Snitch power, Part II

The question someone should be asking, now that Eric “Big Willie” Wilson is in custody, is, how many other “Big Willies” received a “Get Out Of Jail Free Card” last year, and in years prior? How many other young dope dealers and gangbangers were allowed to return to Cleveland streets armed, dangerous, and empowered because they work for a Cleveland detective as a snitch? Add to that number all of the other the young men who were allowed to “plead down” a firearms possession case and it’s no wonder Cleveland is beginning to resemble Dodge City.

Read last week’s column to understand how the snitch game works, and here’s how the “plea bargain game” works: Getting caught with a gun while in possession of drugs is supposedly an automatic trip down I-71 for a three-year sentence. The only thing that should beat the miscreant to prison should be the headlights on the bus … but like I said “supposedly.” What really is happening in many cases in Cuyahoga County is that prosecutors are allowing the “gun specifications” to be dropped (in layman’s terms this means everyone in the judicial system says in unison “Gun? What gun? I didn’t see no gun. Did you see a gun?). In return, the thug is allowed to plead to simple drug possession and get probation (a sign over the door should read “Don’t forget to pick your gun back from the Bailiff as you exit the courtroom”). This way they’re able to be back on the street in time enough to sell more crack to the White dudes driving in from Mentor and Strongsville.

What? You do know there are more White drug abusers than there is Black, don’t you? Every credible study has found that Blacks, Whites and Hispanics all buy, sell and use drugs at exactly the same rate: 11 percent of the population. So, if there are six times as many Whites in the country as Blacks, ergo, there are six times as many drug abusers. Then why, you might ask, are there eight times as many Blacks in prisons for drugs than Whites? Well, that’s a long story, which actually started way back in 1619 when the first slave ship off-loaded its human cargo in Virginia.

Our drug laws create the illusion that something is actually being done about the drug problem, and there isn’t … except maybe for making it worse and making a mockery of our judicial system in the process. We’re being hoodwinked into believing that if we don’t allow drug policies that turn our cities into the Wild, Wild West — and young Black males into stone-cold killers — drug use will skyrocket. Actually, quite the opposite is true: If we decriminalize and regulate drugs their usage will go down — similar to every other country that has taken these sane steps. We’re fooled into thinking that if we just keep doing what we’ve been doing (for the last 30 years, mind you) just a little bit longer we’ll turn the corner on America’s addiction problem. Our drug policy hasn’t worked in the past, and it won’t work in the future. All we’ll continue to do is destroy more lives, families and communities — not to mention creating more “Big Willies.”

Years ago a libertarian friend gave me one of those distinctive D.A.R.E. t-shirts. It was actually a spoof of the original. The small writing below the logo states, “I turned in BOTH my parents and all I got was this lousy t-shirt.” Paid snitches are almost universally hated because they turn neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend, and brother against brother. We must differentiate between citizens stepping up and doing their civic duty by informing police when a heinous crime is committed, and paid informants destroying neighborhoods by destroying trust among residents. The one thing people who always got the short end of the stick could do was depend on each other, but that is no longer the case. Friends are quick to tell on friends — and shootouts result.

Our failed 13-year effort at Prohibition should have taught us better in regard to our 30-plus year drug war. A quote from a letter, written in 1932 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., states, "When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before."

Sounds all too familiar, doesn’t it? The only difference is, in the 30s it was mostly Whites being negatively impacted, so the laws were changed back in just 13 years. Now it’s mostly Blacks that are being negatively impacted by our insane, 30-year War or Drugs, so don’t look for change any time soon. Note on Cleveland Schools

On Saturday (Sept. 15) morning a “Community Action on Youth Issues” forum was held at Tri-C’s Metro Campus, the huge turnout was a testament to depth of concern in the Black community in regards to problem of errant youth. Numerous efforts are underway to impact the problem of dropouts and lack of mentors and some of the effort should bear fruit in the not to distant future.

However, two issues that are clearly not on the table should be given serious consideration: One, New York City schools (and other districts) are paying kids for good grades, something that CMSD chief Dr. Sanders seems dead set against trying. Gov. Strickland has made $2,000 per 9th grader available to impact on the dropout problem and, philosophical qualms aside, if it’s working in other places why not try a small pilot program here? Two, current rules prohibit individuals with a felony record from serving as mentors in the CMSD, which is kind of ridiculous. Many, if not most, of the seriously at-risk youth would benefit from interaction with individuals with whom they share their communities with and can better relate to. A ten or 20-year old felony conviction— as long as it was not related to a sex crime or a crime against a child — should not automatically preclude someone from giving something back, and to exclude this demographic hurts — rather than helps — our efforts to turn young lives around. If laws need to be changed at the state level, then someone should quickly introduce a bill to make the change. And, yes, we should try to find a way to pay mentors — if that’s what it takes to solve the problem.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com
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