Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jun 2002
Source: Stranger, The (US WA)
Copyright: 2002 theStranger.com
Contact:  http://www.thestranger.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2241
Author: Brook Adam

DRUG SUMMIT

Reformers Challenge Cop Undercover Operations

Last Thursday, June 13, progressive Seattle City Council member Nick Licata 
and a handful of drug reform activists met with members of the Downtown 
Residents Association, an influential neighborhood group that advocates for 
"clean streets." Licata and company were trying to win support for changes 
in the way drug laws are enforced in downtown Seattle.

At issue were "buy-busts," in which undercover police officers arrange drug 
deals and then arrest the dealers and facilitators. Police--and some 
residents--say buy-busts get dealers off the streets. But Licata, along 
with representatives from the Defender Association and the King County Bar 
Association, argued that buy-busts are ineffective and unfairly target 
minorities.

Fifty-six percent of those arrested for drug-related offenses in Seattle 
are African American, though African Americans only make up an estimated 
seven percent of Seattle's drug users and 8.3 percent of Seattle's 
population, according to a 2001 study from Harvard University's Kennedy 
School of Government. The report, which quotes former Seattle Police Chief 
Norm Stamper, said Seattle's buy-bust program, which focuses on the 
easy-to-infiltrate--and minority-dominated--street-level drug trade, 
contributes to this disparity.

These findings, which inspired Licata's interest in buy-busts, have also 
led to a legal challenge. In April 2001, Kay-C Lee of the Defender 
Association filed a legal brief against the program, claiming that 
buy-busts selectively target racial minorities. The court agreed to hear 
her motion in a trial set to begin in January 2003. Fifteen of the 19 
defendants are African Americans, which prosecutor Keith Scully admits is 
an "absolutely typical" sample of buy-bust arrestees.

Lee hopes a victory will not only free her clients, but also encourage the 
Seattle Police Department to abandon buy-bust procedures.

"We want the SPD to switch to strategies that are more effective and that 
cause less collateral damage," Lee said. Her 19 clients, who were arrested 
for selling a total of six grams of crack cocaine, are hardly drug 
kingpins, but they face sentences totaling 170 years.

"Buy-busts don't work," Licata said after the meeting, pointing out that 
street-level drug activity continues to flourish in Seattle. The SPD should 
shift resources from undercover officers to putting more uniformed officers 
on the street, he argued.

The 20 residents gathered at Licata's summit, on the fifth-floor veranda of 
the Newmark Building--a condominium complex a stone's throw from the 
infamously seedy intersection of Second and Pike--were polite but cautious. 
"I think we're unwilling to take a tool away from the police," said Ed 
Marquand, president of the Downtown Residents Association.

Residents worried that doing away with buy-busts would increase the daily 
harassment they face at the hands of panhandling drug addicts.
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