Pubdate: Mon, 13 Mar 2006
Source: Chicago Defender (IL)
Copyright: 2006 Chicago Defender
Contact:  http://www.chicagodefender.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3781
Author: Margaret Kimberley

DRUG MONEY WINS OLYMPICS

In the recent winter Olympics, American Julia Mancuso won a skiing 
gold medal in the women's giant slalom. Before winning the gold, 
Mancuso was best known for bragging about her family's criminal past:

"My grandfather had his family in Chicago, and his dad was working 
for the mafia; he was a rum runner. I don't know too much about it. I 
just like to joke about it."

Having a rum running grandpa in the distant past is no big deal if 
your father was a major drug dealer. Mancuso's father, Ciro Mancuso, 
ran a $120 million marijuana and cocaine smuggling empire until he 
was arrested in 1990, the early days of the horrendous war on drugs. 
The story of Ciro Mancuso is a story of corruption in the criminal 
justice system. The system never was very just, especially for black 
people. The war on drugs resulted in the largest numbers of black 
people in shackles since the days of slavery. There are now more 
black faces behind bars than there were during the Jim Crow era. Of 
course, segregation and lynch law precluded the need for jails.

For decades Black Americans complained about the ravages wrought by 
drugs in their communities. First heroin, then cocaine, then crack 
cocaine brought crime, illness and the wholesale destruction of 
entire communities. The years of pleading resulted in very little 
help. It was always possible to get rid of drugs, but the powers that 
be were never interested in doing so. Thai war lords, Central 
American contras, and the Sicilian mafia were allowed to bring drugs 
into the United States because they were favored by the United States 
government.A red flag should have gone up when the same people who 
allowed drug trafficking to prosper claimed to want to stamp it out. 
The war on drugs that began with Ronald Reagan and continued with the 
"first black president" Bill Clinton has created as much damage to 
black America as the ravages of addiction. Republicans and Democrats 
alike outdid one another pledging to put away "kingpins."

If the criminal commercial world is anything like the rest of 
corporate American, then few drug kingpins are black. Mancuso was a 
kingpin by anyone's definition, he certainly isn't black, and he was 
sentenced to 9 years and served only a 5 year stretch. His 
cooperation with authoritieseven allowed him to keep some of his ill 
gotten gains. One of the most perverse aspects of the war on drugs is 
that it empowered the Mancusos of the drug dealing world. They had 
the power to snitch.  Giving up names brings a lighter sentence and 
sometimes no sentence at all. Mancuso ratted on and helped get 
convictions for 25 people.

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Mancuso's snitching gave him most favored drug dealer status. Anthony 
White, a prosecutor with a grudge, even indicted Mancuso's defense 
attorney, Patrick Hallinan, after Mancuso played let's make a deal . 
He would have only been sentenced to probation if Hallinan had been 
convicted. The miffed prosecutor renigged on his probation deal with 
Mancuso but was still very lenient . Mancuso remained free during his 
trial and was allowed to keep between $2 million and $4 million in 
drug dealing profits. Clarence Aaron was a college student in Alabama 
who made the mistake of being a low level drug mule and earned a 
grand total of $1,500. He is now serving three mandatory life 
sentences because he had no leverage with the government. He was at 
the bottom of the food chain and had no snitching victims to offer up 
to the feds.

Clarence Aaron is the face of black mass incarceration. Thanks to the 
war on drugs, a new class of criminal was created. "Drug 
conspirators" like Clarence Aaron had the book thrown at them. Low 
level dealers, parents who wouldn't rat on drug dealing children, 
girlfriends who loaned a boyfriend money, a friend or relative who 
helped get an apartment or a car for a drug dealer could all be 
convicted of participating in conspiracies and get life sentences in 
jail.Julia Mancuso has profited from her dad's malfeasance:

"He came over when I was struggling a couple of years ago, arranged 
to get a car and a trainer in Austria, and also with an apartment. 
It's been really great to have that kind of support."

Black American Shani Davis was vilified for denying a less talented 
white athlete a gold medal. Julia Mancuso is descended from at least 
two criminals and won a gold medal with the help of drug money. Guess 
which one was picked apart by the news media. The war on drugs was 
just an excuse, a ruse to bring back the bad old days for black 
people. Ciro Mancuso would still be in jail and Clarence Aaron would 
be a free man if it amounted to anything else. Julia Mancuso may as 
well laugh about having mobster forefathers. It makes her a true 
American after all.

Margaret Kimberley's Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BC. Ms. 
Kimberley is a freelance writer living in New York City. You can read 
more of Ms. Kimberley's writings at freedomrider.blogspot.com.
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