Sunday's crowd at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair included old-timers in headbands with shoulder-length gray hair and a guy with bells and shreds of cloth covering his body. Howard Wooldridge, a former detective, managed to attract attention of his own. He wore a cowboy hat and spurs. He allowed visitors to pet Misty, his one-eyed horse. He also made a point of showing off his T-shirt slogan: "Cops say legalize drugs. Ask me why." For the past six months, Wooldridge - who retired 11 years ago from the Bath Township Police Department in Michigan - has journeyed across the country on horseback to win attention for LEAP, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [continues 695 words]
Why did Simeon Popov die? Onondaga County Court Judge Joseph Fahey offered one clear answer. During sentencing last week for Robert Adams, who admitted to being an accomplice in the Jan. 20, 2002, robbery that led to Popov's death, Fahey played a recording of a panicked call to the 911 Center by a young man who reported the killing. Fahey told Adams the phone call left just one conclusion: "As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Adams, you're responsible for that," the judge said. [continues 773 words]
It was not the traditional farewell from a Syracuse auditor. Minch Lewis stepped down last week after two terms as the city's top numbers guy, but he used his goodbye to make an unexpected point: It would make good fiscal sense to decriminalize illegal drugs. "We need," Lewis said, "to change the priorities." In a way, his statements aren't really a surprise. Term limits forced Lewis, 61, to leave office. He is more than two years past a run for mayor in which he was burdened by the most maddening of political reputations: He was seen as a sincere guy with great ideas who didn't have a chance to win. [continues 702 words]
Jack Cole isn't surprised. He predicted, last spring, that a police crackdown on Syracuse street violence had absolutely no chance to succeed. Just over five months later, the city has set a record with 24 homicides recorded in this calendar year, with five weeks yet to go. Not all that mayhem, of course, involved street gangs or drug disputes. And city officials say the crackdown is still a work in process. But Cole, an ex-cop, said all the killing underlines his point. "That's what happens, I'm afraid, every time we try to get tougher," Cole said Wednesday, speaking from his home in Massachusetts. "You can see it didn't have a very good effect on Syracuse. I don't know what I'd do if I was mayor, but if I was mayor of anything, I would try and lessen the harm done by the war on drugs. I personally don't think anything will get better until we end prohibition." [continues 646 words]
Jack Cole spent 26 years with the New Jersey State Police, including many years as a narcotics investigator. Cole, now retired, offered a blunt reaction to this week's announcement of a police crackdown on street gangs in Syracuse. "I think it's totally useless," Cole said Wednesday from his home in Massachusetts. He is a founding member of LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a new organization that consists of active or retired cops who support reforming U.S. drug laws. Cole, 63, is also the keynote speaker for Saturday's annual meeting of ReconsiDer, a Syracuse-based forum on changing national policy on illegal drugs. [continues 667 words]
John V. Lindsay won over Pat Murphy with a promise. In 1970, the mayor of New York City asked Murphy - a former police chief of Syracuse - to become his police commissioner. It was a time of anger and street violence in the nation's biggest city. The police were reeling from lurid public stories of corruption. "He told me I had a totally free hand," said Murphy, 80, from his home in Maryland. "When a mayor says to you, 'I'll never ask you for a favor of any kind or any special circumstance,' you really appreciate that. He was the best mayor I ever worked for, along with Mayor Bill Walsh of Syracuse." [continues 560 words]
He is coming to Syracuse only as a listener, a point he made repeatedly in a phone interview. He plans to attend the annual meeting of ReconsiDer at May Memorial Unitarian Society, where Ethan Nadelmann, a national proponent of drug-law reform, is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Saturday. Curtin is a ReconsiDer member. His presence underlines the quiet growth of that Syracuse organization, whose members question the wisdom and benefits of the war on drugs. "I'm a dues-paying member because there's nothing like it in Buffalo," said Curtin, 78, the judge who handled the legal furor over Love Canal. "I'm going Saturday just as a member and observer, but I certainly support the ReconsiDer efforts. [continues 585 words]
