Madison
police chief supports marijuana legalization
Citing a history of inefficient enforcement and
racial disparities, Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said he supports the idea
of legalizing marijuana.
As some serious drug issues
are rising in Madison, such as a surge in heroin-related crimes, Koval said he
would rather see his force’s energy go toward solving those rather than
continuing to pursue controlling marijuana crimes.
“Frankly, I’ve reached that
threshold in my professional career, where I realize that the enforcement
efforts have proven largely unsuccessful,” Koval said. “It just didn’t work. It
wasn’t effective.”
Koval said he would reserve
the criminal record for crimes of violence and weapons offenses, rather than
for casual possession of marijuana.
Koval cited the failure of
the alcohol prohibition effort as an example of how ineffective absolute
enforcement can be, saying he can imagine how “overwhelmed” officers felt.
Rather than continue to criminalize people, Koval said he would rather see
marijuana treated the same as alcohol and tobacco products are.
“I’m not endorsing the use
of any of those substances, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, but I have just
assumed that it would be heavily regulated and taxed, and that money would be
earmarked for other therapeutic interventions or alternatives to incarceration,”
Koval said.
As far as the impact on the University of
Wisconsin campus, Koval said he believes legalization would not make much of a
difference. Depending on the age threshold, he said, the effects should be
similar to the impact alcohol has on campus.
With that in mind, Koval
said he wants to emphasize that he does consider this a serious matter, regardless
of his use of the term “casual.”
The ultimate benefits of
marijuana legalization for Wisconsin would be fewer arrests and fewer instances
of racial disparities in incarceration, he said. Racial disparity in
drug-related offenses in Madison, however, is something Koval said needs to be
addressed sooner than later.
“The rate of arrests … for
possession of marijuana, as is the case of most possessory drug crimes, is
significantly higher for African-American males than it is for the rest of the
demographics of our city,” Koval said.
According to an analysis by
MPD, about 60 percent of people arrested for drug crimes last year were white.
The remaining portion of people arrested were black. In comparison, Madison’s
population is 75 percent white and only 7 percent black.
However, Lieutenant Jason
Freedman of the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force, said dividing drug
crimes up by demographics is not a simple endeavor.
The task force investigates
and tracks the sale of narcotics throughout the county, focusing its efforts
largely on heroin, cocaine and marijuana. It is possible to see trends in the
average profile of who is selling what, but Freedman said there are always
exceptions.
While a
large percentage of marijuana-related crimes in Madison involve black males,
Freedman said the average large volume dealer is actually a white, college-aged
male.
Koval said he does not
think racial profiling is the problem, but rather a mix of social and economic
issues that lead to higher instances of crime in certain “challenged”
neighborhoods.
“Quite frankly, you have a
higher incidence like that in these neighborhoods that are increasingly
becoming challenged due to socioeconomic factors of poverty,” Koval said.
“That’s where we have a disproportionate amount of people of color living
coincidentally.”
The issue is not just
specific to the city, Koval said, though Madison is where his priorities lie.
He said Madison is representative of a much larger national issue that needs to
be dealt with.
For now, Koval said he
realizes he still has a responsibility to enforce the state’s drug laws.
However, it is not the most urgent issue on his list.
“I look at the myriad of
instances that confront the police, not the least of which is weapons offenses,
crimes against persons and heroin,” Koval said. “In relative scale, casual
possession of marijuana does not rise to the top of our things to do.”
What is the main idea of the article?
True or False? Police Chief Koval thinks there will be no
problems with legalizing marijuana. What evidence do you have to support this?
According to this article, what do racial disparities have
to do with legalizing marijuana?
Once finished, we went over how to write a good argumentative paper.
Students write a paper arguing for either:
Why a current law should be abolished
or
Why something that is legal should become illegal.
We focused on developing and elaborating in our argument. We filled out this worksheet before writing.
Development and Elaboration Worksheet
For your argument:
1.
You want to make sure you have quality reasons
for your point of view (YOUR CLAIMS)
2.
In addition, you need to back up your claims
with effective DATA and EVIDENCE.
So… What is your CLAIM (what is your argument)?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
List five pieces of EVIDENCE to back up your claim
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Also, you need to show your reader that you understand that
there are multiple sides to a story.
Write down three counterclaims (reasons why someone may
disagree with you).
1.
2.
3.
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