Incentivizing The Drug War
Radley Balko writes on the HuffPo about a woman whose beating outside a bar was ignored by cops -- who care much more about the drug crimes that bring in the dollars:
Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn't bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants."The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats," said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.
"When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside," Downing said.
...In an explosive Village Voice series last year, current and former NYPD officers told the publication that supervising officers encouraged them to either downgrade or not even bother to file reports for assault, robbery and even sexual assault. The theory is that the department faces political pressure to produce statistics showing that violent crime continues to drop. Since then, other New Yorkers have told the Voice that they have been rebuffed by NYPD when trying to report a crime.
The most perverse policy may be asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, police can seize property from people merely suspected of drug crimes. So long as police can show even the slightest link of drug activity to a car, some cash, or even a home, they can seize it. In the majority of cases, most or all of the seized cash goes back to the police department.
Again, not a surprise. See here.
And the public apparently does not care what happens in such cases.
What causes protests? Serious problems with reality, like OWS shows. Actual police misconduct? Yawn. They must have deserved it. Waco, Ruby Ridge, ho hum, I'm not one of those people...
Radwaste at November 27, 2011 12:41 AM
This reminds me of several years ago the local police department got some big grant from the feds and some manpower/skill aid to fight prostitution. So they had whole bunch of officers assigned just to that, and even overtime as well as some feds coming to help.
At the end the newspaper ran this article as to how effective the program was. But the noted the city 15 miles down the freeway had developed a prostitution problem...maybe they she apply for the grant for next year. And the program was more effective against drug use.
The Former Banker at November 27, 2011 1:01 AM
Seizing of assets on a whim has always bothered more'n any other aspect of the drug laws, although lately the revelation that narcotics detectives have a monthly arrest quota is also quite unsettling. Colour me naive while i at last learn to follow the money.
Storm Saxon's Gall Bladder at November 27, 2011 6:52 AM
Every time I see a D.A.R.E. cop car, I do my best not to spit at it.
The U.S. federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second.¹ That is not including what the states spent.
What are we getting for that money? People dying from dealing. People dying from the cops kicking in doors. People dying from tainted drugs. We have probably about 1,500,000 people arrested or cited for drug violations every year. That is one person every 19 seconds.
¹ drugsense.org/cms/wodclock
Jim P. at November 27, 2011 7:11 AM
Police departments in FL make a lot of money via asset forfeiture. But it isn't publicized (for obvious reasons).
They show some tenuous connection to drugs, they seize cars, property, money. The owners then have to prove innocence before they can even try to get their things back.
Good luck with that.
It can't happen here? Yes, it can. And it already does.
DrCos at November 27, 2011 8:58 AM
Jim P.
And there we have something we can agree on. The toll of the Drug War is greater than without it. The toll being all you listed, as well asset forfeiture being used to finance PDs. Do note that taking your money and possessions in no way harms you (was that a District or SCOTUS that wrote that a few years back?).
Ariel at November 27, 2011 9:22 AM
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