gun at the man. My dad and I weredown-range from the cop's barrel. Dad told me to hide in the garage, but the man surrendered within moments.

So I had a gut-feeling about the (usually) white drivers and passengers fromNew Hampshire who parked outside our house,their car engines still running. That feeling was oftenconfirmed when I saw another vehicle pull up beside one of the cars, or a person walk over, and exchangesomething through the window.

My parents and even my grandmother, then in her late 80s, often confronted these strangers. Theyd ask who they were waiting for, call their bluff and tell them to leave. Sometimes theyd try to shout the customers away, bellowing from the porch or a window.My grandma a tough old Lithuanian whose parents were part of the early wave of European immigrants to Lawrence would grab her cane, shout and try to scare them off.

My grandma -- a tough old Lithuanian whose parents were part of the early wave of European immigrants to Lawrence -- would grab her cane, shout and try to scare them off.

These werent the wisest decisions. But my family felt they had to defend the block themselves. Sometimes they'd call the policewith descriptions of the cars outside our homeor ask for an occasional patrol down the street. Their requests went ignored.

Then, a few weeks ago, the Lawrence Police Department and the issue of outsiders buying drugs in the cityexploded. A video showed a Lawrence police officer dragging a young white man out of his carand forcing him to the ground. Locals have criticized the officers conduct, but Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera defended his actions in a now-deleted Facebook post.

The video is not pretty but, not inappropriate, he wrote. He said he understood why the cop got heated with the driver, and maintained that the vehicle had circled the neighborhood, clearly looking for drugs. It is necessary to let the outsiders know, they are not welcome, he added, ending on the all-caps rally cry that LAWRENCE WILL NOT BE YOUR DRUG MALL ANY MORE.

The text of the postcan still be found in a DigBoston column by Maya Shaffer, who also notes past incidents of LPDs questionable conduct. The driver, who was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, denied that he was searching for drugs.

Lawrence has problems with drug-related crimes, but a localized war on drugs wont solve that. Rather than scare white drug addicts away, it will send more young men of color into the prison system.

The content of Rivera's post isnt out of character. His campaign against Lawrences "drug mall" goes back to his early days in office. And his support for the police department was echoed in his initial opposition to Lawrences Trust Act, which prohibitedpolice from enforcing federal immigration law, fearingit would make itharderfor police to do their jobs. (The mayor now supports Lawrences "sanctuary city" status, and is suing Trumpto fightfederal funding penalties.)

However, the rhetoric about outsiders and his defense of the officers behavior is worrisome. Lawrence has problems with drug-related crimes, but a local war on drugs wont solve that. Rather than scare white drug addicts away, it will send more young men of color into the prison system.

Its hard to trust the idea of imbuing police with more reach, power and authority in a Latino-majority city. While there isnt much data nor media coverage on police brutality against Latinos, most information suggests its alreadya problem. In 2016, police killed 183 Latinos, 3.23 per million compared to 2.9 per million for whites. (In raw numbers, police kill more white people than anyone each year.) The numbers were higher in 2015 195 Latinos killed by police, or 3.45 per million. Given that some Latinos may identify as white or black, the toll could be even higher.Latinos who make up 17 percent of the population account for 23 percent of all traffic searches and nearly 30 percent of arrests.

Lawrence has always been a tough city. But being tough cant solve everything, including crime.

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Alejandro Ramirez Cognoscenti contributor Alejandro Ramirez is a freelance writer and the online editor of Spare Change News. He has an MFA in creative nonfiction.

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Why A War On Drugs In Lawrence Isn't The Answer And Could Create More Problems - WBUR

(Photo: Carlos Garcia)ANTONY LOEWENSTEIN FOR BUZZFLASH AT TRUTHOUT

President Barack Obama's drug war legacy is paved with partially good intentions. It differed greatly between his domestic agenda and around the world. The former showed signs of bravery, challenging decades of draconian and counterproductive policy toward drug users and dealers, reducing the number of incarcerated men and women across the United States.

The latter, however, mostly continued failed ideas of the past and consisted of funding and arming some of the most repressive nations in the world, including Honduras and Mexico, worsening apocalyptic gang and drug violence. Many refugees fleeing to the US are a result of these White House directives.

These experiences could shape the Trump administration in its drug agenda, but it's already clear that they prefer re-fighting the lost drug battles of the past, pledging a "law and order" agenda that guarantees rising prison numbers (and higher profits for private prison corporations). This will have zero effect on drug use or the social issues associated with it.

The drug war was never about ending drug abuse, but a battle against people of color. A former top advisor to President Richard Nixon admitted that it targeted antiwar protestors and "Black people."

Today, drug reform is possible with even some of the most aggressive drug war backers of the past advocating the legalization and regulation of many, if not all, drugs. It remains a minority, if growing, view.

In the waning months of his presidency, Obama granted clemency and pardons to over 1,700 Americans in prison for nonviolent federal drug crimes. He used this extraordinary power more than any president since Harry Truman and 1,927 individuals are now free due to his decision.

I recently met one of these men in Washington, DC. Evans Ray was 12 years into a life sentence plus 10 years for distribution of crack cocaine and crack while possessing a firearm when he received Obama's commutation in August 2016. He told me that he wanted to thank Obama for "allowing me a second chance in life, for allowing me the privilege of spending time with my mom and my kids and for giving me the opportunity to be a productive citizen." Ray plans to establish an organization to help recently released prisoners readjust into society.

Despite Obama's important record, tens of thousands of clemency applications were rejected including from prisoners such as Ferrell Scott, who is currently serving life imprisonment without parole for marijuana offenses.

As the Trump administration's domestic drug war agenda becomes clear -- Attorney General Jeff Sessions is threatening to overturn Obama's Justice Department 2009 directive not to prosecute marijuana users and distributors who don't break state laws -- it's now possible to view the Obama legacy in plain view. Obama's domestic drug policies were a combination of sentencing logic, pushing back against harsh prison terms for nonviolent drug offenders, and gradual, sensible moves to transform the fight against drugs into a public health, rather than criminal justice, issue. People with opioid addictions were not acutely criminalized, though vastly more support is required. Many states legalized and regulated marijuana.

Globally, Obama was far more predictable in his drug war agenda. As one drug reform advocate told me recently in Washington, DC, there's virtually no scrutiny in Congress (or the mainstream media) for US drug policy in remote corners of the globe.

Honduras is a notable exception. After the 2009 coup, backed by then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, US military funding soared, along with catastrophic violence against civilians. The murder of famed environmental activist Berta Cceres in 2016 ledDemocratic Congress member Hank Johnson of Georgia to introduce a bill in Congress calling on the US to halt all funds to Honduras for their military and police operations.

Honduras and Central America are still key transit areas for drugs entering the US. Washington's support for neighboring countries such as Mexico, along with huge US domestic demand for drugs, has inarguably fueled the soaring death toll across the region.

When I visited Honduras in 2016, I spoke to Laura Zuiga Cceres, the daughter of Berta Cceres, in her hometown ofLa Esperanza. She demanded that President Obama "cut all funding to Honduras, not just military but to private companies. Funding their projects creates a culture of dispossession [for locals]." This message is equally relevant to Trump.

President Trump is likely to continue -- if not accelerate -- Obama's aggressive drug war policies. The Obama administration increased counter-narcotic activities across Africa and Afghanistan, supporting dictatorships in the process, and success rates against drugs were minimal. Afghanistan remains the world's biggest supplier of opium.

Ending the failed drug war at home and abroad requires bravery and a decision to put ethical priorities above a desire to sign lucrative US defense contracts with repressive states across the world. Will President Trump build on the work begun by Obama in dismantling an architecture of domestic drug policy that leads to mass incarceration?

Internationally, Washington has yet to recognize, let alone apologize for, a "war on drugs" that benefits cartels, organized criminals and dictatorships.

Antony Loewenstein is a Jerusalem-based journalist, author of Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe and is researching the US-led "war on drugs." Follow him on Twitter: @antloewenstein.

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How Trump Threatens Obama's Progress in the War on Drugs - Truth-Out