Daily Archives: November 9, 2021

To be clear, the First Step Act is a win for criminal justice reform. But the Republicans who wrote the law never meant for it to reduce the sentences of hundreds of prisoners. They never intended for it to address the racist war on drugs, said Michael Harriot in a piece for The Root. (Photo: iStockphoto / NNPA) The Honorable Bobby Scott, U.S. Representative (D-VA), has sponsored legislation to end the racial disparities in crack and powder cocaine sentencing.

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent@StacyBrownMedia

Many have identified New York City in the 1980s as the epicenter of the War on Drugs.

With the February 1988 assassination of NYPD Officer Edward Byrne in Queens, federal officials and law enforcement agencies around the country descended upon the Big Apple.

Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. earned the moniker the nations murder capital because it held the dubious distinction of the city with the highest homicide rate.

This is the capital of the United States of America. We have to have standards here that are reflective of the country as a whole, that this is not some third-world country, Republican Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas said during a hearing in 1989.

President George H.W. Bush soon followed Gramms dissertation by proclaiming a war on drugs though that war dated to the early 1970s when President Richard Nixon made a similar declaration.

With all of that as the backdrop, Congress on Tuesday, September 28, prepares to vote on the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of Law (EQUAL) Act, which would eliminate the disparity in authorized sentencing offenses involving crack versus powder cocaine.

The bipartisan EQUAL Act would eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine. It also would allow those currently serving time for crack offenses to motion for reduced sentences.

Under current federal laws, individuals caught with 28 grams of crack receive the same sentence as someone caught with 500 grams of powder cocaine, despite the American Medical Associations findings that there is no chemical difference between the two substances.

Starting with the 1980s version of the War on Drugs, those caught with small amounts of crack primary people of color received decades longer prison sentences than those with powder cocaine overwhelmingly white individuals.

According to Human Rights Watch, African Americans comprise 62.7 percent and white people 36.7 percent of all drug offenders admitted to state prison.

That despite federal surveys and other data show clear that this racial disparity bears scant relation to racial differences in drug offending.

There are, for example, five times more white drug users than Black, Human Rights Watch officials wrote in a recent report.

Relative to population, Black men are admitted to state prison on drug charges at a rate that is 13.4 times greater than that of white men. In large part because of the extraordinary racial disparities in incarceration for drug offenses, Black people are incarcerated for all offenses at 8.2 times the rate of whites, officials at the nonprofit continued.

One in every 20 Black men over the age of 18 in the United States is in state or federal prison, compared to one in 180 white men.

The eye-opening report concluded that:

Shocking as such national statistics are, they mask even worse racial disparities in individual states. For example, in seven states, Black individuals constitute between 80 and 90 percent of all drug offenders sent to prison. In at least fifteen states, Black men are admitted to prison on drug charges at rates from 20 to 57 times greater than white men.

These racial disparities in drug offenders admitted to prison skew the racial balance of state prison populations. In two states, one in every 13 Black men is in prison. In seven states, Black people are incarcerated at more than 13 times the rate of whites.

The authors concluded that the imprisonment of African Americans for drug offenses is part of a more significant over-incarceration crisis in the United States.

Although prison should be used as a last resort to protect society from violent or dangerous individuals, more people are sent to prison in the United States for nonviolent drug offenses than for crimes of violence, the authors determined.

The EQUAL Act also removes conspiracy charges that have contributed to numerous years of sentencing for drug offenses, particularly when it involves African Americans.

Congressman Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the co-sponsor of the legislation, said in a recent interview that individualized review in sentencing allows judges to resolve issues more effectively like the girlfriend problem, in which a drug dealers girlfriend may have driven him to a deal or passed along a message but still received an exorbitant sentence based on the mandatory minimum law.

(Retroactivity) could have a profound effect on people who have been given sentences, particularly on conspiracy, Congressman Scott told VOX.

Because on conspiracy, youre addled with the whole weight of the operation, even if part of it was negligible, Scott remarked.

Still, in an Op-Ed, officials at the American Bar Association cautioned that optimism over the progress on the EQUAL Act must be balanced against Congresss continued willingness to place rhetoric over science when it comes to drugs.

For example, the 117th Congress recently voted to renew a policy that will continue to subject more people to mandatory minimum sentences for offenses involving synthetic opioids, editors at the nonprofit wrote.

Even though such war on drugs strategies have not historically reduced the flow of drugs into the country or overdose deaths, legislators continue to back a harsh opioid policy that has and will continue to produce similar racial disparities as did the original sentencing scheme for crack cocaine.

Hopefully, after 35 years of enforcing a law that has failed to produce desired results, the time for passage of the remedial EQUAL Act has come.

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Congress Poised/Racist War on Drugs - The Westside Gazette

The War on Drugs latest album opens with somewhat of a feint. Littered with sparse piano and soft guitar, Living Proof is among the quietest songs in the Philadelphia bands expansive catalog. 2014s Lost in the Dream opened with the resplendent Under the Pressure, and 2017s A Deeper Understanding had the immediacy of Up All Night. The heartland rockers fifth record, however, introduces itself gently, opting for restraint rather than full-blown grandeur. Toward its end, Living Proof recedes into itself, like a gravitational pull into the distant horizon. Then, the locomotive pace of Harmonias Dream kicks in. This is all an exercise in tension and release, and the rest of that record is the release that Living Proof leaves you yearning for.

Produced by frontman Adam Granduciel and Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Perfume Genius), I Dont Live Here Anymore is The War on Drugs poppiest, most bombastic work yet. Its laden with enormous synth hooks and bona fide stadium rockers that evoke Bruce Springsteens Born in the U.S.A. era. It stands in stark contrast to the bands earlier work, such as Wagonwheel Blues and Slave Ambient. For the most part, its a continuation of the path they paved on their last LP, A Deeper Understanding. But the songs aim for higher heights that directly invite you into their orbit. I Dont Live Here Anymore captures The War on Drugs thrilling camaraderie at its apogee.

Granduciels lyricism is more pointed this time around, and his major motifs often revolve around defying insurmountable odds and forging meaningful companionships. Ive been running from the white light / Just trying to get to you / Tell me everything that you need, he sings on Change, holding out the final syllable to reflect his strife. On the title track, he nearly chants alongside Lucius backing vocals, I wanna find out everything I need to know / Im gonna say everything I need to say. Dr. Dogs Eric Slick provides a triumphant, percussive backbone with the bands own Charlie Hall, and Robbie Bennetts synth and guitar performances complement Granduciels arena-sized hook. It makes for one of the bands best songs to date.

In the same song, Granduciel draws an allusion to Bob Dylans Desolation Row, a shrewd acknowledgment of how The War on Drugs draws from the rock canon while firmly cementing themselves within it. He contributed to The Rolling Stones Goats Head Soup reissue, and he even named his son Bruce after you-know-who. Though Granduciel seldom references his own fatherhood, he occasionally ruminates on his childhood and his father. Working my whole life to follow my fathers dream, he mutters on Old Skin. Rings around my fathers eyes / Light above the morning sea / Fill the crater of the sun / Feel the wings across your arms, Granduciel sings on the acoustic ballad Rings Around My Fathers Eyes.

Though this band generally refines upon the sound theyve already built, they sometimes delve into untrodden territory. Victim is built almost entirely on synthesizers and drum machines, an unusual endeavor for a band so heavily associated with ripping guitar solos. Still, it works on all levels; its a track that gradually adds layer upon layer until it overwhelms itself, dissolving into the cosmos.

Another shift that longtime fans may notice is the pure absence of interludes. Lost in the Dream sprinkled them throughout the tracklist, and A Deeper Understanding often incorporated them into the songs themselves. I Dont Live Here Anymore, on the other hand, dispenses with them completely. Its a welcome change that makes the record more succinct. Although it was enjoyable to hear The War on Drugs meander into a sonic rabbit hole every now and then, the songs on I Dont Live Here Anymore never feel superfluous; its a record that very much serves the songs at hand, and they benefit from this increased focus.

Throughout I Dont Live Here Anymore, Granduciel utters the phrase, I dont wanna change. Its a recurring leitmotif that underlies the album, and though the heartland rocker is so apprehensive of becoming someone hes not, The War on Drugs proves that theyre the band theyve always been. But, this time around, they distill these songs down to their purest essence, and its the perfect showcase for why people have been enamored with this band since Wagonwheel Blues. As Granduciel says himself on Harmonias Dream, sometimes forwards is the only way back.

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The War on Drugs, 'I Don't Live Here Anymore': Review

The War on Drugs is a well-known campaign initiated by the United States government. It aimed to fight illegal drug use by drastically increasing the penalties, enforcement, and imprisonment for illicit activities revolving around drug distribution and consumption.

Though the basic idea behind the War on Drugs is easy to understand and agree with, the implementation of the process is a highly controversial subject because of the effects it had on the U.S. prison system, as well as minority groups.

To help you better understand the history of the War on Drugs, including the difference between the Reagan or Nixon War on Drugs, as well as its overall impact on society, let's answer some of the most important questions below.

The War on Drugs refers to drug enforcement measures that were put in place by President Richard Nixon in the 70s. These were taken to combat and "destroy the drug menace in America" before it destroyed the country.

Nixon significantly increased federal funding for drug control agencies and also added a range of strict penalties for the possession and distribution of drugs. Some of those measures included mandatory prison sentences for drug offenses, as well as an overall broader scope of laws regulating drug sales and use.

At the same time, President Nixon also founded the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA): a special police force that focused exclusively on drug use and drug smuggling in the United States.

The drug war escalated over the next couple of decades, with the Ronald Reagan War on Drugs campaign clamping down on drug smuggling from Central and South America, both outside of the country and within the United States.

Now that we've figured out what the drug war is, let's look at who started the War on Drugs, and when.

The official start of the War on Drugs can be traced back to June of 1971, when Richard Nixon made a now-famous speech declaring drugs as the primary issue plaguing the country and announced a set of strict measures to combat it.

Over the next few years, Nixon enacted a few key legislatures, as well as started the aforementioned Drug Enforcement Agency, in an effort to curb drug use and distribution across the country.

However, while the ambitions were high from the start, the biggest push in the efforts to reduce drug use came in the War on Drugs under Reagan. Ronald Reagan made the War on Drugs a top priority for various government agencies and allocated far greater resources than before to make it work.

Although there have been significant dates in the American history of dealing with drugs, such as the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 or Eisenhower's New War, the first reference to the War on Drugs came in 1971, in the Nixon era.

By 1973, the DEA was established. This allowed for better coordinated efforts between multiple agencies in the fight against drugs.

In 1976, former Governor Jimmy Carter based his presidential campaign on the decriminalization of marijuana and ending federal penalties for possession of less than one ounce.

By that time, a large part of the population was becoming unsettled by the number of people that were being convicted for relatively minor drug offensesa problem that is still a hot-button-topic to this day.

In 1984, the Reagan War on Drugs gained momentum, as the first lady Nancy Reagan launched the famous "Just Say No" campaign, encouraging young people to resist the temptation of taking drugs.

In 1986, Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which allocated $1.7 billion towards the War on Drugs and also set minimum penalties for a range of drug offenses. It was later criticized for disproportionally imprisoning offenders from minority and lower-income groups.

As mentioned before, the topic of whether America's War on Drugs was a success or not is still hotly debated today. But there is actually hard data and studies that can show how it impacted the drug situation in the country.

On one hand, some data has shown that drugs are slowly becoming cheaper as the years go by. However, many people knowledgeable on the subject believe that without some of the measures taken as part of the drug war, the situation could be even worse.

Some reports show that the median bulk price of heroin has dropped by more than 90 percent since 1981, with the cost of cocaine also reducing by more than half, but that in itself doesn't prove that all of the policies of the War on Drugs were not effective.

Recent years have seen a slight shift in U.S. drug policies, although the changing administrations over the last 20 years have had wildly contrasting views on the subject.

Even though the policies were already under scrutiny by the early 2000s, George W. Bush pushed more money than ever into the efforts and launched a nationwide campaign of student drug testing.

Meanwhile, President Obama implemented a few useful changes that resulted in better access to clean syringes. He loosened restrictions on state marijuana laws, and reduced the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity.

The current administration under Donald Trump is once again taking a hard-line stance in favor of War on Drugs policies, suggesting harsher punishments, as well as strict border control to reduce the flow of illegal substances into the country.

The War on Drugs Today

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The War on Drugs: What It Is & Why It Started

Nothing about us without us, opponents of the measure said, demanding a role in decision-making to make sure that any solution accounted for both Black peoples complex and troubling relationship with the police as well as the disproportionate damage crime and violence do to our communities.

Black voters were especially wary because the City Council members who pushed the measure had done little to rein in the Minneapolis Police Department over the years. The pledge that nine of them made to dismantle the department shortly after Mr. Floyd was killed was more about looking progressive to national and international audiences than about transforming policing in ways that most Black residents wanted.

The months of protests around the country and around the world motivated by George Floyds killing were intense and electrifying. But the aftermath of those protests help tell the real story. Far too many progressives took the route of proposing quick fixes, like simply cutting police funding, to address complex, longstanding challenges to policing. As election results in Minneapolis, New York City and elsewhere have shown, thats not what the majority of Black people want.

What many Black people are demanding is a system that is effective, cost-efficient, nonmilitarized and transparent. We want officials to be accountable for who is hired, how they are disciplined and how they treat us. We want police leaders to admit that racism, white supremacy and misogyny are endemic in many police forces and we want them to commit to radically shift police culture.

For that to happen, there must be a re-examination of the purposes, practices, expenditures and almost unfettered power and discretion of the police. To responsibly reduce spending, elected officials must conduct a real cost/benefit analysis of hiring numerous officers to focus on low-level crime, traffic stops (as in the cases of Daunte Wright and Philando Castile), and small quantities of cannabis, to name a few. This would ultimately mean eliminating or reducing low-level traffic stops, repealing criminal laws and ordinances that do not improve public safety, and making a commitment to end the war on drugs.

Police departments must establish an early-warning system to flag problem officers and a robust disciplinary system when officers violate the law and peoples rights. Instead of continuing to allow police departments to investigate themselves when officers kill people, states should establish a special prosecutors office to investigate claims and bring charges when appropriate.

Police departments should analyze data to decide where officers are needed most and even where other resources, like mental health professionals, should be assigned. Receiving input and oversight from the public are important components to shifting police culture, as well as listening to Black people and taking our concerns seriously.

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Opinion | Black Voters in Minneapolis Wanted Better Policing, Not Posturing by Progressives - The New York Times