MR. SOARES' MESSAGE

The District Attorney Draws Criticism For Candid Remarks On Failed Drug Laws

David Soares has been in politics long enough to know what happens
when a prosecutor comes forward to reiterate the same truths he's
been saying all along about the failure of this country's anti-drug
policies. It's the same drill, in essence, that plays out any time a
public official or public figure is candid enough to say something
that makes his or her critics uncomfortable. The opposition jumps on
a few select words and, perhaps, some of the more inelegant or less
politically nuanced phrases.

Mr. Soares is in trouble in certain quarters in Albany because he
said in a speech in Vancouver, British Columbia, the other day that
otherwise ineffective drug laws provide lucrative jobs for the people
in law enforcement. But what, exactly, qualifies as the "wonderful
living" he speaks of?

Of course Albany Police Chief James Tuffey is going to take umbrage
with that, as he did Wednesday, on behalf of all the cops he
naturally doesn't think are especially well paid. Equally inevitable
is Mr. Tuffey's overreaching suggestion that, as the district
attorney, Mr. Soares won't do his part to enforce laws he doesn't
agree with. For good measure, Mr. Tuffey makes an issue of Mr. Soares
saying all this in another country, as if that really matters.

What neither Mr. Tuffey nor Albany County Sheriff James Campbell nor
any other aggrieved party can do is muster much of a counterargument
to Mr. Soares' larger point. The facts are on his side when he says,
"My advice to Canada is stay as completely far away from U.S. drug
law policy as possible."

How have Draconian laws that disproportionately leave blacks and
Hispanics serving excessively long prison sentences stopped drug
abuse and all the problems that come with it?

What can Mr. Soares' critics say to rebut his view that it's a fear
of reform that keeps these laws on the books?

As for Mr. Soares' contention that building prisons is a sorry excuse
for economic development, anyone offended by that needs to look no
farther than much of upstate New York.

Even his remarks, so close to home and so hard to hear, about all
those people with a vested interest in continuing a war on drugs that
isn't working has to be taken in a certain context. Hiring more
police, more judges and more prosecutors? That means Mr. Soares, too.

It's quite likely that an encore of Mr. Soares' speech would be a bit
different than the original version, which went over fine before a
sympathetic audience in Canada but has become explosive back in
Albany County. He might well stick to his central premise of what
works and what doesn't work in fighting drug crime, and steer clear
of such easily misinterpreted statements about whose job depends on
policies that really ought to be obsolete by now. He should, at least.

Mr. Soares also ought to think better of continuing to be a combatant
in a war of words with Mayor Jerry Jennings, along with Mr. Tuffey
and Mr. Campbell, that seemed to be getting worse on Thursday.

But he shouldn't apologize or otherwise waver from continuing to tell
the uneasy truth about such a serious problem.