DRUG CONVICTIONS

Blacks are disproportionately targeted

MUCH has been made recently in our major cities about the DWB
phenomenon.

That stands for "Driving While Black," a reference to the apparently
factual allegation that too many in law enforcement focus on the color
of a driver's skin and not enough on other factors when thinking about
public safety.

Police departments across the country are doing a good bit of
introspection to see if they're guilty of singling out blacks for
extraordinary scrutiny just because they're black.

Now comes new evidence that law enforcement agencies may need to do
more than just a little internal auditing of attitudes and behaviors.

Human Rights Watch has just issued a new study that says nearly twice
as many blacks are imprisoned for drug offenses than whites, according
to a report from Public Agenda.

That's even though other studies show that five times more whites
abuse drugs than blacks do.

So blacks are disproportionately targeted for arrest and
prosecution.

Why?

The study results indicate that there are several reasons. One is that
in poor black neighborhoods, a lot of drug activity takes place in the
open. In some cases, low-income blacks cannot afford lawyers to help
them get easier sentences.

It's just all-around easier to make cases against blacks than whites,
because white drug abuse takes place in "nice" neighborhoods not
targeted for a hard look from the law.

All of which indicate that far too often it's tempting for law
enforcement to take the easy way out instead of taking on the tough
targets - the guys who supply the street dealers of all colors and the
guys who supply them.

To say that is not to endorse the national drug policy that would have
us putting military troops onto the ground in such places as Colombia.

It is to say that among all the other things that are questionable
about our war on drugs, here is another piece of evidence that should
have us rethinking it altogether.