THE PENDULUM SWINGS

The public, it's been said, has a short attention span -- which no doubt explains why Gov. Pataki and the members of the state Legislature are
patting each other on the back so lustily after finally reducing those
infamous Rockefeller-era drug laws.

Today's voters simply don't remember what prompted the laws in the first
place: an unprecedented explosion in violent street crime, fueled by
unchecked and rapidly expanding drug-trafficking by young felons.

Yes, they were among the nation's toughest drug laws -- for good reason.

New Yorkers wanted their streets made safe again from drug dealers and drug
users in need of some quick cash to support their fix.

Hence the laws that sent even first-time offenders the message that using
drugs risked ruining their lives.

Over the years, however, many myths concerning the Rocky drug laws entered
the public consciousness.

It is difficult, for example, to find a news story on the subject in which
the adjective "draconian" does not precede the phrase "Rockefeller drug
laws" -- a value judgment unsupported by fact.

For all the anecdotal evidence cited by the repeal lobby, the effect of the
laws has not been to sweep up essentially innocent youngsters who just
happened to be carrying a loose joint or two.

The overwhelming majority of those sentenced under the "Rocky" laws were
repeat offenders and/or those whose crimes included offenses other than
just drug offenses.

Indeed, the Pataki administration has estimated the number of first-time,
nonviolent offenders locked up under color of the statutes at a barely
discernable six-tenths of 1 percent of New York's prison population.

The point of the Rocky laws was to limit judicial license in sentencing
drug dealers -- a not-unreasonable objective given the tendency of judges
to sentence pushers to rehab rather than prison.

Tellingly, the state Assembly pushed hard to restore such discretion;
happily, that effort didn't make it through the closed-door negotiations
that led to easing of the laws.

Unhappily, Gov. Pataki and the state Senate opted to give up their demand
that penalties be increased for drug kingpins, pushers who use kids as
couriers and dealers who use guns.

The fact that Pataki and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno chose not to hold
out for such a common-sense concession speaks to their own lack of
seriousness on such matters lately -- which itself reflects a growing
public complacency regarding crime and criminal justice.

A decade ago, no thought whatsoever would have been given to easing
criminal statutes. Quite the opposite.

New York's prison population grew and grew and grew -- with the Rockefeller
drug statutes serving as an important prosecutorial tool.

Suddenly, crime began to drop and drop and drop further still -- and the
city now is safer than it has been in two generations.

Now Albany is loosening the law.

Beware, for what goes around comes around.