FED UP WITH BARRINGTON BULLIES

To the Editor of The Eagle:

Enough already.

We have been listening to the friends, family and lawyers for the
Great Barrington drug dealers long enough.

These people are not charged with using or possessing
drugs.

They are charged with selling drugs!

That makes them drug dealers.

Drugs and those who sell them are a blight on our community, not an
accepted part of growing up.

It appears, however, that a small group of self-interested people have
taken it upon themselves to try and bully this county and its district
attorney into ignoring the law and going easy on these drug dealers
who were caught red-handed. This group first tried to bully the
community into a scare-based campaign and petition drive.

The group then tried to bully the DA. When that failed, it went after
the assistant district attorneys trying the cases, stalking them in
court and verbally harassing them. Now this group has mounted a
letter-writing campaign to The Eagle. It apparently is trying to bully
the community again, this time with misleading information. First, the
school-zone law does not require that the school be in session, nor
does it require signs identifying the areas as school zones.

Secondly, the law was not created solely to prevent the sale of drugs
to children.

More accurately, the law sought to create zones of safety around the
places our children gather.

The purpose is to keep drugs, drug dealers and the crime and violence
they leave in their wake away from our children. This group has
suggested that the trials of these drug dealers will take up valuable
court time, and are therefore a waste of resources.

Are they suggesting that because a trial will take a long time that
the DA should bargain away the case and ignore the law? Our DA should
never make determinations about prosecuting criminals based on how
long the trial will last. This group has also suggested alternative
methods of punishing these drug dealers. That would require the drug
dealers to plead guilty.

However, not one of the drug dealers has accepted responsibility for
poisoning our community. The group also claims that the DA is refusing
to "exercise his discretion." Didn't the DA meet with these people on
two separate occasions and listen to their concerns?

Making a choice after listening to opposing views is not failing to
exercise discretion; it's called making an informed and educated
decision. It just happens to not be the one this group wanted. The
motives of this group of people are as transparent as their arguments.
They claim they are motivated by a desire to change an unjust law. Yet
they have not taken up the cause of any other accused drug dealers,
just those they have a personal interest in. They have done nothing
to change the law. Instead they have tried to bully the DA and
community into ignoring the law for these particular people.

In the end, I am secure in knowing that while this group is very vocal
against the DA, it is very small.

The majority of the community does not share its narrow-minded,
self-interested agenda.

The majority of the community is behind you, Mr. Capeless. Please
continue to do your job and stand up to the bullies.

Rebecca Stannard

Pittsfield