The original essay is posted on my blog: Aid & comfort blog
News reports that President Barack Obama has appointed Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske as the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy appear confirmed by sources in and around Seattle government. Kerlikowske has been chief of the Seattle Department since 2000. Coming there from a position in the Clinton Justice Department as deputy director in the Justice Department, overseeing the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program. A unit of the Justice Department that, I believe, was integral to helping the Clinton administration rack up a world record prison population.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer has this report on the nomination: From Seattle’s top cop to ‘drug czar’ where, on the plus side, they report of Kerlikowske: “He leaves Seattle with the city’s crime rate at a historical 40-year low, despite resurgences in youth and gang violence, especially in the city’s South End. Kerlikowske has maintained a national profile, with his interests especially focused on issues such as gun control, immigration and electronic data mining of private records.”
On the other side of the coin “In 2007, he came under fire from social justice groups who accused him of whitewashing an investigation into a controversial drug arrest downtown. The controversy prompted changes to the police oversight system as recommended by a blue-ribbon panel.”
The most informative reporting about our new Drug Czar is a Seattle PI series that covers many aspects of police operations during the time Kerlikowske has run the Seattle Police Department ominously titled: The Strong Arm of the Law. A must read series for anyone who wants to see how police do business under Gil Kerlikowske’s leadership.
While the most cogent and objective criticism of Kerlikowske comes from the blog, Injustice in Seattle
“Admittedly, Kerlikowske has had quite a bit of bad press in Seattle, especially over his handling of police misconduct issues and tendency for being lenient towards officers who have had sustained findings of misconduct as determined by internal investigations performed by the Seattle Police Department’s Office of Professional Accountability (SPD OPA).”
(snip)
“As for his stance on drug law enforcement, he has taken stances against a referendum that made simple possession of marijuana the lowest priority for the law enforcement which passed by popular vote. Yet he has also indicated that he supports the notion that offering non-violent drug addicts treatment is a better alternative to incarceration.”
Kerlikewske has a record for lobbying for more gun control laws and assault weapons bans. Personally, I would not mind seeing a global ban on the manufacture of assault weapons but that is my fantasy.
More realistically, I think that calls for gun control laws by law enforcement such as Gil Kerlikowske show a blind spot, an ignorance as to the real cause and effect relationship between the war on drugs and the proliferation of cheap and easy to get illegal hand guns. Cheap guns are so easily available on American streets because the massive black market for drugs, a black market created by the war on drugs economic prohibition policy, demands huge numbers of guns to empower and enforce market dominance by drug distributing gangsters. These gangsters need so many guns that the market for guns is effectively subsidized by their demand. And as long as the drug market self regulate with guns the gun market will be available to all would-be thugs who decide to escalate their criminality to deadly force.
The only way to reduce the demand for illegal hand guns on American streets is to regulate the criminal anarchy out of the distribution of drugs with responsible Harm Reduction based distribution of drugs. As long as criminals control the drug distribution they will self-regulate with guns and maintain a demand for cheap and easy to get guns. Get the users, abusers, addicts and gangsters out of the distribution and instead put responsible adult supervision in control of the drug markets.
As long as the illegal drug markets continue to subsidize the proliferation of illegal hand guns all of the gun control laws in the world will continue to be ineffectual band-aids on a gaping chest wound. When we end the current drug market subsidy, that demands guns, the distribution of street guns will wither. Guns will become less available and more expensive. Less available and more expensive means harder to get for all petty thugs looking to go ‘big time’ with lethal force.
Kerlikowske could surprise us all and be the most civilized Drug Czar America has ever seen. It would not take much effort at all to be better than all previous Drug Czar’s combined. But his record for giving in to excessive and racist police behavior, his career in the Clinton Justice Department and his backassward perspective on gun control do not bode well for giving us an enlightened Drug War policy from the Obama Administration.
UPDATE:
Has Obama Made a Good Choice for Drug Czar?
Scott Morgan at StoptheDrugWar.com has additional information about Kerlikowske including a mitigating perspective on Seattle police enforcement of local marijuana voter decriminalization initiatives.