Tough choice for Capeless
I, Publius
Tough choice for Capeless
By Alan Chartock
Special to The Eagle

District Attorney David Capeless is a good guy with a series of tough decisions to make. It is the role of the public prosecutor to enforce the laws that are on the books. If there is a bad law, it really has to be changed.

I recently had a conversation with a retired jurist for whom I have immense respect. He told me of an old adage, "The best way to change a bad law is to enforce it." He also told me that in our system of government, a lot often has to do with the color of the skin of those accused of doing the crime. I think this premise is too basic to be disputed. While it is not always true, the data suggests that in the aggregate it is.

Capeless' current dilemma begins with the Taconic parking lot in central Great Barrington. This lot was frequented by often bored and unhappy young people, some of whom were quite rude and obnoxious to the point of cursing and hassling those who passed. The DA's drug task force infiltrated the lot and made arrests.

Under the law, those convicted of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school face a mandatory jail sentence of two years. Because of the current location of the town's schools, any drug deal that goes on in downtown Great Barrington will invoke the law since every place in town fits the criteria. This mandatory sentencing policy laid down by the Legislature is a scaled-down version of the far more draconian Rockefeller drug-law mandatory sentencing in nearby New York state.

Caught up in the Parking Lot 19 were some decent kids with middle-class values and normal middle-class expectations about life. They, their parents and friends see themselves as scapegoats for a system that allows all kinds of people, from presidents on down, to smoke weed and other substances without ever having to undergo the nightmare being faced by the Parking Lot 19.

On the other side is a spate of letters from the public essentially offering us the wisdom that "if you do the crime, you do the time." In the minds of these writers, the kids knew what they were doing when they bought and sold drugs, yet they still took the risk. It is incontrovertible that since the Parking Lot 19 arrests went down, there has been a marked change in the culture of the parking area.


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That's where the district attorney's monumental problem comes in. He is being heavily lobbied by petition, visiting deputations, parental communications and meetings with some of Great Barrington's most progressive and decent people, as well as by the desperate parents of the kids who face jail and permanent, lifelong stains on their lives and reputations.

Said my jurist friend, "If the kid's ... skin had been black, we would not be having this debate right now. The kid would be in jail."

Pretty good chance he's right. On the other hand, you will remember "Miracle on 34th Street," when the judge had to rule on whether Santa Claus was real and the old ward heeler warned him that his re-election was on the line if he ruled against Santa.

That is precisely the position Capeless finds himself in. If the kids are allowed to cop a lesser charge with a punishment involving community service and probation, he will be quite popular among the middle-class Great Barrington folks who really feel for these kids.

On the other side are all those who want the laws enforced. The DA has to be keenly aware that letting the kids off will have consequences. If you give kids the message that any time they get into trouble and mom and dad get involved, they'll be let off the hook, a certain downward spiral in the administration of justice may occur.

I truly feel for the parents of the sometimes spoiled kids who were caught up in this mess. In their place, I would be doing exactly what they are doing, fighting like hell to keep my kids out of jail. The truth is that even community service will leave a long-term stain on their reputations. I believe that something less than prison time should be worked out.

Nevertheless, Capeless is in a bad spot. Some form of serious punishment has to be administered. Right now, I would not want to be Capeless. One false move and a promising career could be ruined. I wonder what he's going to do.



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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 Raymond @ 4/18/2005 08:18:00 AM

 
Patakis’ breakfast conversations may cause heartburn
By Alan Chartock
Fri, Apr 22, 2005 8:53 am

I can only guess what it’s like around the Pataki breakfast table these days. Of course, the Patakis have many breakfast tables - in Garrison and Albany and the Adirondacks and now in Florida. But no matter, some things don’t change. Here’s the way I imagine it. George and Libby are having breakfast:
George: “Hey, Lib, pass the toast, will you, honey?”
Libby: “Why the long face, George?”
George: “Have you seen these numbers? The voters hate me and it’s getting worse every day. Not only that, Rudy is coming on fast in the presidential polls. The people seem to want HIM to be the president. Rudy endorsed Mario Cuomo for governor! Don’t people remember that? Don’t they know what I’ve done for this state? Don’t they know that these reporters are nothing but a band of mangy curs who are always going negative and getting even because I spend so little time talking to them? Why are people so ungrateful? It’s not like I’m Mario, always yapping at them and blaming everything on the legislative leaders and flying around in those planes of his. I’m the one who’s looking out for their pocket books and trying to cut their taxes. Now they have the nerve to say that I’ve been helping my relatives get rich. It really ticks me off when they say that my own wife is getting all kinds of money for jobs she might not be qualified for just because she’s my wife. I think that is so unfair! I mean, I don’t mind when they attack me, that’s part of the game but my own wife? Isn’t that going over the line?”
Libby: “Now calm down, George. You know how your back acts up when you start to stress out! Just look at your face, it’s all red. George, I love you. The kids love you. None of this is worth it. These are little people attacking you unfairly. Put it in perspective, sweetie. You’ve been elected governor three times. Just think - they called you a nobody when you were first elected. And one more thing, George, I really do think you have to be careful about that Mario Cuomo in the planes thing since you’ve taken flying in state planes and helicopter to new heights. Just trying to help, dear.”
George: “But, honey, don’t you understand? I wanted to be president. We wanted to live in the White House. After all, dear, we got to be governor and governors always become presidents, don’t they? It’s just too bad that we lived in New York. We should have been in a Red State, then I wouldn’t have gotten into all this trouble on abortion and stem cells. I could have been against them from the get-go but hey, I HAD to win in New York before I ran for president, didn’t I? Now the polls are saying that the people are giving all the credit for the on-time budget to the Assembly and Senate. Why don’t they give me credit, too?”
Libby: “That’s right, George, you sweet man, you deserve some credit. It’s just like on 9/11. You were there in each picture, but Rudy got all the credit. Maybe if you had been a bit more assertive your polls would be higher. But it really isn’t too late to turn it around. You know how these campaigns run. Don’t you have people out there digging up dirt on Eliot Spitzer?”
George: “I am not going to run when my polls are so low. Just think of it. When I ran against Mario Cuomo, his polls were lower than a hound’s belly and I beat him. I was a political nobody. Now my polls are even lower than his and Spitzer is everyone’s hero. How did he do that, anyway? Do you really think people really care about the excesses of Wall Street? Do you really think people care about better education or the environment? I just don’t get it. Libby, do you think he’s more handsome than I am? Tell the truth. Do you?”
Libby: Well, George ...
- posted by Raymond @ 4/18/2005 08:16:00 AM