Editorials concerning the War on Drugs
.
Over
the Limit
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http://www.drcnet.org/wol/144.html#editorial
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David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
July 7, 2000
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It's not clear who should
be more surprised -- the St. Paul resident who thought she had admitted
census workers to her home, only to find out they were police on a drug
bust -- or the police officers, who thought they could get away with it,
but instead now find themselves facing criticism and possible discipline.
.
It's not hard to find drug war participants
testing the limits of ropriety. The Office of National Drug Control
Policy didn't expect the credits for TV show content component of their
ad campaign to turn into a scandal (though they must have had some inkling
it could, having kept it very quiet until a reporter brought it out).
Nor did ONDCP expect to get flack over its use of "cookies" in the Internet
portion of the ad campaign, or to have to stop using them.
.
More serious, however,
are those police squadrons, often "SWAT" teams, who batter down doors in
the middle of the night, or the early morning, because an informant of
questionable reliability- often being paid to come up with something, anything
-- said there was drug activity. Sadly, these squadrons have for
the most part avoided such criticism, because the practice of "no-knock"
warrants and drug war paramilitarism has become commonplace and accepted
into standard police procedures.
.
It takes the death of
an innocent, such as the Rev. Accelyne illiams in Boston, to even get the
issue raised, and changes in such procedures, let alone disciplinary action
for reckless tactics that endanger residents' lives, are all but unknown.
The enforcers and their bosses find the element of surprise more important,
evidently, than the safety or well being of the homeowners, their terrified
children or their neighbors.
.
The heart of the problem
is that the drug war is a war where the enemy can be anyone, in plain view
anywhere, and is hiding everywhere. Unlike true crimes, where there
is a complaining victim, this enemy has only collaborators who wish to
remain hidden as well. To find their hidden targets, drug enforcers
feel they must employ highly aggressive or deceptive tactics, such as breaking
down doors, hiring paid informants or impersonating census workers, trying
to be anywhere and everywhere themselves.
.
In this atmosphere of war
-- no, of siege -- the ability of many enforcers to make rational and ethical
decisions is damaged, and the standards of conduct in our police forces
have deteriorated as a result. Combine this with the ideological
zealotry promoted by drug war leaders, and the resulting "anything goes"
climate tends to lead to improprieties, turning into outrages, over and
over again.
.
That's why cops
can impersonate census workers, or the national drug control office can
buy TV program content, violate the privacy of Internet surfers or collaborate
with China's murderous criminal justice system,without, in all likelihood,
giving it a second thought, and certainly with no expectation of anyone
calling foul.
.
We must, therefore,
continue to call foul, continue to press for privacy and due process, tighten
the limits on the drug police and rein in the drug war once and for all.
Because only in a police state can the enforcers be everywhere as they
would like, and the drug war must be stopped before it reaches that point.
.
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