HIP-HOP AND FRIENDS TURN UP THE VOLUME

A heavy police presence and a dark gray sky threatening to pour more
rain upon already drenched downtown New York City streets did not keep
thousands of young people from standing shoulder to shoulder for
nearly 3 blocks to peacefully express their anger on June 4, demanding
a repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws.

"The Countdown for Fairness" event was organized by Randy Credico and
Anthony Papa of the Mothers of the New York Disappeared, Russell
Simmons and Bill Gibson from the Hip Hop Summit Action Network, Bob
Gangi of Drop the Rock, Dr. Ben Chavis, and Andrew Cuomo. Speakers
during the 4 hour event along a busy NYC street right alongside City
Hall included Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Rev. Al Sharpton, Sean
Puffy Combs, Mariah Carry, Fifty Cent and Busta Rhymes, Donna
Leiberman of the NYCLU, Shawn Heller, HT Freedom Fighter of the year
for 2002 and head of the national Students for Sensible Drug Policy,
along with many other politicians, celebrities and musicians,
including Millie Rockefeller, granddaughter of former Governor Nelson
Rockefeller, the namesake who first signed the repressive NY drug laws
into being.

First-time offenders face 15-years-to-life for selling or possessing
small quantities of drugs under the laws passed by then-Governor
Rockefeller in the early 70's. Of the 19,000 state prison inmates who
have been sentenced under the laws, 94 percent are black and Latino.

"Ostensibly, these laws were to fight the drug trade," Councilwoman
Margarita Lopez told the crowd, "but what they have done is destroy
families and made sure that NY doesn't treat drug users humanely. They
only made sure that NY doesn't know how to deal with drug addiction."

"I come from the land of hypocrisy, and this is the ultimate
hypocrite." said DC-based Heller, holding up a t-shirt on-stage
showing George Bush snorting lines of cocaine, "These laws were made
in our name, we are the DARE generation, and we reject these laws.
Repeal the Rockefeller laws!"

Voices in the Crowd

"The goal of this event is to get youth involved in politics, and to
overturn this unjust law," said Andrew Lynch of Def Jam Records.
Handing out Hip-Hop Team Vote cards emblazoned with a Simmons Quote-
"Older people have FKED UP the system and now it's our responsibility
to fix it and make it better!"- Lynch explained that organizers had
"targeted high school students particularly, and want everyone
eligible to vote to do so. We want them to take the power back into
their own hands. A law like this is perfect for getting young people
involved."

"There's too many people locked up in jail over petty shit and first
time offenses. That's nuts!" said Harry of Brooklyn. Fellow
Brooklynite Robert agreed that he too wants the Rockefeller Drug Laws
repealed, saying that both he and a cousin had done time under the
laws. "Someone who is an addict and gets arrested, they need help not
incarceration."

"We're here in support of this coalition, and are optimistic that
Pataki will listen," said Oscar Alvarado of the AFL-CIO DC 137,
Manhattan. "This coalition has really brought this issue to front and
center. We are labor and represent a lot of municipal employees. This
rally signifies a shift. The hip-hop movement has done an outstanding
job here. Kids will get involved thanks to this. Politicians should
not be able to ignore this."

"I heard about the protest on the radio," said Julio from the Bronx.
"I'm out here to listen to what they have to say, to learn and get a
bit of knowledge about the Rockefeller Drug Laws. I think most likely
the politicians will have to listen, and I believe there can be a
change. I will be voting. I've got a cousin who is in for 2 years on a
first offense drug charge. I don't understand why that is. With all
the money they spend on sending and keeping people in jail they could
be spending on books and education. Friends and I are here today
trying to figure this shit out."

"I'm here because 30 years of Rockefeller Drug Laws is too many,
because not another child should be separated from their parents, nor
another parent from their child," said NYC Drug War activist Dan
Goldman. "Since the War on Some Drugs began, it has been justified by
the notion that they are protecting the children. But today, NYC
children have stood up to say 'enough.' Drop the Rockefeller Drug Laws!"

To Reform or Repeal, That Is the Question

There were heated debates during the planning sessions, "with spit
flying" according to Papa, as he and Credico urged Simmons to adopt
"repeal" rather than "reform" as the stated goal of the protest.

"I think it was a success if people continue to mobilize and not sell
out," Credico told this writer two days after the event. "I don't want
anyone negotiating a bad deal with the governor. The group should stay
together and keep moving towards eventual repeal instead of minor
reform. I'm not going to mention anyone's name, but I was the one
negotiating with the governor last year, I was the one who went before
the General Assembly, and Russell gets involved and you know, he's
going to go into the same tap dance that I went through already. He's
a nice guy but he doesn't know a whole lot about the issue. There are
some organizations that have a lot of money that need to get results
and get their name on it to get continued funding. Our group, the
Mothers, spent 9 thousand dollars since last November including
salaries, so we're not in this for the money, we're in this for a
different motivation. I've been working on this for 6 years, but since
November the Mothers have spent 9 thousand dollars, and now I get
something from the Temporary Commission on Lobbying about the Mothers
of the Disappeared."

"Yeah man, the Temporary Commission on Lobbying, they're on our case
now because we stepped on Sheldon Silver's toes," Papa told this
writer. "This is all heavy political shit, because now with this guy
Simmons, they are scared because this guy can get tens of thousands of
people into the streets. We started out 5 years ago, on May 8, 1998,
when we got about 20 people out in the street with a couple of signs,
and from there we've progressed to the point where you saw it on
Wednesday. It was amazing. We continue to spin this to try to change
the laws. They're seeing that we can definitely do damage to political
careers so now they're responding. They don't want this. When one
plays politics like this, real hard-ball stuff, it can come back at
you. So now they're investigating the Mothers to see if we've been
violating any of the lobbying laws. If one has a 501 status, you're
not supposed to lobby. You can get heavy fines. Because we're making
all this noise, the government is starting to react, which is good
because it tells me we're really doing something."

With less than 3 weeks to go in this legislative session, it is not
sure whether the politicians can reach an agreement, at worst
reforming and at best repealing the Rockefeller laws. On Monday, June
2, the NY Assembly passed a new bill which would reform the laws and
set aside $120 million annually for treatments and other alternatives
to jail, but it is simply a rehashing of the bill the Assembly
leadership introduced last year and doesn't address giving judges
sentencing discretion and leaves control of sentencing outcomes in the
hands of district attorneys, according to Bob Gangi of Drop the Rock.

"Our criticisms are the same. Pataki has not put out a new position,
so far as we know, so in effect our public statements about the
Governor's and the Assembly's proposals are still relevant, still
timely. We support the repeal bill of Jeff Aubry, Chair of the
Committee on Corrections and former Chair of the Black and Puerto
Rican Legislative Caucus, numbered A-852." This bill would give judges
the power to sentence as they see fit in all drug cases, make reform
retroactive so that prisoners already incarcerated can request review
of their cases, and expand funding for alternatives to
incarceration.

Despite a stated commitment to reform, opponents charge that Governor
Pataki wants to increase the penalties for some drug offenses while
doing very little to actually jumpstart any sort of real change. "I
think, from my standpoint, we've seen some progress in that what I'd
want to see is a balanced approach where, yes, we lower the sentences
for offenders who could face 15 to 25 years to life for convictions to
make them more reasonable," Governor Pataki told the NYTimes. But
while Pataki claims to want to reform the law, he's seeking harsher
sentencing in many areas. "And I also want to see tougher sentences
for people who use children or sell drugs near schoolyards or who have
a weapon, use a gun, or drug kingpins, and I think we're seeing some
progress toward that," said the governor. This is not going over well
with the grass root organizers.

"Basically we're for total repeal," notes Papa. "But Simmons is a
business man, so he really just wants to get a deal and get it done,
because he doesn't want to wait another 30 years for something to
happen. I respect him for that. The thing is, in our meetings we put
forth the importance of getting repeal rather than reform, because
only repeal is really going to make a difference. We've been out in
the streets fighting this thing for years and we just don't want to
give something up, make a deal real quick. We'd rather have no deal."