Pubdate: Sat, 26 Nov 2005 Source: Berkshire Eagle, The (Pittsfield, MA) Contact: http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ Address: PO Box 1171, Pittsfield, MA 01202 Fax: (413) 499-3419 Copyright: 2005 New England Newspapers, Inc Author: Alan Chartock Note: Chartock is a Great Barrington resident, president and CEO of WAMC Northeast Public Radio and a professor of communications at SUNY-Albany. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?217 (Drug-Free Zones) I Publius PROSECUTE LITTLE CRIMES, TO REDUCE THE BIG CRIMES Let's go back to the once-infamous Great Barrington parking lot, where, thanks to the good work of the Berkshire County Drug Task Force, a number of young people were arrested for selling marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and other illegal substances. You will recall that the situation had become intolerable, with kids from all over the place congregating at the lot, making it not only uninviting, but also dangerous for our citizens. There were taunts and physical provocations, and the good people of the town were not happy. Since those arrests, the parking lot has been a much friendlier place to walk through. In other words, law enforcement works. The arrests were made, and District Attorney David F. Capeless stuck to his guns. The kids would be charged under the commonwealth's law that imposes stricter penalties for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, including a minimum mandatory two-year jail sentence. The stupid kids and some of their parents must have known about the consequences, since, from time to time, the papers had reported about others who had violated the law and done the time. Why it took the Berkshire County Drug Task Force to make the arrests is anybody's guess. My theory is that the local Police Department, for whatever its reasons, didn't care, or even want the parking lot cleaned up. It only called in the county task force because of the outrage over drugs in the town. It has always been one of my taxpayer gripes that we pay our huge Police Department a fortune, yet we virtually never see a cop where we ought to, patrolling the streets of Great Barrington. That may explain why my hero, Pam Drumm, is wailing about how much new graffiti there is in town. What's more, she says, the tough Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his police commissioners, and the mayors and police commissioners who succeeded him, found that, when you make arrests for the little crimes, the big ones take a nosedive, too. In New York City, they keep files and do active investigations looking for the folks who do the graffiti damage. The problem, of course, is the mandatory two-year-sentence law. It's just too much time in jail or prison. Our state representative, William "Smitty" Pignatelli, said he would file legislation to change that, but so far he hasn't. The first of the parking lot kids came to trial and was acquitted after his first trial ended in a mistrial, a frustrating situation for the DA. The law was clear, and I think the evidence was clear, but the good citizens sitting in that box would not convict. Perhaps they believed that the law was flawed and the penalties too great, and that they all undoubtedly knew someone who had smoked some weed. Since that time, there has been an additional guilty plea and a conviction involving two other defendants. So here we are, back to square one. How does a district attorney tell all those people who have done their time that "community service" should substitute for jail time? The papers have been filled with letters that look pretty organized to me. On the one hand are the folks who think that the kids should basically walk, and on the other, the law-and-order folks who say that the little darlings of the middle class did the crime and should do the time. I would not like to be the district attorney. I think that the people in Great Barrington, including lots of merchants who were suffering terribly with the old situation, leaned on the DA to do what was right, and he did. The DA knows, and I think he is right, that if everyone gets off the hook, the kids will be right back in that parking lot selling drugs. Some say that the kids have learned their lesson. My hope is that the parents and their friends come to their senses and understand that there are consequences for illegal and antisocial actions. Although a two-year sentence for a first offender may be too much, walking free is too little. We've got to send the message that laws will be followed. I think that we need regular police patrols on the street. I think that if we do not resolve this, we'll go right back to a parking lot or a main street where kids endanger our tourist business and our citizens with their unruly and irresponsible behavior. We have recently been hearing tales of drugs in our high school. This is serious stuff. It may well be that marijuana will have to be decriminalized. If that is appropriate, do it. But allowing people to break the law is the road to hell, pure and simple. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman