ANTI-DRUG EFFORTS HAVEN'T WORKED

In response to "Drug Raid Nets Arrests Across the County" (03/07) I
found a number of things very disturbing.

In January, Sgt. Jim Henderson vice president of the Alabama
Narcotics Officers Association began protesting the federal
government cuts to his budget on the editorial pages of many Alabama
newspapers. He claimed the cuts would make drug task forces ineffective.

When have they ever been effective? Every year the number of drug
arrests and the amount of drugs seized rises. If the tactics employed
by Sgt. Henderson and other drug warriors were working, then
shouldn't those numbers be going down?

Should they be rewarded for repeated failure with more cash? Only in
government does something as asinine as rewarding failure happen. In
the private sector they would be unemployed.

This article seemed to imply that execution of warrants was delayed
in order to create a big media scene. I guess the safety and
well-being of the public is only important when there is a government
welfare check involved and when there is a media camera nearby.

Doesn't sound to me like they did this in the interest of public
safety, but more as a measure of job security. But then again the
drug war itself is job security. It is meant to be waged and not won.

The cops have no real interest in ridding their communities of drugs.
If they were successful, that welfare check would dry up and they
would be out of a job.

Drug task forces are equivalent to people who abuse the welfare
system. Instead of doing real police work on serious crimes like
murder, rape, child sex assault, robbery and vehicle theft they focus
on rounding up low-level, nonviolent drug users because it's easy.
And they get a government welfare check for doing so.

The Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center reports that crime
clearance rates for 2005 were 19 percent. The drug warrior welfare
cuts should be looked upon as a good thing.

Perhaps now police will get to work on solving real crimes.

Loretta Nall, Alexander City