lazy means knowing the majority of drug use is not happening in the poorer, black communities but targeting those communities because of the work involved in busting the majority of drug use.



so it's "right" for police officers to go the route of busting minorities/poor people because they can't be "bothered" doing police work to bust the majority of drug users due to limited resources? why should the amount of work required be considered when busting people breaking the law?

You are skirting my argument. I already answered this but you aren't seeing it.

Here is a simple analogy. Your job is a rock scooper. You have to pick up the most rocks in 1 minute, that is how you earn your living. There is a 100 yard radius that is completely filled with rocks. Are you going to run 90 yards to pick up a rock? No. Your job is to pick up the most rocks, so you are going to pick up the ones closest to you. Does that make you lazy? No, it makes you someone who performs your job to the best of his ability.

Is it better to bust 10 criminals in a day or 2?

great, now we're comparing rocks to human beings.

it depends on on who those criminals are. don't you think dragging male fathers from their family, or fining them, for low-level drug use has an enormous effect on the family itself?

If my old man got busted for smoking crack in an alley I'd blame him for fucking up my family not the cops.

You do realize that you have now completely sidestepped/changed the argument, right?

i suppose so.

So, do you still think it is racist to arrest black men selling drugs on the street instead of white men snorting coke in their house?

Do you realize that if, in the name of fairness, police spent an amount of time equal to the population % of that race investigating drug crimes, it would very likely end up with many more black arrests than whites? Does that mean that in order to be racially equal, police should spend a higher % of time, proportionally speaking, so that a proportional number of whites and blacks are arrested?

Here is an example of what I am talking about. These are all made up numbers, and assuming that in general whites committing drug offenses are doing so in places/ways that makes it harder to catch them.

Black % of drug using population = 20%
White % of drug using population = 80%

Time spent pursuing black drug crime = 2000 hours
Time spent pursuing white drug crime = 8000 hours

Number of black arrests = 200
Number of white arrests = 400

In the name of equal arrests, the time spent pursuing white drug crime would have to be adjusted to 16000 hours. Is that fair? Is that racist towards whites, or is it the right thing to do?

the more drug users we can throw in jail, the better, right?

I thought the issue was racism and fairness?

Let's run with that argument then. The less drug users we throw in jail, the better, because the drug war is wrong, so let's only focus on white drug users since they are much harder to catch. That's real fucking fair, c_b.

You can't have your cake and eat it too, bro.

I mean I guess the question is, what are you really expecting the police to do, given that they are law enforcement officers and their job is to enforce the law, which happens to make drugs illegal. Or do you condone labeling them as racists and leaving it at that?

I think another reason police tend to arrest those that they do (like blacks and people in poverty) is that their activities are tied to violent crime. White, upper-crust coke dealers often don't carry guns, and they're not going to shake anyone down for a stash. Street drug dealers have to do these things as a way of maintaining their business capability. There's territory to be controlled, people to be silenced, etc. If police see arresting street dealers as a means of also regulation violent crime, they're going to leap at that opportunity, because violent crime stats are the downfall or saving grace of any police department.

Exactly. Some guy selling blow out of his house in subrubia isn't shooting anyone.

you unfairly combined my argument.

first, i've never said we should take focus off minority drug users and put it on white drug users.
what i have said is cops seemingly partially focus on minority drug users because it's easier to nab them and bring 'em through the system. which, i suppose, is the goal of the criminal justice system. whether this is racism or classism, i don't know.

however, the consequences of this may actually further cause our government harm -- really, whether it's dealing with minorities or white people --- through social programs providing insurance to poor families who are left without a bread winning dad, who's now being fucked in the ass by the criminal justice system and may be in jail for petty drug offenses.

stats please on how many minorities charged with drug offenses are also brought up on arms charges.

well of course my stance at the base of this is our drug laws need fixing. but i think it's impossible for someone to look at how these laws are seemingly being enforced and say, "well, that's just too bad for the minorities!" and feel OK with that. perhaps i'm too idealistic.

I think you are misusing the term racism here. I am at least as idealistic as you, but I'm also realistic. I don't have to make a judgment on whether it sucks to be a minority or not to realize that it isn't racism. On the same note, minorities receiving the "worse end of the deal" also does not mean racism. You seem to think that because more of them are arrested it makes it racist. Neither racism nor classism apply here, it's simply how it is.

Noone says you have to feel good about it, but trying to paint it as racism is stupid.

Is it impossible to accept that life isn't always fair and that this isn't racism or classism? Perhaps we are unfairly combining your argument because you aren't really providing an argument, you are just implying that there is prejudice on the basis that some people are affected more than others. Perhaps if you looked at it more analytically instead of turning everything into one big circular argument. I'm not trying to put you down, just saying your arguments don't float and you are switching between your positions and the point you are trying to make at every turn.

whatever it is, it's contributing the continued poorness and downswing of the people in these communities. if white men can do drugs, why can't minorities? because cops focus on them more easily? seems unfair to me.

then what is it? minorities getting the short end of the pole as usual?