In Memory of Marcellus Ward

Ward was killed 25 years ago. His assassination and last dying breaths were caught on tape and haunted the memory of many Baltimore police officers.

At a memorial, held where Ward was killed, Commissioner Bealefeld said that it is "not for us to judge the results of his sacrifice." And certainly a memorial to a slain officer is not the time and place for that.

But at some point we need to ask. Why are we risking our lives? What are we getting in return? If we don't ask these questions, more good men and women will die.

The block Ward give his life to protect has long since died. Like too much of Baltimore, it's vacant, boarded up, and abandoned. Here's the 1800 block of Frederick, odd side:


By risking his life to protect others, Ward died a hero. That I do not doubt or forget. But it's hard to imagine that Baltimore or Frederick Avenue would be any worse off today if Ward had simply called in sick that day. And the world would certainly be a better place if Ward and other officers killed in the drug war were still with us. I've said this before (to the consternation of some). I don't want to see any other officers killed for a war we are not and cannot win.

When I put my life on the line every night for the men and women of the Eastern, I would often think about the fallen officers pictured on the walls. Ward always stood out for some reason. (I'm not making it up that his picture hangs in the Eastern, am I?) From what I heard he was a good guy. And from his picture, he just seemed more human than most other cops pictured.

Police Commissioner Bealefeld is a good man and the best commissioner Baltimore City has seen in a long while, certainly better than the previous five commissioners (I'll only vouch for worse commissioners as far back to and including Frazier). Maybe Bealefeld even gets it when he talks about the war on drugs and the "seemingly impossible task" of winning it? Who knows. But the war isn't his to call off.

Here is Peter Hermann's take and his story in the Sun with the sad headline: "At memorial, a new vow to wage war on drugs."

[from Peter Moskos's Cop in the Hood]

Eric Sterling's comments on bill C-15

Eric Sterling is a member of the advisory board for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and he is also president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. On October 28th, he testified by videoconference before the Canadian Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. It was in regards to bill C-15 which proposed a mandatory minimum sentence of six months in jail for as little as six marijuana plants.

The committee hearings are over now, but his testimony still raises some good points, namely:

1) The manner in which mandatory minimum sentences dilute the impact of law enforcement resources.

2) The inability of drug courts to scale to demand.

Ceremony Set to Mark 25th Anniversary of Baltimore Det. Marcellus Ward's Murder | Baltimore City Paper

Ceremony Set to Mark 25th Anniversary of Baltimore Det. Marcellus Ward's Murder | Baltimore City Paper: "A quarter-century ago tomorrow, in an apartment above the Kandy Kitchen store near Union Square in West Baltimore, Baltimore Police Det. Marcellus Ward was murdered during an undercover drug deal. The deadly transaction was recorded by the wire Ward was wearing. The tragedy, which will be commemorated by law enforcers at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the scene where it happened, 1829 Frederick Ave., has had an enduring impact. Ward had many friends, and the way he died has prompted some of them—in particular, two former Baltimore City state's attorneys, Kurt Schmoke and Stuart Simms—to imbue his senseless death with meaning.

'Listening to the tape, it just—it kind of changed me a great deal,' Schmoke said of Ward's killing during a 1990 episode of the news show 20/20. By that time, Schmoke had been Baltimore's mayor for nearly two years and had established a national profile as someone who questioned the drug war. When Ward was killed, though, Schmoke was state's attorney—and a tough one, at that, having compiled 'one of the highest drug conviction rates in the country,' as 20/20's John Stossel pointed out.

But Ward's murder, Schmoke continued, 'made me think that the shooter thought more about the money than he did about Det. Ward's life. And how can we, you know, change that around? And it seems to me we can't change it as long as there's big money to be made in drugs. If we don't have a strategy that takes the profit out of drug distribution, then people will continue to value the money more than they value human life.'"

Kurt Schmoke understands the issue. And I sense that more and more people are waking up as well.

City told to gird for more budget cuts -- baltimoresun.com

City told to gird for more budget cuts -- baltimoresun.com: "Baltimore must carve $130 million from its already stripped-down spending plan to account for plummeting revenue and mushrooming pension costs next year, according to projections released Tuesday afternoon.

The grim figures indicate the city, still reeling from sweeping cuts earlier this year, must dig even deeper to balance next year's budget."

Baltimore City faces a big budget problem. Many businesses have shut down. People have been moving away for years. The declining housing market has made things much worse. The proposed response from some in city government - let's tax non-profits. No one in City Hall has seriously proposed ending the war on drugs as an appropriate first step. I often spent hours as a prosecutor sitting around in court dealing with petty drug offenses. I got paid well to do work that I considered to be fairly worthless. We would often plea out drug cases for time served, often without probation. Many times distribution cases would be knocked down and charged as 'attempted distribution' so they would be treated as misdemeanors. Officers often got paid overtime to make these arrests and got overtime again to show up to court. It was the biggest waste of time, energy, and money that I have ever seen.

Spreading LEAP's Message in 2010

The following post was written by LEAP speaker Alison Myrden.

Well here it is December already. Where has the Year gone?

I feel I let LEAP down for not writing a blog for a while, but my health just wouldn’t cooperate until now.

So here goes…

In Canada not much has changed this past year. We are still dealing with a Conservative minority government who believe the war on drugs is more relating to the need for more law enforcement officers and correctional facilities. This only encourages the up and coming drug war prisoners to continue what they are doing illegally and it is those people who will be ensuring us that this war continues. After all we all know, it is the value of the illegal drugs that create the criminals.

In saying so, some interesting information has come to light about the need to legalize and regulate all drugs this past year. The American Medical Association called for the reclassification of cannabis across the United States in November 2009.

And more recently in the UK, Professor David Nutt spoke out about the need to re-classify ALL drugs sparking controversy when he said Ecstasy and LSD were less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes, and criticised the Government's decision to upgrade cannabis to class B

Seems like people are finally starting to understand the absolute NEED to at LEAST reclassify drugs if not as LEAP states to “legalize and regulate ALL drugs” in order to keep them away from the streets and out of the hands of our children.

I’m seriously hoping that in 2010, the leaders of our collective countries take a more serious, scientific view of drugs. Scientists are the people who investigate these substances and analyse them for efficacy and safety… Why not give them some credit?

Here is hoping that 2010 will be your most spectacular year yet and that the interest and the investigations continue all over the world regarding this highly controversial issue of legalizing and regulating ALL drugs.

Happy Holidays to everyone and have a super New Year!

I’m baaack….

Love and a Squish,
Alison
xx

No Vacancy

Perhaps if our prisons weren't so full with drug offenders, they would have room to hold armed robber, child rapist, messianic apocalypse believer, bad neighbor, and now cop killer Maurice Clemmons.

Just a thought.