NEW HAVEN -- Green Party gubernatorial candidate Clifford Thornton on Thursday decried Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi's forced admission that he abused cocaine and alcohol while in office as "a double standard" in the so-called "War on Drugs." "Powerful white politicians are held to one standard of behavior and poor brown and black people are prosecuted based on another standard for this same behavior," said Thornton, 61, the first black and the first Green Party candidate for governor in Connecticut. Published reports have revealed that Fabrizi's name had come up in documents related to a federal drug investigation. [continues 446 words]
NEW HAVEN -- At the age of 18, Clifford Wallace Thornton Jr. lost his mother to a heroin overdose. At first, he wanted harsher enforcement of drug laws. Now, at the seasoned age of 61, he is advocating the controversial position that the multibillion-dollar "War on Drugs" has resulted in failed drug policies, a waste of public resources and an inability to "stop the flow of drugs" into the heart of the nation's neighborhoods, such as those in his native Hartford. [continues 603 words]
HARTFORD -- As momentum builds in favor of equalizing penalties for dealing crack or powder cocaine, legislators were unsure Monday if pending legislation to that end would pass this session. Proponents of Raised Bill 6635, An Act Concerning the Illegal Sale or Possession with Intent to Sell of Cocaine said that crack and cocaine are two forms of the same drug, yet state penalties are stiffer against those caught with crack. Connecticut law stipulates a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for people found with half a gram of crack. Offenders with cocaine are not subjected to that same sentence unless they possess 28 grams. [continues 351 words]
HARTFORD -- The General Assembly's Judiciary Committee Monday passed a bill meant to reduce prison overcrowding, but scrapped provisions to reform racial disparities in the state's criminal justice system. Members voted 29-7 in favor of House Bill 5211, An Act Concerning Prison Overcrowding, after more than an hour of deliberations. State Rep. Michael Lawlor, D-East Haven, House co-chairman of the committee, said there has been a spike in the number of prisoners from about 17,000 to more than 19,500. The Department of Correction's budget is more than $500 million. [continues 517 words]
NEW HAVEN - Criminal justice reform advocates are gearing up to challenge wrongful convictions in the state, taking inspiration from the exoneration of more than 100 death-row inmates nationwide who have been cleared by DNA evidence. At a conference Saturday, about 60 people gathered at St. Paul & St. James Episcopal Church to discuss ways to tackle police and prosecutorial misconduct, eyewitness misidentification of suspects and prosecuting those with mental illness. The event was sponsored by People Against Injustice, the Green Party of New Haven County, Efficacy, A Better Way Foundation, Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty and Interfaith Cooperative Ministries. [continues 501 words]
As most eyes around the world are fixed on the United States' war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, John Jairo Lugo fears U.S. military aid in the failed "war on drugs" in Colombia can only escalate anti-American sentiments in his native land. And he's not alone. Lugo has joined with Yale University Chaplain Frederick J. Streets and the New Haven Peace Commission, warning that U.S. military resources are falling into the hands of paramilitary units that either massacre farmers, seize their land or force peasants to grow the lucrative cocaine-yielding crop, coca. [continues 881 words]
NEW HAVEN - Thomas Fagan, along with three other plaintiffs, was unsuccessful in suing the city for moving several bus stops away from the Green when the Omni New Haven Hotel at Yale opened at Chapel and Temple streets. So the Libertarian-leaning Republican has decided to fight his battle from within the system. He's running for Board of Aldermen in the 10th Ward. "If we can't do it legally, we'll do it politically. Moving those stops was wrong," said Fagan, a self-employed researcher and online magazine editor. [continues 835 words]
HARTFORD - Lawmakers Monday drew a mixed reaction to a bill that aims to reduce the number of African Americans and Latinos incarcerated in the state from 73 percent to 60 percent by Jan. 1, 2001. Blacks and Hispanics comprise 16 percent of the state population, according to data compiled by the Office of Legislative Research. House Bill 7089 also would allow the courts to impose alternative sanctions in cases in which there is a prescribed mandatory minimum sentence, provided the crime was nonviolent and 'a showing of good cause' is made in court. [continues 383 words]
NEW HAVEN - 7,000 to 11,000 New Haveners are addicted to alcohol or illicit drugs, tThe city's war against substance abuse "is a war we can win," says a determined Marzella Tyson, the new project director of New Haven Fighting Back, the city's anti-drug initiative. National and state studies estimate that 7,000 to 11,000 New Haveners are addicted to alcohol or illicit drugs. However, several city officials say Tyson, who has been project director for about three months, has brought enthusiasm to the jobthat has been nothing short of contagious. [continues 422 words]
NEW HAVEN - Hundreds of children will be riding lawn tractors this weekend, but they won't be cutting any grass. Instead, they'll be riding over blacktop. Youngsters between 7 and 12 years old will be competing from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday in the anti-drug effort "Kmart Kids Race Against Drugs." The youths will race in safety-modified lawn tractors in a course around the Super Kmart parking lot at 315 Foxon Blvd. [continues 325 words]
