Berkshire Eagle 11-13-04
Berkshire EagleI
Publius
The war on drugs is local By Alan Chartock
Special to The Eagle
Saturday, November 13, 2004 - David Capeless has a rough job. District attorneys are expected to find the bad guys and put them in jail. They are expected to make it known that if you break the law, in all probability you will be caught and punished.
A lot of people know that Great Barrington has a drug problem. According to one very aggravated Main Street source who lives within proximity of the infamous Taconic parking lot, the problem is getting worse. Once a place has a reputation for drugs, more and more people will go there to find them. Plus, the drug use has been accompanied by disorderly behavior that has been documented by the police and ordinary citizens.
Capeless turned a few heads when he went full steam ahead and indicted a number of young people from across the social spectrum for buying and selling drugs. It is understandable that the parents of some of these kids are upset. They think that a hammer has been used when a fly-swatter would have sufficed. Some of these young people face mandatory sentences of at least two years in jail.
Every time there's a wholesale sweep of this kind, things quiet down, at least in the short run. My Main Street source tells me that things are calmer since the indictments. It is clear that the district attorney meant business. Capeless used every tool he had at his disposal. Virtually every place in Great Barrington is within spitting distance of a school and selling drugs in proximity to a school is considered a serious crime indeed, for obvious reasons. Some of the kids who were rounded up in this major drug bust are incredibly bright and well-mannered. Others have made the Great Barrington lot into a place where people don't want to go.
My source tells me that she went to the Selectmen and was shunted aside. She tells me that the local police say that they don't like to get tough on the kids because they don't want to be accused of "harassment."
I don't want them to harass anyone, but I sure want them to do their jobs, as Capeless has. So before we come down too hard on the district attorney, I think we had better realize that there are people who live in, work in and visit this town. Parents here do not want their kids corrupted by drugs. Business people know all too well how this kind of thing can cost them money.
It takes real guts for a citizen to complain and citizens have a right to be protected. In New York City, when Giuliani and his police commissioners started cracking down on the smallest crimes, there was an enormous drop in the whole crime rate. The point here is that if local law enforcement isn't vigorous, the countywide drug task force will have to come in and do their job for them. A few years back, some of the mothers of this town banded together and insisted that the police do something about the drug trade in town. At least one guy who everyone knew was selling drugs was deported.
On the other hand, in New York state, where a little bit of dope can get you far more than two years under the draconian Rockefeller drug laws, people are still using drugs. Many people with tremendous resources use recreational drugs in the sanctity of their own homes with little fear of being busted. The market for this poison is enormous in this country and we know that stopping it is dependent on both clamping down on the users and getting to the major players, something we seldom see happen.
The question then is what do we want. There will be those like the famous Office Krupke in "West Side Story" who dismiss juvenile delinquency as nothing more than "a social disease." We have a wonderful Railroad Street Youth Project in town. One of their missions is to channel the energy of some of the at-risk youth who were picked up in this last roundup. But it really isn't a question of "either/or." We should all work to help kids find a place to put their energies, but there is a concomitant responsibility that every kid realizes that antisocial behavior will be met with a "no."
My bet is that the new district attorney will find support for taking a tough line. Once the people who have been charged are scared straight, it would be my hope that Capeless will find a way to take a compassionate approach that allows for a lesser penalty for those found guilty. But if any of these kids gets into trouble again, there really can't be any more chances. My source tells me that things have gotten better since the drug bust and that is the bottom line.
My heart goes out to the parents of these kids. This is a terrible situation. David Capeless says, "No more!" Let the police, the parents and the community echo that commitment.
Alan Chartock, a Great Barrington resident, is president and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany. His web site is www.alanchartock.com

- posted by Alan @ 11/13/2004 08:50:00 AM