Pubdate: Fri, 30 Sep 2005
Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA)
Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.berkshireeagle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/897
Author:  Kelly Mickle
Related: http://www.dpfma.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Capeless

QUESTIONS FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS

For some time now, I have read letters from people who are 
preoccupied with the notion of those who sell drugs might actually 
end up in jail. To borrow a page from David Letterman, here is my Top 
10 (not so rhetorical) questions I would ask the Concerned Citizens 
for Appropriate Justice.

1. Does the fact that someone is smart enough to avoid being caught 
and charged (and therefore has no record) somehow supposed to make 
him or her a more sympathetic figure to me?

2. Should I naively accept the proposition that the earth, the moon 
and the stars just happened to line up the day some of these 
individuals decided to sell drugs in Great Barrington and it was to 
an undercover officer?

3. Does it matter to you that, whether or not a school is actually in 
session, I might actually want to bring my young children to the 
school property to play on the swing sets and other playground 
equipment and not run the risk of being near a drug deal?

4. Can you convince me as to why it is so "extreme" to actually want 
a 1,000-foot zone of safety, i.e. no drug dealing, around - of all 
places - a school?

5. Why are you not as "concerned" with the citizens whose lives are 
either lost or ruined because drug dealers gave them the means to 
destroy their lives (and worse yet profited from it)?

6. Why do you think it is "appropriate" to spend thousands of dollars 
in intelligence-insulting, half-page ads to try and persuade citizens 
that drug dealers deserve lenience? (Please send this answer to the 
various charities in the area as well as the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.)

7. Why do you never list a reliable source for the figures on 
expenses and monies spent in the prosecution of drug dealers?

8. If you can spend thousands on ads to keep the dealers on the 
streets, shouldn't my government spend thousands to keep them off?

9. Is your idea of justice trying to ensure that potential jurors are 
infected with your view of either the case or what is right or wrong?

10. Since the DA does not share your views and you have run a 
letter-writing and ad campaign against him, should I fear you will do 
the same to me?

 From one concerned citizen to another, we are not so different - you 
and I. It is just that I am more concerned for the safety and well 
being of those not selling illegal narcotics than I am for those who do.

Kelly Mickle

Pittsfield 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake