Firing the Firemen to Fight the Drug War

The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Baltimore City may have to lay off 125 firemen next year. Perhaps I am a bit conservative, but I think that the main purpose of government is to protect life. Certainly putting out fires and the like ought to be a priority for any government. Having spent a few years in the State's Attorney's Office in Baltimore I certainly saw lots of waste. I spent (or rather wasted) countless hours fighting the drug war. I recall a lot of time and money that I once helped to spend on a simple marijuana possession case. The officers in question were on overtime when they made the arrest. They got overtime when they came to court. A judge and jury were tied up with this petty case. After the guilty verdict (the only time I got a jury in Baltimore to convict on marijuana charges. I tried a few other times.) for this one small bag of marijuana, the defendant was sentenced to one (1!) year (although he had a horrible and violent record). And, of course, the case was later overturned on appeal.

So sure, go ahead, and slash the Fire Department's budget. Let the people of Baltimore die in fires. We have to protect them from potheads. And we can't have violent criminals walking around stoned, they might hurt someone.

A. Robert Kaufman, R.I.P.

Bob Kaufman, a perennial candidate for office and a civil rights activist, died last week at the age of 78.

While I personally didn't agree with most of his politics, I appreciated the fact that he became a staunch advocate against the war on drugs.

After he was brutally attacked by a drug addict who needed money for his next fix, Kaufman still kept perspective on it all. Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun blogged:

But his motives were pure, and he never wavered. The cliche has it that a liberal is just a latent conservative who's never been mugged. But after Bob got hit in the head with a brick by a would-be robber, not only was he as lefty as ever; he used the occassion to decry the war on drugs:

The attacker "was so desperate for a fix that he resorted to doing this," Kaufman told the Sun at the guy's sentencing. "Both he and I are victims of the drug trade. If he had been able to go to a clinic and get what he needed, we both wouldn't be here. Now he has to go to prison. ... I wish him the best of luck while he is there."

I never really met Kaufman. I once saw him sitting in my office waiting for my boss, who was handling the above mentioned case. I was busy and he looked annoyed. We may have exchanged brief pleasantries. I regret that I never really got the chance to talk with him.