The mother of an unarmed man killed by an undercover police officer seven years ago called on the Bronx district attorney's office yesterday to reopen a criminal investigation after a jury awarded her $10.45 million for the wrongful death of her son. The unarmed man, Malcolm Ferguson, 23, was shot on March 1, 2000, during a struggle with Louis Rivera, the plainclothes officer, who was investigating narcotics sales in the Soundview section of the Bronx. The shooting, which prompted large protests in the neighborhood, occurred two blocks from the apartment building vestibule where Amadou Diallo was shot at 41 times by undercover police officers in 1999. [continues 304 words]
Washington, D.C., is one of America's AIDS hot spots. A significant proportion of infections can be traced back to intravenous drug users who shared contaminated needles and then passed on the infection to spouses, lovers or unborn children. This public health disaster is partly the fault of Congress. It has wrongly and disastrously used its power over the District of Columbia's budget to bar the city from spending even locally raised tax dollars on programs that have slowed the spread of disease by giving drug addicts access to clean needles. [continues 209 words]
My friends here in western Massachusetts usually don't let me down. Kris, the truck-stop waitress, referred me to Michelle, a bartender at the gentlemen's club down the road, who directed me to Kim, the red-haired dancer with an ankh-tattoo armband, who referred me to an ex-boyfriend's wife's girlfriend, another redhead, who met me outside an American Legion hall in Chicopee (Nipmuck for "land of violent pee") and informed me that magic mushrooms were "out of season," but she could get me LSD instead. "Acid -- same deal as mushrooms," she said. Besides, she wondered why a guy in his 60s wanted to experiment with shrooms. The answer was obvious. [continues 1106 words]
With a zero tolerance drug policy in the back pocket, the new Tonawanda Housing Authority board has actually taken a bite out of crime. No need for a dog in a trench coat, or even drug abuse resistance education. Tightening the enforcement at the Housing Authority has made a true difference. Last week, the City of Tonawanda Police Department reported of the 14 or so "problem houses" the authority used to contend with, there are only one or two now. The news must come as a relief tot he other 80 percent of the residents there, who, according to Housing Authority Board President Betty Hoffman, never posed a problem. [continues 205 words]
In an unexpected detour, Cheryl Graham pushed the stroller with her squirmy 3-year-old into the crowded Kennedy Fried Chicken. Her 7-year-old son, Jyair, his dark eyes beaming, chivalrously held open the door for his family. Ms. Graham had been on her way to the grocery store in her Bronx neighborhood when her boys started complaining of hunger, and so she ended up here on the corner of East 198th Street and the Grand Concourse, not far from Lehman College. The chicken joint, which sits next to a bodega and a Chinese takeout place, is surrounded by grand apartment buildings that symbolize better times past. [continues 621 words]
A catalog of cooperating witnesses in criminal cases is probably not what Internet pioneers had in mind when they touted the Web's potential. But like bomb-making instructional videos on jihadi sites, it is the unfortunate reality. The Web site whosarat.com claims to provide information on witnesses cooperating with the government. As Adam Liptak reported in The Times recently, the site says it has identified some 4,300 informers and another 400 undercover agents, complete with photos and court documents. [continues 303 words]
Albany is considering legislation creating a Megan's Law-like registry for convicted drug dealers. A Republican state senator, George Winner, will introduce the "Drug Dealer Registration Act" next week, one of his aides said yesterday. The bill would require individuals convicted of certain drug offenses to register with state's Division of Criminal Justice Services, which oversees the state's sex offender registry, for at least five years. While supporters of the bill say that publicly listing the addresses of convicted drug dealers released from prison would prevent them from concealing their criminal past and help parents protect their children, critics contend that it represents an invasion of privacy and could become a Yellow Pages for drug addicts. [continues 316 words]
The 34th anniversary of the Rockefeller drug laws passed this month without fanfare. Yet the more than 15,000 mostly African-American and Hispanic offenders incarcerated under some of the harshest drug laws in the land would surely have liked someone to notice. Too many non-violent drug offenders remain imprisoned under laws that in some cases require stiffer penalties for possessing small amounts of cocaine than for committing rape or manslaughter. And although almost every political leader, past and present (including those who drafted the lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key statutes in 1973), believes the laws are archaic, the momentum for change seems to have slowed considerably. Three years ago, the Drop the Rock campaign by celebrities such as hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, and other efforts from lawmakers and advocacy groups like the Drug Policy Alliance, brought some changes, but they didn't go far enough. [continues 261 words]
Thousands of parole petitioners are ready to return to society as productive citizens of New York but remain stuck in prison because of the politics of incarceration. This unwritten policy of former Gov. George Pataki persists in spite of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's attempt to change the nature of the criminal justice system. Offenders who commit crimes such as murder are actually less likely to return to jail than nonviolent offenders. Nevertheless, after coming to terms with their crimes, they are still wasting away in New York's prisons. Time and again, the parole board fails to weigh all of the relevant statutory factors together with the prisoner's positive accomplishments and productive behavior while incarcerated. Instead, the parole board focuses almost entirely on the nature of the petitioner's crime. [continues 630 words]
Police Say Port Henry Man Had Meth Lab In His Home PORT HENRY -- A Port Henry man accused of running a meth lab out of his home was in Moriah Town Court for a felony hearing Monday. John R. Boyle, 33, of 6 Second Lane Building 2, Port Henry has been in the Essex County Jail since his arrest by State Police earlier this month. Boyle was a substance-abuse counselor at the Moriah State Shock Incarceration Facility in Mineville when State Police raided his home. [continues 457 words]
With No Statewide Protocol, Area Districts Differ On Severity A student who gets caught with alcohol at Irondequoit High School faces a 20-week suspension. For the same offense at some other area schools, he or she could be back in class after five days. The state Department of Education doesn't dictate how districts should penalize drug and alcohol violations. Local districts have devised widely differing ways of dealing with youth substance abuse, a problem that Monroe County Department of Health data show is not getting much better. [continues 486 words]
Debate Continues As To Whether, How To Enact Random Drug Testing Policy Depending on how next week's Lewiston-Porter School Board election goes, the district might soon thereafter enter the national debate on the legality of randomly drug testing school employees. Much debate surrounded the board's vote in March not to enact a random testing policy in the district -- a motion that some board members called a knee-jerk reaction but prompted at least a couple candidates to run. Whether it be through lobbying to Albany or putting the matter up for legal challenge, the new board may look to push the issue after members are sworn in over the summer. [continues 957 words]
MALONE, N.Y. - Almost three dozen people were arrested Tuesday for selling marijuana or prescription drugs paid for by Franklin County taxpayers through Medicaid, authorities said. Officers from local, state, county and federal agencies arrested 35 people in Malone, North Bangor, Owls Head, Fort Covington, Moira, Akwesasne and Constable in northern New York, State Police said. Most were arraigned and jailed with bail set. Some were making a living selling prescription drugs they obtained by exaggerating symptoms to doctors or faking injuries in car accidents, District Attorney Derek Champagne told the Plattsburgh Press-Republican. The drugs included the pain relievers OxyContin and hydrocodone and methadone. One suspect had a prescription for 120 OxyContin pills filled Monday at a Saranac Lake pharmacy but had only 46 left when he was arrested less than 24 hours later, authorities said. [end]
Thirty-Six People From Franklin County Accused Of Illegally Buying Or Selling Prescription Drugs. MALONE -- Three dozen people, half of whom received public assistance, were arrested Tuesday for selling or buying prescription drugs paid for by Franklin County taxpayers. District Attorney Derek Champagne said five to seven of them were making a living selling prescription drugs they had allegedly obtained by either: Exaggerating symptoms at a doctor's office. Faking injuries in automobile accidents. Coaching each other before doctor visits to ensure they got more-potent prescriptions. [continues 182 words]
ILION - Barringer Road Elementary School held its DARE graduation Friday morning. The Drug Awareness Resistance Education program is taught by the Ilion police department and is a six month program directed to sixth grade students at both Barringer Road and Remington schools. Seventy-three students from Barringer Road graduated from the program, taught by DARE Officer Scott Swayze. Barringer Road Principal Fran LaPaglia, says the DARE program is a wonderful program and she's glad it's at the school. "It helps them connect with the officer and become roll models in the community," LaPaglia said. [continues 164 words]
ESALEN America and the Religion of No Religion. By Jeffrey J. Kripal. Illustrated. 575 pp. University of Chicago Press. $30. People of a certain age will remember Esalen, the famous (or infamous) spa in Big Sur on the California coast, founded in the 1960s as a center of the human potential movement. In his book "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion," Jeffrey J. Kripal describes it as "a utopian experiment creatively suspended between the revelations of the religions and the democratic, pluralistic and scientific revolutions of modernity." In 1990, someone painted graffiti (unprintable in its entirety here) at the entrance: "Jive . for rich white folk." [continues 1225 words]
Chanting, "We smoke pot because we like it a lot," about 500 people gathered in Manhattan yesterday to demand marijuana be legalized - but were a bit slow getting out of bed. The New York leg of the Global Marijuana March, held in more than 200 cities, kicked off in Washington Square Park more than an hour after the scheduled 11 a.m. start time. Several high-profile drug campaigners spoke, including Bronx-born Ed Rosenthal, who is fighting ongoing court battles in California over the medical use of the drug. A strong police presence was on hand, but no arrests were reported. [end]
This April, the New York State Assembly passed important legislation to reform the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws. The bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry, D-Queens, increases drug treatment alternatives to incarceration, expands judicial discretion to restore fairness in our courts and, critically, allows for people currently serving harsh prison terms for low-level drug offenses to seek much-needed relief. The Assembly should be commended for passing smart reforms. But where are the governor and the state Senate on drug law reform? [continues 732 words]
IT has never been so trendy to be green. By that I don't mean that suddenly everyone is installing solar panels at home or making a commitment to reduce, reuse and recycle as many goods as possible. Now you can think of yourself as an environmental champion just by going shopping. These days the greening of America seems to be all about spending money, sometimes silly amounts of money, to buy stuff simply because it is labeled "organic," "sustainable" or carries some other tag that reassures the buyer that the purchase is environmentally friendly. [continues 719 words]
Rowdy, Ky. MY home state contains the largest contiguous forests in southern Appalachia, which is home to the most biologically diverse landscape in North America. To sit quietly in such a place is an extraordinary thing to do. I have heard ovenbirds and black-and-white warblers, sometimes a wood thrush, as steep ridgelines rose around me, mountains older than the Himalayas. There is a lot to see in this forest: 250 different songbirds, 70 species of trees, bears, bobcats and my favorite nonspeaking mammal, the Southern flying squirrel. [continues 894 words]
Inside New York
