Monthly Archives: July 2021

Portraits of alleged victims of the Philippine war on drugs are displayed during a protest on July 22, 2019, in Manila.Image credit: Richard James Mendoza

Updated July 1, 2021 at 4:42 PM ET

After years of a deadly counternarcotics campaign that has riven the Philippines, the International Criminal Court is a step closer to opening what international law experts say would be its first case bringing crimes against humanity charges in the context of a drug war.

On June 14, the last day of her nine-year term as the ICCs chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda announced there was a reasonable basis to believe that the crime against humanity of murder had been committed in the war on drugs carried out under the government of President Rodrigo Duterte. Bensouda urged the court to open a full-scale investigation into the bloody crackdown between July 1, 2016, when Duterte took office, and March 16, 2019, when the Philippines withdrawal from the ICC took effect.

Said at first to be unfazed by the prosecutors findings of alleged murder under his watch, Duterte went on to rail against the international court in his June 21 Talk to the People, vowing, in an invective-filled rant, never to submit to its jurisdiction. This is bulls***. Why would I defend or face an accusation before white people? You must be crazy, Duterte scoffed. (The 18 judges on the ICC are an ethnically diverse group from around the world. And Bensouda, from Gambia, is the first female African to serve as the courts chief prosecutor.)

The drug war has been a signature policy of President Dutertes administration, and its brutality has drawn international condemnation. But for years the world has stood by as allegations of human rights violations accumulated, and Duterte barred international investigators. The findings of the chief prosecutor represent the most prominent record to date of the killings committed under the Philippines anti-narcotics campaign and set the stage for a potential legal reckoning for its perpetrators.

It wasnt a rushed decision, Manila-based human rights attorney Neri Colmenares says of Bensoudas three years of examination, which makes the case stronger. He says, It is not yet justice, but it is a major step toward that.

Bensoudas final report says the nationwide anti-drug campaign deployed unnecessary and disproportionate force. The information the prosecutor gathered suggests members of Philippine security forces and other, often associated, perpetrators deliberately killed thousands of civilians suspected to be involved in drug activities. The report cites Dutertes statements encouraging law enforcement to kill drug suspects, promising police immunity, and inflating numbers, claiming there were variously 3 million and 4 million addicts in the Philippines. The government itself puts the figures of drug users at 1.8 million.

The Philippines Drug Enforcement Agency reports more than 6,100 drug crime suspects have been killed in police operations since Duterte became president. But Bensouda says, Police and other government officials planned, ordered, and sometimes directly perpetrated killings outside official police operations. Independent researchers estimate the drug wars death toll, including those extrajudicial killings, could be as high as 12,000 to 30,000.

The international courts now former prosecutor based her findings on evidence gathered in part from families of slain suspects, their testimonials redacted from her report to protect their identities. She cited rights groups such as Amnesty International that detailed how police planted evidence at crime scenes, fabricated official reports, and pilfered belongings from victims homes.

Colmenares, who is a former congressman, says the police appeared to have a modus operandi. Sometimes the police would go into the house and segregate the family from the father or the son, and then later on the father and the son would be killed. The witnesses say that the husband was already kneeling or raising their hand, he says.

Colmenares says in the prevailing atmosphere of impunity in the Philippines, families are courageous for bearing witness.

Police have justified the killings by saying that the suspects put up a struggle, requiring the use of deadly force, a scenario they call nanlaban. Duterte himself said last week, We kill them because they fight back. Duterte fears that if drastic measures were not taken, the Philippines could wind up in the sort of destabilizing narco-conflict that afflicts Mexico. What will then happen to my country?

Bensouda rejects police claims that they acted in self-defense, citing witness testimony, and findings of rights groups such as Amnesty International.

In February, the Philippines own Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra conceded to the United Nations Human Rights Council that the polices nanlaban argument is often deeply flawed. His ministry had reviewed many incident reports where police said suspects were killed in shootouts. Yet, no full examination of the weapon recovered was conducted. No verification of its ownership was undertaken. No request for ballistic examination or paraffin test was pursued, he said.

Despite that, only a single case has resulted in the prosecution and conviction of three police officers for the murder of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in August 2017, after the incident sparked national outrage. Police accused delos Santos, a student, of being a drug-runner, a charge his family denied. When the teenager was found dead in an alley, police said they had killed him in self-defense. CCTV footage contradicted the police version of events.

Bensouda buttresses her case by citing Dutertes 22 years as mayor of Davao City on the island of Mindanao, where her report says he publicly supported and encouraged the killing of petty criminals and drug dealers, ostensibly to enforce discipline on a city besieged by crime, a communist rebellion, and an active counterinsurgency campaign.

Former police officials testified to the existence of a death squad that acted on the orders of then-Mayor Duterte and which rights groups allege carried out more than 1,400 killings.

Bensoudas report says Dutertes central focus on fighting crime and drug use earned him monikers such as The Punisher and Duterte Harry, and in 2016 he rode that strongman image to the presidency in a country that had been battling drug syndicates for decades and was weary of crime.

In a 2016 address to the national police, he warned drug criminals who would harm the nations sons and daughters: I will kill you, I will kill you. I will take the law into my own hands. Forget about the laws of men, forget about the laws of international order.

American University international law professor Diane Orentlicher says the ICC prosecutor reached back to the ultra-aggressive approach Duterte first deployed in Davao City to show that there were the same kind of summary executions earlier in the Philippines. Orentlicher says it identifies continuity of certain patterns and the threat they pose over almost a quarter of a century.

While the finding of possible crimes against humanity is a significant step in the ICCs scrutiny, formidable hurdles remain before any prosecutor could formally name perpetrators or issue indictments.

Firstly, President Duterte denies any wrongdoing, unambiguously vows not to cooperate in an international court investigation, and could stonewall the effort in his last year in office. And despite the bloodshed, and mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic, Dutertes crude everyman image still appeals to a majority of Filipinos.

Orentlicher says building a crimes against humanity case is complex, involving potentially thousands of victims over time [and] over territory. While human rights activists would like to see Duterte in the dock, linking the alleged crimes to individual perpetrators is a massive evidentiary undertaking.

Powerful leaders facing scrutiny, she says, have been able to interfere with witnesses, obstruct justice [and] intimidate people who would be key sources for the prosecutor. While the most senior officials are the ones the public expects the world court to take on, Orentlicher says they are in the best position to keep a prosecutor from getting the evidence.

David Bosco, author of a book about the International Criminal Court titled Rough Justice, says its also entirely possible the judges may not authorize an investigation. Bosco says it would not be because the Philippine case lacks merit, rather he says the plethora of allegations involving possible war crimes from Afghanistan to Nigeria to the Gaza Strip has the court overstretched.

And even if the judges were to authorize an investigation, then youre talking about trying to launch an investigation when you have a hostile government, Bosco says. So I think this is a very long road before we get to any perpetrator seeing the inside of a courtroom.

But Bosco adds prosecutors who have opened an ICC investigation have also been content to have the case lie dormant for long periods.

And then they revive, he says. And so, we shouldnt ignore the possibility that there could be political changes in the Philippines that suddenly make a new government much more amenable to cooperating. So things could change.

Bosco says a potential investigation of the Philippines is also important because it raises the critical question: whether a state that has joined the ICC and then subsequently has come under scrutiny can immunize itself by leaving the court. As the chief prosecutor persisted in examining the countrys drug war, the Philippines withdrew as a member of the ICC.

Bosco believes the fact Bensouda sought authorization for her successor to open an investigation into the Philippines is an important signal that the court is still going to pursue countries that have left the ICC once theyve come under scrutiny.

Orentlicher says the court may look to the case of Burundi, the first country to leave the ICC. Prosecutors have continued to investigate alleged crimes against humanity committed in the country before it withdrew in 2017.

The focus on the Philippines comes at a time when countries around the world are questioning heavy-handed counternarcotics tactics. That includes the United States, whose war on drugs dates back to at least 1971 when President Richard Nixon called for an all-out offensive against drug abuse and addiction.

Over the last 50 years, weve unfortunately seen the War on Drugs be used as an excuse to declare war on people of color, on poor Americans and so many other marginalized groups, New York Attorney General Letitia James said.

Likewise, the former ICC chief prosecutor Bensouda notes that the Philippines drug fight has been called a war on the poor as the most affected group has been poor, low-skilled residents of impoverished urban areas.

Drug addiction, especially crystal meth, known locally as shabu, grips the Philippines. Just this month, the national police said that security forces have been seizing large volumes of shabu left and right, an acknowledgment that drugs remain rampant five years into the brutal drug war.

Calls are mounting for greater attention to drug prevention and public health for drug users. Heavy suppression efforts marked by extra-judicial killings and street arrests were not going to slow down demand, Jeremy Douglas, Southeast Asia representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told Reuters.

Edcel C. Lagman, a long-serving member of the Philippine Congress, recently wrote in the Manila Times that the ammunition needed in this war includes drug-abuse prevention education, skill training and well-funded health interventions to reintegrate former drug dependent into society.

The Philippine National Polices narcotics chief himself, Col. Romeo Caramat, acknowledged that the violent approach to curbing illicit drugs has not been effective. Shock and awe definitely did not work, he told Reuters in 2020.

Even if the ICC decides to open a formal investigation, Orentlicher says Dutertes defiance should not be underestimated. Journalists who have exposed the drug war have been jailed, and human rights advocates who have spoken out, including members of the clergy, have been threatened.

This is going to be a very tough process, Orentlicher says, not for the faint of heart at all.

Human rights attorney Colmenares maintains a cautious optimism that there will be a legal reckoning on behalf of the victims families who want justice.

It may be long and it may be arduous, Colmenares says, but thats how struggles are fought and thats how struggles are won.

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A World Court May Investigate The Philippines' War On Drugs That's Killed Thousands - WMFE

A residence in the 9300 block of Gorsuch Road on Vashon was included in a major search and arrest operation conducted by combined federal and local law enforcement agencies at 19 locations throughout the Seattle region in the early morning hours of June 30.

The takedown resulted in 12 indictments made later that day on charges of drug trafficking, according to a press release issued by Tessa M. Gorman, Acting United States Attorney for Western District of Washington. The press release listed names and places of residence of those indicted; none included Vashon as a place of residence.

Both Emily Langlie, communications director of the U.S. Attorneys Office, and Steve Bernd, spokesperson for FBI Seattle, confirmed that the residence on Gorsuch Road was a search location in the operation. Bernd additionally said that no arrests were made at the location.

The 12 people indicted on June 30 were charged with conspiring to distribute controlled substances including cocaine and cocaine base in the form of crack cocaine. They are:

Cresencio Moreno Aguirre, 41 of Kent, Washington

David William Armer, 41, Spanaway, Washington

Samuel Duarte Avila, 47, of Renton, Washington

Elyas Mohamed Kerow, 27, of Seattle

Brett David Radcliff, 21, of Puyallup, Washington

Sergio Reyes-Pina, 39, of Seattle

Herbert Dean Scott Jr., 49, of Burien, Washington

Rafael Ramirez, 49, Pacific, Washington

Cesar Arambula, 39, of Kent, Washington

Raul Barreto Bejines, 50, of Redmond, Washington

Jorge Aguilar Duran, 42, Issaquah, Washington

Viet Phi Nguyen, 34, of Seattle

Additionally, the press release detailed that two unidentified people who were were arrested in the raids on June 30 would be charged separately by criminal complaint and that two of those indicted are still being sought by law enforcement.

The raids were the second round of arrests in a two-year investigation by the FBI involving armed drug trafficking in the region; 24 other defendants were indicted in early April.

Over the course of the two-year investigation, law enforcement has seized 84 firearms, 16 kilos of cocaine, about 50,000 fentanyl tainted pills, $1 million in cash, a pill press, three pounds of methamphetamine, and some heroin.

The June 30 raids alone resulted in the seizure of 48 guns, two kilograms of cocaine, two pounds of methamphetamine, several thousand fentanyl pills and two illegal marijuana grows. An additional $120,000 cash was also seized.

On July 1, The Seattle Times also reported that a Seattle police officer shot a man in Puyallup on June 30 while serving a search warrant connected to the investigation.

The investigation was led by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force with key participation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Seattle Police Gang and Narcotics Units, Homeland Security Investigation (HSI), and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The June 30 arrests and searches involved teams from FBI, DEA, Seattle Police Department, HSI, Pierce County Sheriffs Office, King County Sheriffs Office, Valley SWAT, Kent Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), and Narcotics/Currency/Firearms K9 support from Snohomish County Sheriffs Office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Centralia Police Department, Auburn Police Department, Renton Police Department, King County Sheriffs Office, and Tacoma Police Department.

The pre-dawn operation on Vashon included helicopter support and lasted about an hour, according to islander Jacqueline Clayton, who lives nearby Gorsuch Road.

Clayton said she was awakened around 4 a.m. on June 30 by the sound of a helicopter circling tight and low, and heard law enforcement officers on loudspeakers giving instructions for people below to come out of the house, with their hands up. The helicopter left around 5 a.m., she said.

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War on Drugs Comes to Vashon | Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber - Vashon-Maury Island Beachcomber

Every week at All Saints Church we put our faith into action. This week we are urging President Biden to begin ending the War on Drugs by commuting the sentences of people incarcerated for federal drug offenses.

The War on Drugs has now lasted 50 years so lets be clear on a few facts that bear repeating.

First, since President Nixon started the War on Drugs in 1971, the government has pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into law enforcement agencies, which has never-the-less failed to reduce drug abuse or overdose rates.

Second, the War on Drugs is a racist war that has led to the over-surveillance and incarceration of millions of people, who are disproportionately Black, Latinx, and Indigenous. Today, Black people are 3.64 times likelier to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, despite similar usage rates.

Finally, the War on Drugs has not solved any problems associated with drug use and the majority of Americans are ready for a new approach based on public health 83% of voters across an otherwise divided political spectrum believe the War on Drugs has failed.

50 years of failed policy is 50 years too many. Tell President Biden to take action and begin to end the War on Drugs now.

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Faith in Action: July 4, 2021 End The War On Drugs - All Saints Church, Pasadena -

Politicians are finally realizing what the public has known for years: Legalizing cannabis can positively support our economy, communities, and people

Nick Kovacevich| Opinion Contributor

The future of marijuana legalization

Heres what you need to know about the future of marijuana legalization in the United States, from its racist beginnings to today.

Just the FAQs, USA TODAY

With the Democrats in full control of Congress and the White House, the odds for real cannabis reform, such as full federal legalization, have never been higher. For years, cannabis has delivered a strong track record of creating jobs,tax revenue,and restorative justicein communities disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. Its also been hugely popular with the American people, where more than 91% of adults are in favor of legalizing cannabis for either medical or adult recreational use.

And yet, despite all this, there has hardly been any momentum at the federal level to legalize cannabis until now, that is.

President Joe Biden has openly stated that he supports decriminalization and the legalization of medical cannabis.

He reaffirmed the former at a town hall earlier this year where he stated that no one should go to jail for the use of a drug, especially as it relates to addressing racial disparities in the enforcement of drugs. And hes not the only one.

In the lower chamber of Congress, U.S. House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler recently reintroduced a social justice-focused cannabis legalization bill, known as the MORE Act.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has voiced his support for major cannabis reform, including decriminalizing possession, expunging criminal records, and reinvesting in the communities hardest hit by the failed War on Drugs.

He has been working closely with Democrat Sens. Cory Booker and Ron Wyden to introduce a more comprehensive cannabis reform bill that would end cannabis prohibition and promote social justice, similar to the MORE Act.

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Im a big fighter for racial justice, and the marijuana laws have been one of the biggest examples of racial injustice, and so to change them makes sense, said Schumer. And that fits in with all of the movement now to bring equality in the policing, in economics and in everything else. Our bill is, in a certain sense, at the nexus of racial justice, individual freedom, and states rights.

When you look at the numbers and the people affected by this failed War on Drugs, its hard not to argue why cannabis should be legalized.

Alexander Soros: Nixon's war on drugs has failed for half a century. Its time to end it

According to the Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to cannabis criminal justice reform:

New Jersey police, for example, have filed more than 6,000 charges for minor cannabis possession in the three months since nearly 3 million voters approved the legalization of cannabis on November 3, 2020.Thats right after voters have legalized it and despite the fact that lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, have been working hard to create and implement a framework for a legal industry.

The state spends, on average, $143 million annually to enforce cannabis prohibition, and its not only a poor use of resources, but it also exacerbates the negative impacts this war has already caused.

Not only are we wrongly imprisoning tens of thousands of people a year who are convicted of an activity that is no longer a crime but we are also spending billions of dollars trying to enforce an antiquated movement that has disproportionately affected communities of color, and no longer represents the views of the overwhelming majority of American people.

I have been working in the legal cannabis industry for more than a decadeand my company,KushCo Holdings, stands to benefit from legalization.However, despite whatever financial benefit that may exist, our greatest goal is justice for those impacted by this failed War on Drugs, which has mostly disenfranchised people of color.

For pure racial and social justice alone, cannabis should be federally legalized and soon. Republicans had a crucial chance to make things right under the Trump administration, but chose not to promote justice, despite Republican congressmen David Joyce and Don Young introducing a bill that would legalize cannabis federally in a manner similar to alcohol. While the effort was seen by some cannabis policy experts as an encouraging step forward, it woefully lacks any meaningful social justice provision.

Brittany Barnett: Release people incarcerated under draconian marijuana laws

This leaves PresidentBiden and the new Democrat-controlled Congress to clean up decades worth of bad policy and serious injustice.

But legalizing cannabis isnt all about ending injustice.

Given the devastating economic damage COVID-19 has caused and is continuing to cause state and federal budgets have been decimated, unemployment remains high,and our economy is in need of a massive catalyst to accelerate the road to recovery. Even obstinate opponents of cannabis cannot deny the industrys profoundly positive impact on the U.S. economy, having employed 321,000 Americans in 2021,and generating more than $3 billion in tax revenue in 2020 alone.

States and localities are clearly benefiting on all social and economic fronts, and its time we move forward with cannabis.

Overall, there has never been a more critical time to legalize cannabis federally, as we recover from a damaging pandemic, while proactively addressing some of the social unrest that has afflicted our nation in recent months. The numbers speak for themselves, but more importantly, its just the right thing to do. Fortunately, more politicians are finally coming around to realizing and accepting what virtually the entire American public has known for years now: Legalizing cannabis can positively support our economy, communities, and people.

Nick Kovacevich is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of KushCo HoldingsInc. Follow him on Twitter:@nickkovacevich

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Cannabis reform? It's the right time for full federal legalization to help economy and people - USA TODAY

A task force of police, prosecutors, public defenders and Tenderloin community members pulled together by the city to figure out how to stem the tide of drug-dealing released its recommendations this week after a year and a half of work.

Create a new city-run body to coordinate efforts by dozens of Tenderloin organizations, police and the District Attorneys office to increase safety.

Allocate more funds for community safety and train community workers on de-escalation techniques and how to care for people who have trauma.

Offer treatment to people who deal drugs to feed their addiction. Enforce harsher consequences on repeat offenders who deal drugs but have no substance abuse problems - not longer sentences, but other measures such as possibly automatically revoking probation.

Create a 24/7 treatment center in the Tenderloin that takes away some of the existing barriers of wait lists and documentation, reach out to the community to make them aware of the options and offer therapy, as many people seeking drug treatment also struggle with mental illness.

Prioritize housing for people during and after drug treatment.

Create multiple safe drug-use sites where individuals can consume drugs in the presence of staff who monitor for overdoses, provide cleaning materials and refer to treatment. Such sites exist around the world but arent yet sanctioned in the U.S.

The task force is driven by a sense of urgency as the citys drug crisis has risen to a frightening new level, its report said. Overdose drug deaths multiplied from 259 in 2018, to 441 in 2019, to 712 in 2020. Fatalities this year are on pace to surpass last years, largely because of the potent opioid fentanyl. Most of the deaths occurred in District 6, which encompasses the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mid-Market, and South of Market neighborhoods.

The insanely easy access to highly addictive and deadly drugs in San Franciscos Tenderloin district right now is shameful, said Max Young, a task force member and father who said the situation hurts families in the neighborhood.

Young closed his bar Mr. Smiths on 7th Street in 2019 because of rampant street drug dealing and said the same drug dealers remain outside his still-closed bar.

As long as we allow these guys to sell with impunity anywhere in the Tenderloin and not have any consequences, its never going to get better, he said.

Before the pandemic, there were about 24,500 injection drug users in the city, with an estimated 4,000 homeless, addicted and mentally ill.

The Task Force was created in late 2019 by legislation from Supervisor Matt Haney amid concerns that there wasnt a plan to deal with street drug dealing, he said. It included representatives from the District Attorneys Office, Police Department and Public Defenders Office as well as nine community members and the Department of Public Health.

A majority of the task force backed six recommendations, but not everyone agreed with all of them.

The failed War on Drugs has taught us that we cannot incarcerate our way out of this problem, and we need to continue to focus on new approaches, including comprehensive public health innovations, said Rachel Marshall with the District Attorneys office.

Stanford University Professor of Psychiatry Keith Humphreys, who focuses on addiction medicine public policy, said he was struck and impressed that a group in service-focused San Francisco urged stopping drug dealing as a law enforcement responsibility.

Its grappling with the reality that yes, there are people who deal drugs who are low-level addicted people and I feel really bad for them and I want to help them, Humphreys said. And there are a lot of people who are comfortable making money off doing something that kills people.

Haney said he supported all the recommendations.

The status quo is entirely unacceptable and is having devastating impacts on these neighborhoods, he said. We have to have the resolve to change it.

Public Defender Mano Raju took issue with the reports recommendations to focus on policing and prosecution as part of a broader strategy.

He said overcriminalizing and overpolicing Black, brown, poor and immigrant community members who are often victims of trafficking, duress, or acting out of dire conditions of poverty or illness, plays an outsized factor in the alarming level of desperation on our streets.

This reports recommendations to divert even more public resources to policing and prosecuting communities who so desperately need housing, employment opportunities, and public health care should be rigorously interrogated on its logic and motivations, he added.

Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter@mallorymoench

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Here's how SF plans to tackle 'unacceptable' drug crisis in the Tenderloin - San Francisco Chronicle