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veggie
Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Buy drugs, lose car [OH]
#4514618 - 08/09/05 02:01 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Buy drugs, lose car August 9, 2005 - enquirer.com
Now that local politicians have finally discovered Cincinnati has a crime problem the way hell has a heating problem, there's a lot of talk about getting pushers and drugs off the streets.
But something else needs to be taken off the streets: excuses.
As in, "They only arrest the black men who are selling drugs, not the white guys who buy them."
I heard that one at a meeting of the Collaborative that's supposed to help the cops and community fight crime together. It comes up at City Hall nearly as often as ridiculous ways to spend money.
But as of last week, more than 100 of those excuses were taken off the streets.
Without much public attention, Cincinnati police have busted 108 drug buyers in five stings in a project called "Operation Buyer Beware."
It's the first time the Cincinnati Police Department has gone fishing for drug buyers with undercover cops in 15 years, said city prosecutor Terry Cosgrove.
"The last time, we were swamped with defense attorneys claiming entrapment," he said. Not this time. "We have never had to go to trial, and we have never lost one yet through the courts."
Most of the defendants plead out to attempted possession, a first-degree misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. That's not felony trafficking, but it's stiff enough to get their attention, Cosgrove said.
Typical sentences are 30 to 180 days in jail, suspended, with court costs and a year of probation and community service, he said. "The days suspended are the hammer," he said. Get caught again in Over-the-Rhine, the West End, Pendleton or Avondale, and jail time kicks in.
The stings are intended to dry up demand and shut down drug markets that breed robberies, prostitution and murder.
Capt. Paul Humphries, who commands the Vice Control Section of the Police Department, said they're also aimed to force users into drug treatment and improve quality of life in the city.
"It's been more successful than I thought," he said. "What really surprised me was that out of the 108 arrested, 52 were 40 and older. One was a 69-year-old man trying to buy crack."
"Maybe for some 40-year-old recreational users who want to quit, this is that impetus that says, 'I gotta stop doing this or I will lose everything.'''
Here's another surprise catch in the drug net.
"A lot of people in these communities are just furious about, as they say, 'all these Kentucky cars in our neighborhood buying drugs,''' Cosgrove said.
It turns out they're right. About half the busted buyers were from Kentucky and Indiana.
Cosgrove thinks that's because drug laws are tougher across the river. "You will go to jail for a small amount of marijuana in Kentucky. In Ohio, it's just a minor misdemeanor. My guess is a person who uses marijuana finds it easier all the way around in Cincinnati."
CPD and Cosgrove are working on an ordinance to change that, by routinely impounding drug buyers' cars - which would mean lots of explaining to do for teen buyers when mom's Lexus is towed away.
"More and more we're getting positive reactions from people who come up and give us a thumbs-up, a smile or say thank you," Humphries said.
One more statistic that shouldn't matter but does: 60 percent of the people arrested for trying to buy drugs were white.
For some politicians, ignoring crime by blaming race is an addiction.
But that excuse is busted.
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Dreamer987
The VerbalHerman Munster
Registered: 04/15/03
Posts: 5,326
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 16 years, 2 months
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Re: Buy drugs, lose car [OH] [Re: veggie]
#4515776 - 08/09/05 08:20 PM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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"The stings are intended to dry up demand and shut down drug markets that breed robberies, prostitution and murder"
yea, that will work. You know what would solve most of those problems? LEGALIZATION!
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 1 month, 19 days
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Re: Buy drugs, lose car [OH] [Re: Dreamer987]
#4517160 - 08/10/05 04:59 AM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
It's the first time the Cincinnati Police Department has gone fishing for drug buyers with undercover cops in 15 years, said city prosecutor Terry Cosgrove.
"The last time, we were swamped with defense attorneys claiming entrapment," he said. Not this time. "We have never had to go to trial, and we have never lost one yet through the courts."
Which goes to show how much our civil rights have been destroyed in just 15 years.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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The_Red_Crayon
Exposer of Truth
Registered: 08/13/03
Posts: 13,673
Loc: Smokey Mtns. TN
Last seen: 6 years, 10 months
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Re: Buy drugs, lose car [OH] [Re: veggie]
#4517941 - 08/10/05 11:34 AM (18 years, 7 months ago) |
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All they are doing is just busting small time users and dealers will never even make a dent on the drug market and just raises the value of the said drug and makes it a more profitable lucrative business.
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