Critics including citizens, defense attorneys, and advocates for civil rights adhere to serious instances of abuse where innocent owners have been victimized. The critics come from both sides of the political spectrum, from left leaning groups such as the American Civil Liberty Union and right-leaning groups such as the Heritage Foundation, claiming that civil-asset forfeiture compromises due process protections and encourages law enforcement blunders. It is also claimed that the civil forfeiture avoids proper appropriates between adequate crime control and financial management (Worrell,…
I do not believe that the ends justify the means when it comes to mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenses. The reason for enacting these laws was to try and deter crime, but research has shown that harsher punishments does not lead to a decrease in crime rates. Incarcerating people for drug offenses is not an effective way to combat drug crimes. The space in prisons, and funds used to fight drug crimes should both be focused more on violent…
The reason these laws were designed were to try to put an end to and capture more high level drug lords. The argument that many people are…
I do think that the mandatory sentencing is one approach to solving the drug problem, but I do not think that it is the only one. It is clear that the sentencing works to a certain extent, but is not the right choice for every situation. Personally, I feel like this is a gray area due to the fact that mandatory sentencing gives definitive discipline to someone who broke the law. Where in specific cases that approach is too strict. Although I do not have a direct answer to solve this problem, I think that different variables should play into the sentencing.…
Once Prohibition was enacted congress had soon become disengaged with the movement, because many Politicians were drinking despite the law. Subsequently congress never provided proper funding for any type of reinforcement for the extensive violations of the Volstead act. Even those who strongly supported prohibition were reluctant to produce or request additional funding, because revealing to the public how severe violations had become would be compromising to the cause. This weakness allowed street gangs to supply clubs, speakeasies, and private dealers such as politicians and other men in power, who no longer had a legitimate source of liquor. In order to get those establishments to sell their liquor instead of that of rival gangs, they used violence. Gangsters’ main methods of gaining control were by instilling fear into local business; once people feared them they were able to exploit them. “By the 1920s, Americans had consumed over twenty-five million gallons of illegal liquor, and bootlegging became a one billion dollars business” As the bootlegging business blossomed, street gangs became established gangsters. With their new found wealth they were able to pay off law enforcement officials. Many law enforcement officials took the bribe, because they were underpaid and overworked. Not only did gangsters have money, they now had the power of the law which made running their operations much smoother. So, the richer the gangster became, the more power they acquired and with power came powerful friends.…
Gangsters could possibly make anywhere from five hundred to five thousand dollars each day dealing crack cocaine. Therefore, the cash reward was a primary part which attracted gangsters to this specific profession. Bloods and Crips manage crack cocaine distribution in several cities around the…
Safeguarding is an important aspect of working with children as it ensures that children are looked after appropriately for example keeping children from having accidents and protecting them from any other unwanted behaviour in the nursery. It is also providing a safe environment with no hazards this could be by doing a risk assessment before the children play outside to stop them from being harmed. While playing outside or during an activity that use any equipment that they need to be supervised it is important to be attentive and aware of any hazards. This could mean doing a risk assessment before the activity to ensure they are safe and have the correct ratio of adult and children. “Everyone has a responsibility for safeguarding children…
Everybody knows that the real problem with illegal drugs is that they cost too much, and they are so difficult to get that drug addicts need to commit crimes in order to feed their habits. If only people could go down to the nearest Seven-Eleven and buy a cocaine-powdered donut, or drive up to the window at McDonald's and order a dank 10-piece marijuana nugget meal. Then people wouldn’t need to knock down an old lady and grab her purse, or commit a home invasion robbery for some extra cheese. People would not be as shady and messed up to others if they could get what they want and need easier (cheaper). There would be less crime and no drug dealers.…
Laura Dimon writes that in the 1990’s, marijuana possession made up almost 80% of the arrests that occurred. This is just one example of how the criminal justice system is broken. Laura Dimon also writes that four out of every five arrests for drugs was for drug possession, not drug dealing. According to Mike Lee, families were left torn apart by a “crime wave” that never actually existed. It was simply a cover story for the justice system to use to target colored people and people who live in the poorer communities. Rich white neighborhoods were not raided and stripped of all belongings. Rich, white neighborhoods were not persecuted for the use of cocaine. But black communities were regularly persecuted and torn apart for the smallest part of any type of drug. Crack is known as a white mans cocaine and crack actually carries a higher sentence than cocaine. Crack is cheaper to buy so the poorer people would buy crack. Larger amounts of cocaine carried a shorter prison sentence compared to lesser amounts of crack, many people believe this was because cocaine was found in rich, white communities, where as crack was found in the poverty stricken black communities. The justice system also has more drug users instead of drug dealers incarcerated. Instead of going for the real problem, the drug dealers, the justice system is going after the…
What leads law enforcement to corruption? After looking at yearly sales of different drugs in the United States, it was found that weed brings in about $3 billion dollars, heroin $10 billion, and cocaine, a whopping $38 billion dollars annually (Stevens, 1999). If you pay attention to these numbers, you can clearly see how easy it would be for a low paid, frustrated police officer to turn corrupt and help with the sale, transport, or manufacturing of illegal substances.…
The effects of legalizing drugs would not have a major effect on organized crime. Situation in the past support the theory that organize crime would still thrive even without the sale of illegal drugs. The corruption, extortion, and trafficking would still be a major source of organized crimes income. In the 1920’s and early 30s when we had prohibition crime groups ran the illegal “speak easy”. The sale of illegal alcohol is similar to the sale of illegal drugs today. When prohibition ended the organized crime groups did not disappear they still had many other enterprising ventures they were part of.…
The lessons learned from police vs. jailing criminals are that police are really cracking down on people using and selling drugs. They are enforcing the three strike…
The War on Drugs is seemingly the work of angelic political figures wanting only to cleanse the American individual of all impurities in hindrance of life, love, and prosperity. However, when carefully examined and then further cross-examined, a faint smell of fish seems to linger. Is this war all of us American’s allowed to be called on drugs really an effort to ‘catch the bad guys’ or is it one of the biggest “sleight of hand” operations used to both heavily incarcerate and monetarily penalize individuals deemed disobedient. Incredibly similar to war profiteering, the same structure that is applied to enemies foreign, is applied to the supposed ‘enemies domestic’. In War Profiteering, we simply blow up an entire country, give what little government is established some weapons and infrastructure, then leave and allow the ‘bad guys’ to come right back and take back all that was given. Then we swiftly declare crisis or a state of conflict, rush back into the country and begin the cycle all over again.…
If the catch and release game of illegal gang members is not gut wrenching enough, there is another aspect that stacks on top of this issue. Mexican cartels and elsewhere have been battling over control of the Southern United States border in an effort to expand their drug empires (). This includes, funneling drugs into America through the immigration loop holes to their stateside counter parts for distribution. The Texas Department of Public Safety correlates a multinational relationship between the drug cartels in Mexico with regional gangs which lead to an overall higher level of drug trafficking, human smuggling, and violence in Texas (Influx of Illegal Alien Minors, 2015). More drugs on the street can only mean that it is going to get worse as most of the gang members…
I will focus on the political economy framework for drug violence. To understand the interaction between the drugs and states, you must first understand that it is more than just business and money. It is to create fear and establish authority. A case done by Angelica Duran-Martinez, To Kill and Tell? State Power, Criminal Competition, and Drug Violence, looks a precisely this. There is balance between state authority and the driving force that is the cartel. There is a need and a market to provide illicit drugs. Her logic is that “in illegal markets, criminals may use violence to solve disputes given the absence of legal mediation. Violence can also signal toughness: the more violent an organization, the less likely that competitors will try to overpower it or that members of the organization will cheat or defraud. The more visible violence is, the more likely that the toughness and power of the organization will be communicated to the public, which is to the criminals’ advantage. Yet, violence also has drawbacks, such as scaring away nonviolent partners and, especially, attracting police attention”, unless you have the majority of the police force either working for you or are bribed to look the other way (Duran-Martinez,…