Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Government mis-uses data, situation normal Today's New York Times article: Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion is interesting in that it describes a process that has become amazingly typical in government use of data (particularly as it relates to the drug war). Amid all the reports of racial profiling in highway stops, the Justice Department did a study - more comprehensive than past ones. The results were important and should be discussed nationally. But the administration decided that the press release should only contain one part of the results -- the data regarding rates that drivers of different races were stopped (8.6% for Hispanics, 9.1% for blacks, 8.7% for whites). That made it seem like there's not much of an issue. What was left out? Percentages of drivers whose vehicles were searched, and percentages of drivers who had force used against them. Those figures gave dramatically different results. Lawrence Greenfield, the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics for 23 years and very highly respected in the field, objected to the partial truth press release. He's being demoted. Naturally. Update: Here are some more of the data from the report (via the AP): --Blacks (5.8 percent) and Hispanics (5.2 percent) were much more likely to be arrested than whites (2 percent). --Hispanics (71.5 percent) were much more likely to be ticketed than blacks (58.4 percent) or whites (56.5 percent). --Blacks (2.7 percent) and Hispanics (2.4 percent) were far more likely than whites (0.8 percent) to report that police used force or the threat of it. Force was defined as when an officer pushed, grabbed, kicked or hit a driver with a hand or object. Also included were police dog bites, chemical or pepper spray or a firearm pointed at the driver, or the threat of any of these. --Handcuffs were used on greater percentages of black motorists (6.4 percent) and Hispanics (5.6 percent) than whites (2 percent). --Black and Hispanic drivers and their vehicles were much more likely to be searched than whites and their vehicles. Black motorists were searched 8.1 percent of the time; Hispanics, 8.3 percent; whites, 2.5 percent. Vehicles driven by blacks were searched 7.1 percent of the time; by Hispanics, 10.1 percent; by whites, 2.9 percent. 9:48:10 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

New Blog at MAPS Via Libby at Last One Speaks, I discover that there is a new blog with the title: Notes on the MAPS/Craker/DEA hearing concerning the establishment of a pilot medical marijuana production facility at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst Rick Doblin is one of the bloggers, posting directly from the hearings. [and I thought Drug WarRant was a narrowly focused single-issue blog] 9:15:50 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Utah media torn Coverage of the attacked rave continues, and media sources in very conservative Utah are trying to figure out how to deal with it. The most confused appears to be the Daily Herald. The first half of the opinion piece is paragraph after paragraph of law-and-order mantra, supporting the police activity and opining that the young people were wrong in their complaints about force, culminating in: Clearly, some enforcement was needed in Diamond Fork on Saturday night. Let's state some basic facts, just for the record. Officers of the law carry guns. It is part of what they do. They often carry nonlethal weapons, too, such as bean-bag launchers or tear gas. They make plans for dealing with potentially difficult situations. Why? Because it's their job to enforce the laws that have been duly enacted by elected authorities. It's called enforcement for a reason. Police don't need to ask politely. The best way to stay out of range of the police is to obey the law. It's a lesson too many people have not learned. But then, they veer off... Having said that, however, we are concerned about the process that led to this raid, starting with Utah County permits. Commissioner Steve White was strangely evasive on this question. When asked point-blank whether a mass-gathering permit had been issued, he said he would not answer. He referred the Herald to law enforcement sources and the county attorney's office. Childs, the property owner, said all the permits were in order and that officers seized them at the gate. It was a legal gathering, she said. To be sure, there were a number of drug- and alcohol-related arrests and citations arising from the rave. These are fair game by any measure. Once a crime is committed, a permit may be considered null and void. But of the 43 citations reported by the Utah County Sheriff's Office, about half appear directly related to the raid itself -- disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and related acts. Most of the others could have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis, without shutting down a concert at which the majority were not breaking the law. A massive police assault on virtually any public gathering (a BYU football game, for example) would uncover similar illegalities, from drugs to weapons to expired driver's licenses. But if a crime is committed during a BYU football game, the game is not stopped. Offenders are trundled off individually. A general suspicion that something illegal might happen at a public gathering, even a rave, may not be the best basis from which to launch a major law enforcement action. What a shift in tone! Almost like they couldn't possibly state the second half to their readers without first affirming their law-and-order credentials in the first half. And it's a very important statement that they make. Read it again... But if a crime is committed during a BYU football game, the game is not stopped. Exactly. The Salt Lake City weekly had less concern about establishing their bonafides in their article: Iraq in Utah. Just a slight nod... Law-enforcement officers -- so often overworked, underpaid and underappreciated -- deserve the respect of citizenry. But based on personal accounts and digital-camera footage of that evening that have flooded the Internet since, even the most die-hard supporter of the local constabulary would feel remiss not asking questions. And then go for the jugular: There's something telling, too, about the fact that the Sheriff's Office learned at noon that day where the rave would commence, but waited more than two hours into the music -- until 11:30 p.m. -- to make 60 arrests and demand the area be cleared. Much was made of one young raver who "overdosed on ecstasy," and then was released to her parents. If disaster was so imminent, and warranted 90 men in uniform, why wasn't the rave politely stopped before it started? Perhaps because the spectacle of an outdoor event, like a rave itself, is a lot more fun than sitting at home. Ouch. 5:18:38 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []