BEING TOUGH ON CRIME: NOT A WINNER IN NEW YORK CITY DA'S RACE

On Sep. 15, Cy Vance Jr. overwhelmingly beat Leslie Crocker Snyder in
the race to be Manhattan's next district attorney. Since there is no
Republican challenger, Vance will be voted into office in November.

Snyder, who built her career as a ruthless prosecutor and judge, was
beaten so bad that the Village Voice quoted her on election night
saying that she was retiring from politics and going to China. In my
view, Snyder lost because of her over-reliance on a misguided
tough-on-crime approach, and because of her inability to balance her
decisions with common sense and compassion.

In the past Snyder portrayed herself as a John Wayne type of crusader
of justice who kicked butt and took no names. Yes, I know she says she
only aimed the barrels of her gun at the bad apples of society. But
the main problem with that was she could not tell the difference
between apples and oranges.

In her run for Manhattan District Attorney Snyder completely revamped
her image and attempted to portray herself as a progressive thinker.
She suddenly flipped her position on issues like the death penalty and
the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Not long ago she was such a strong
supporter of the death penalty that she said she would insert the
needle herself to deliver the death sentence. She also suddenly
claimed to be a leader in the epic struggle to reform the Rockefeller
Drug Laws. Her record as a judge told a different story, sentencing
low level offenders to tremendous amounts of time for drug
convictions.

The office of District Attorney demands a competent leader that
possesses a balanced view of justice predicated on the concept of
being tough on crime, but also being smart on crime. Recently this
approach broke into the national landscape thanks to a smart and tough
politician named Jim Webb, a senator from Virginia. He called for an
overhaul of the U.S. prison system -- stating that the American system
for the prosecution and incarceration of criminals not only needs
reform, but has become a "national disgrace".

Webb also sees the drug war as the primary cause for the
overpopulation of our prison system, and recently told CNN
(http://www.reason.com/blog/show/133078.html) that marijuana
legalization is one of the policy changes that should be considered:
"Well, I think what we need to do is to put all of the issues on the
table ... If you go back to 1980 as a starting point, I think we had
40,000 people in prison on drug charges, and today, we have about
500,000 of them," the first-term Virginia lawmaker said. "And the
great majority of those are nonviolent crimes -- possession crimes or
minor sales."

Any discussion of being smart on crime in New York must broach the
subject of marijuana arrests. New York City now leads the world in
low-level marijuana arrests. Even though surveys show half of American
adults have used marijuana and a similar amount want to see marijuana
made legal, arrests are at all time high in New York City. Since 2002,
there have been over 255,000 arrests for misdemeanor possession. As
District Attorney, Cy Vance Jr. should find solutions to this costly
and ineffective policing policy.

The voters of Manhattan spoke out and elected Cy Vance Jr. as their
district attorney. Vance said he will try new approaches to cut crime
and I wish him luck. The message I give to Vance is that if he adopts
a balanced approach to justice that incorporates compassion, he will
go a long way. And as for Judge Snyder, I bid her farewell and I wish
her ride on a slow boat to China is a good one.