Policing drug sales: Cleaning up the ’hood

V

villian

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 28, 2003
Messages
2,250
Location
aham brahmāsmi
POLICE watched seven people sell drugs in Marshall Courts and Seven Oaks, two districts in south-eastern Newport News, in Virginia. They built strong cases against them. They shared that information with prosecutors. But then the police did something unusual: they sent the seven letters inviting them to police headquarters for a talk, promising that if they came they would not be arrested. Three came, and when they did they met not only police and prosecutors, but also family members, people from their communities, pastors from local churches and representatives from social-service agencies. Their neighbours and relatives told them that dealing drugs was hurting their families and communities. The police showed them the information they had gathered, and they offered the seven a choice: deal again, and we will prosecute you. Stop, and these people will help you turn your lives around.

This approach is known as drug-market intervention (DMI). It was first used in High Point, North Carolina, in 2004 and since then has been tried in more than 30 cities and counties. It is the brainchild of David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College in New York, who thinks that “the most troubled communities can survive the public-health and family issues that come with even the highest levels of addiction. They can’t survive the community impact that comes with overt drug markets”—by which he means markets that draw outsiders to the neighbourhood. Once these are entrenched, a range of problems follow: not just drug use and sales, but open prostitution, muggings, robberies, declining property values, and the loss of businesses and safe public spaces.

Traditional drugs policing targets both users and dealers. This poses three main problems. First, low-level dealers are eminently replaceable: arrest two and another two will quickly take their places, with little if any interruption to sales. Second, it tends to promote antagonism between the police and the mostly poor communities where drug markets are found. Arrests can seem random: only one in every 15,000 cocaine transactions, for instance, results in prison time, but those other 14,999 sales are just as illegal as that one. In some neighbourhoods, prison is the norm, or at least common, for young men. Police come to be seen as people who take sons, brothers and fathers away while the neighbourhood remains unchanged. Third, prison as a deterrent does not work. If it did, America would be the safest country on earth.

Shutting down markets, on the other hand, removes the conditions that let crime flourish. Drug sales may still occur in poor neighbourhoods, just as they do in wealthy ones, but they do so behind closed doors, and they do not have the same bad effect on community life.

And restoring community life is DMI’s main objective. After the first call-in, police maintain a visible presence in the targeted neighbourhood. Recalcitrant dealers are arrested and swiftly prosecuted (two of the four no-shows in Newport News have been arrested; the other two are fugitives). Complaints by citizens are dealt with speedily, to let locals see that the police respond and want to keep the area safe. That, in turn, makes locals more likely to call the police with complaints. James Fox, chief of police in Newport News, says that without locals “acting as our eyes and ears”, DMI would not work.

It is still too early to forecast success, but on a recent weekday afternoon Marshall Courts and Seven Oaks were quiet and peaceful. Children played outside and people sat out on their porches. High Point’s market was shut down eight years ago. It has still not reopened.
Click to expand...

source
 
Three came, and when they did they met not only police and prosecutors, but also family members, people from their communities, pastors from local churches and representatives from social-service agencies. Their neighbours and relatives told them that dealing drugs was hurting their families and communities. The police showed them the information they had gathered, and they offered the seven a choice: deal again, and we will prosecute you. Stop, and these people will help you turn your lives around.
Click to expand...

Three came, but they offered the seven a choice... The four that didn't come got it easy then. Didn't have to hear from all those people and still got that choice. Interesting way of handling drug cases. Sounds pretty cool.
 
What they need to do is set up open air drug markets with guaranteed zero enforcement, like in season 3 of The Wire. The market there (Hampsterdam) allowed churches and social service agencies to set up booths and whatnot, and there were also harm reduction agencies with needles, filters, paramedics, testing kits, Narcan and all that shit. Most importantly, nobody was catching criminal charges. Charges are what's really tearing American cities up.

Until they set up Hampsterdam, fuck the police.
 
235360287471352662 said:
What they need to do is set up open air drug markets with guaranteed zero enforcement, like in season 3 of The Wire. The market there (Hampsterdam) allowed churches and social service agencies to set up booths and whatnot, and there were also harm reduction agencies with needles, filters, paramedics, testing kits, Narcan and all that shit. Most importantly, nobody was catching criminal charges. Charges are what's really tearing American cities up.

Until they set up Hampsterdam, fuck the police.
Click to expand...

I always liked that idea but I think they would need to at least enforce no public intoxication there. They would also need to do it in an area that has no residents.
 
I like the program but it needs to go further. These people are running a business making money, supporting their families to above a poverty level which is rare in their communities. These people need to be given a path in life to succeed. And education or a business startup program would be great.

But then if you create a good system for people to escape poverty through crime, you basically invite crime. Segregating crime in a Red Light District always made sense.
 
That was a great idea and all, but just like in the show, if you have criminals running around, crimes will happen, like the guys who were getting robbed in the one house in Hampsterdam.

I really think that the only option that truly minimizes the issues to the greatest degree is true legalization and regulation. You take the product out the black market and legitimize it and criminals no longer operate in that industry. That's the only way to do this and avoid all relevant crimes.
 
235360287471352662 said:
What they need to do is set up open air drug markets with guaranteed zero enforcement, like in season 3 of The Wire. The market there (Hampsterdam) allowed churches and social service agencies to set up booths and whatnot, and there were also harm reduction agencies with needles, filters, paramedics, testing kits, Narcan and all that shit. Most importantly, nobody was catching criminal charges. Charges are what's really tearing American cities up.

Until they set up Hampsterdam, fuck the police.
Click to expand...


Charges are the biggest reason people can't get out of the lifestyle once they are in. I have a charge and as a result, don't qualify for financial aid. Luckily, I can afford school without it but what about those who can't afford but have gotten charged? Just because they used drugs as a youth, they don't deserve an education?
 
It's a step in the right direction, but it does not address the root cause of the problem, black market prices that attract dealers, as do problems like poverty, racism, corruption ect..
 
LogicSoDeveloped said:
Charges are the biggest reason people can't get out of the lifestyle once they are in. I have a charge and as a result, don't qualify for financial aid. Luckily, I can afford school without it but what about those who can't afford but have gotten charged? Just because they used drugs as a youth, they don't deserve an education?
Click to expand...

You lost your aid for only a CHARGE? or were you convicted?
 
well convicted of simple possession of marijuana. I won't qualify for it until it gets taken off my record when I complete probation in september. Anyone with a drug charge that HAS stuck though is screwed out of financial aid unless they get that shit expunged.
 
^ I thought it was only sale charges that resulted in being ineligable for finacial aid. I still got my financial aid with a possession charge, but was worried about losing financial aid at first since I was originally charged with a sale.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top