A reader brought to our attention a graphic that ran in the Tribune a couple days ago; it shows the number of drug arrests by area during the past year. The darker the color, the more arrests. Check out the darkest spot on the North and Northwest sides. Sure looks like Uptown to us (as well as the very northern tip of Rogers Park).
Maybe we should look on the glass half full: Our police are doing their job well and making lots of drug arrests. On the empty glass side: Pretty depressing.
Click on the map for a closer view.
It is tracking arrests, so hopefully that will eventually lead to a decrease in drug activity. I'll go half-full on this one. (Please?)
ReplyDeleteIf we all would just call 911 on these druggers and as well as the attorney generals police on gangs and drug activity when we see it and know about it. If we all work together we can change the face of this map and be proud of our uptown area making it safe and healthy to live in.
ReplyDeleteWhat are all these arrests doing, really? Put ‘em away, they’re replaced immediately by others doing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteWhen are we going to accept that the 40-year “War on Drugs” is a dismal failure? It's been going on for most of my life, and the only time I ever thought it might be working, was when I lived in a suburb, where the middle class purchases its illegal drugs in someone's living room. Read about what's happening in Mexico, and then try to tell me that the poorest Americans standing on a street corner are responsibile for keeping the cartels rich.
Instead of concentrating solely on each $10 dope deal witnessed on some corner or in some alley, for every 911 call we make about it, we should write a letter to our congressmen and senators, demanding that drugs be decriminalized in the US as they were over seven years ago in Portugal, and with great success. To do or expect anything less is like trying to empty Lake Michigan with a teaspoon.
Link to report, "Drug Decriminalization In Portugal"
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=10080
From an opinion piece at
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009117908_opinc26peirce.html
"The crucial advantage of decriminalization, says Greenwald, is that it removes citizens' fear of government punishment. So they feel free to seek out help for treatment or stopping drug use altogether. The money formerly spent on "putting drug users into cages," as he puts it, is going for counselors and psychologists conducting quality treatment programs.
America's "drug war" myth has been that anything short of severe criminal penalties leads to massive drug abuse, escalating crime and worse. But in Portugal, none of the predicted parade of horrors has occurred. Drug use among youth has actually declined, and surveys show use of marijuana, cocaine and dangerous substances like heroin are all well below Europe-wide averages."
While I tend to agree, Kenny, that the war on drugs has been a huge waste of tax dollars; The fact remains, that where you find these concentrations of drug arrests you find gangs and violence. Look at those parts of the city with the highest numbers of arrests. Notice anything? Those are the areas with the most gun violence too. I would think a rational person would want to ensure the cluster in Uptown doesn't expand.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm personally not a proponent of legalizing drugs, I do wonder what else could be done with the billions and billions of dollars spent on a national, state, and local level to deal with the drug problem. Police enforcement, prosecution, imprisonment, rehab... All of which treat the effects of drug use, not the causes of drug use.
ReplyDeleteBarry, will you stop with the Attorney General's Office nonsense. They don't handle these type of things.
ReplyDeleteJane et al - of course drugs are a "bad idea." It's not only the illegality but the hypocrisy that accompanies the drug trade that has made it such a corrupting scourge on our society, affecting individuals and institutions alike.
ReplyDeleteCheck out "The Man With The Golden Arm" at the library or soon-to-be-gone Borders some time. It takes place in Wicker Park in the 1940s; today it could take place either among the "hipsters" of WP or the ordinary down-and-outers of Uptown. And the story hasn't changed much in 60 years; the users, dealers, cops and politicians are all tangled in the web, with only one way to "finally" get out.
Hey Barryfish, the Attorney General's office does NOT go after drug dealers. The police do, and the dealers get prosecuted by the Cook County Attorneys Office, ASA's or the FEDS if its multi juristiction operation.
ReplyDelete