SentLTE-Digest Sunday, December 28 2014 Volume 14 : Number 056
001 LTE: Racial distrust in minority communities
From: John Chase <>
002 LTE: Take drug profit off the street
From: John Chase <>
003 LTE: Re: ''War on Drugs'' (12-28-14).
From: Kirk Muse <>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: 001 LTE: Racial distrust in minority communities
From: John Chase <>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 08:02:56 -0800
Profiling causes some Blacks to distrust police. Something like this:
1. Unskilled men hang out on street rather than take a menial job.
2. Some start selling illegal drugs because it pays so well.
3. Neighbors complain about drug selling, call police.
4. Dealers are arrested, booked, fingerprinted, spend a night in jail.
5. They get out in morning, sell drugs to get easy money.
6. They use violence to resolve disputes with other dealers.
7. Frightened neighbors call police. They are arrested again.
8. Now, in addition to having no skill, they have a history of arrests.
9. In today's tight labor market, they are virtually unemployable.
10. They hang out on street selling drugs. It's their only skill.
11. After many arrests, a few go to prison, learn from veteran offenders.
12. After prison they are smarter, angrier, and back on the street.
13. Meanwhile, police have assigned officers to problem neighborhoods.
14. They make arrests for minor offenses maybe to head off serious offenses.
15. This builds distrust in the community, occasionally turning violent.
16. The violence brings us to where we find ourselves today.
So, how would YOU break this cycle? Everyone has a different solution.
Liberals want to educate these men so they can get real jobs.
Conservatives want to make their life so hard they'll quit dealing. The
neighborhood wants the dealing to go somewhere else. The police adopt
meet-and-greet policies in neighborhoods, and they know that if drug use
would stop, their job would be a lot easier. My solution would be to
take the profit -- and its violence -- off the street. Ending drug
prohibition would not be perfect, but it would put us back where we were
before this cycle began.
- --
To unsubscribe from sentlte, visit http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
or send a message to containing the command:
unsubscribe sentlte
------------------------------
Subj: 002 LTE: Take drug profit off the street
From: John Chase <>
Date: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 04:16:49 -0800
Sent to The Tampa Tribune
Black men who distrust cops do so for reasons that began decades ago. We
can’t fix it until we understand that. History confirms that President
Nixon wanted to punish the demographics involved in the ongoing social
turmoil of his time. So he criminalized their drugs of choice, with
marijuana at the top of the list. In 1971 he signed the CSA (Controlled
Substances Act). In 1973 New York joined the fight with its "Rockefeller
Drug Laws". Soon the other 49 states, and the feds, had adopted the New
York model. Those laws caused the underground market to bloom. Its huge
profit margin attracted unskilled minorities, much as alcohol
prohibition attracted newly-arrived, unskilled European immigrants to
bootlegging 50 years earlier. Now, 40 years after the CSA, the illegal
market has become an endless war. It destroys neighborhoods, costs
taxpayers billions each year, and does not "control" anything. Instead,
it destroys the lives of families whose men made bad choices early in
life, like this:
o Unskilled young men try dealing drugs because it pays so well.
o Neighbors complain about the drug dealing, and call police.
o Dealers are arrested, forfeit their cash, drugs, maybe their car.
o They get out of jail in a few days, broke, find more drugs to sell.
o Bullets fly in turf battles against with other dealers.
o Frightened neighbors call police. Dealers re-arrested.
o Now they have a history of arrests AND no skill except dealing.
o In today's tight labor market, they are virtually unemployable.
o So they stay on the street, dealing. They know how, and it pays well .
o After many arrests, a few go to prison, learn from older prisoners.
o After prison they are smarter, angrier, and back on the street.
o Meanwhile, police have assigned officers to problem neighborhoods.
o They arrest for trivial offenses to head off serious offenses, they
think.
o Distrust builds into fear and hatred, and occasionally turns into
violence.
How to break this cycle? Liberals have tried job training and drug
treatment. Conservatives have tried draconian prison sentences. We
should take the profit off the street by repealing the CSA, starting
with marijuana.
John G. Chase
- --
To unsubscribe from sentlte, visit http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
or send a message to containing the command:
unsubscribe sentlte
------------------------------
Subj: 003 LTE: Re: ''War on Drugs'' (12-28-14).
From: Kirk Muse <>
Date: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 12:14:43 -0800
To the Editor of The East Valley Tribune:
Thanks for publishing the outstanding letter from Mike Ross: "'War on
Drugs'" (12-28-14).
In 1963, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have
a dream" speech, the United States had about 200,000 total prisoners.
Today, largely because of our war-on-drugs policies, the United States
has more than 2.2 million prisoners. It's obvious that the so-called
war on drugs is actually a war on politically selected people and black
and brown people are the politically selected people.
Even though blacks and whites use and sell illegal drugs at about the
same rate, blacks are 13 times more likely to go to jail or prison for a
so-called drug crime. I believe this is the root cause of the black
community distrusting and disliking of the police.
The whips and chains of slavery have been replaced with prison cages.
Kirk Muse
Mesa, AZ 85209
1741 S. Clearview Ave.
(480) 396-3399
Thank you for considering this letter for publication.
- --
To unsubscribe from sentlte, visit http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
or send a message to containing the command:
unsubscribe sentlte
------------------------------
End of SentLTE-Digest V14 #56
*****************************
Mark Greer () ___ ___ _ _ _ _
Media Awareness Project /' _ ` _ `\ /'_`)('_`\
P. O. Box 651 | ( ) ( ) |( (_| || (_) )
Porterville, CA 93258 (_) (_) (_) \__,_)| ,__/
(800) 266-5759 | |
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/lists/ (_)
|
