This murder could have been caused by an armed robbery and had nothing to do with drug laws, drug wars, etc. The truth is you have no idea what caused this murder. Unfortunately, there are murders in Schenectady - some have to do with drugs and some have to do with factors totally unrelated to drugs.
It's quite reasonable to question the wisdom of some of the country's drug laws. It's silly to try and blame every act of violence to those laws.
And many people involved in the illicit drug market never resort to violence.
The drug war has created an atmosphere where death and violence is acceptable behavior.
It is not silly to blame those who escalated the death and violence.
Every year the city is less and less safe.
Throw more guns death and violence at it, that should work after 60 years of failure.
Unfortunately, while the drug trade certainly has an effect on crime, Schenectady is now full of young men who will seek to settle some slight, real or imaginary, by killing the person who offended them. The victim in this case could merely have looked at someone funny.
I agree, people just go right to deadly force over any small thing, because they grew up in an environment where police guns and violence are in their faces every day.
But the real issue is the massive expense of the drug war and the absolute lack of any results.
Chicago nearly shut down city hall because the war on alcohol was crippling them.
They laid off teachers, closed schools and cut services to keep the police funded.
I agree that our drug policies are crazy, but I think places like Hamilton Hill in Schenectady are going to suffer the fallout from any legalization just as they bear the brunt of the War on Drugs. We just saw a bill introduced that would make the seller liable for a heroin overdose. If someone of legal age uses an illegal drug, is the supplier really a murderer? Someone, somewhere pays the price for drug abuse, and no one wants there to be any consequences to anyone except those at the bottom.
I agree that our drug policies are crazy, but I think places like Hamilton Hill in Schenectady are going to suffer the fallout from any legalization just as they bear the brunt of the War on Drugs. We just saw a bill introduced that would make the seller liable for a heroin overdose. If someone of legal age uses an illegal drug, is the supplier really a murderer? Someone, somewhere pays the price for drug abuse, and no one wants there to be any consequences to anyone except those at the bottom.
They also sued the ammo supplier who sold ammunition to the Aurora shooter, but an judged tossed it as political BS.
We have already seen that legalization of marijuana has not produced mayhem.
If anyone should be liable for heroin overdoses, it should be the government for not allowing standardization of doses and purity quality control.
Illegal dealers will cut drugs with rat poison if they think it will make more profit.
If drugs were legalized and had oversight, most Hamilton Hill dealers would be out of business and businessmen would tax and control the distribution.
Drug legalization would save close to $50 billion a year in enforcement cuts, $50 billion on prison costs and would generate another $50 billion in tax revenue.
That is more than we spend on all the federal school funding and programs, like lunches, head start etc.
$150 billion could pay for college tuition for 3 million or more low income students.
If Schenectady County simply stopped arresting people for drugs, the budget would have an instant surplus and tax breaks for everyone.
The money saved and the increased tax revenues could pay for all the drug addiction treatment that medicaid(taxpayers) now pays for.
Portugal has decriminalized all drugs 12 years ago, and drug use has been cut in half, and half the prisons have been closed.
They can't fully legalize drugs because the United Nations forbids it.
From Time Magazine:
With 1.5 million Americans being arrested each year for simple drug possession — 40% of them for marijuana — Portugal’s experience raises the question of whether arresting users is a cost-effective use of taxpayer money. Billions of dollars are spent each year on enforcement of drug possession laws and that enforcement is notoriously racially biased — if ceasing to arrest users for possession has essentially no effect, is this really a good way to spend scarce money?
It's one thing to argue that the government has created some ill advised drug policies which, in turn, have precipitated some severe negative consequences. It's another to use that as a cause of every homicide in poor neighborhoods.
It's one thing to argue that the government has created some ill advised drug policies which, in turn, have precipitated some severe negative consequences. It's another to use that as a cause of every homicide in poor neighborhoods.
I disagree.
Creating a targeted war zone creates gangsters.
Next you'll be denying alcohol prohibition created gangsters, drive-bys and brutal violence.
Alcohol didn't create Capone, the law prohibiting alcohol posession did.
Today's news, man shot and killed outside of Zaids farmer's market/curbside drug sales.
Go ahead, tell me how it's not drug war/police profiteering related.
Poor neighborhoods without the drug trade do not have all the killing.
Is this your opinion, or does your statement have facts to back it up? I'm curious. I'd like to know of a poor neighborhood without the drug trade, and for that matter a middle class or affluent neighborhood without the drug trade. Just because someone isn't standing on a street corner dealing, doesn't mean drugs aren't being sold. I'd also like to see the crime statistics if any that would support your statement that these neighborhoods don't have all the killing, whatever that means.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
Is this your opinion, or does your statement have facts to back it up? I'm curious. I'd like to know of a poor neighborhood without the drug trade, and for that matter a middle class or affluent neighborhood without the drug trade. Just because someone isn't standing on a street corner dealing, doesn't mean drugs aren't being sold. I'd also like to see the crime statistics if any that would support your statement that these neighborhoods don't have all the killing, whatever that means.
would you agree that the media reports almost ALL 'illegal' drug issues are in the poorest of neighborhoods? just askin
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
would you agree that the media reports almost ALL 'illegal' drug issues are in the poorest of neighborhoods? just askin
Oh of course! Murder and drugs sell advertising. That's what the media is today, a money driven entity. Just look at our local news stations that broadcast 6-8 hrs. of "news" everyday. Without drugs and murders there would be far less "hot news" stories. The fact that most reported occur in poor neighborhoods adds to the "juice", because there's so many more issues they can point to to make the story even juicier.
My point was to the posters statement that there are somehow poor neighborhoods where drug sales don't occur and ergo fewer murders. I don't buy that, and unless I can sink my teeth into some statistics that prove otherwise, then I'll continue to dispute that.
Rest assured, if a story of drug sales and murder were to occur in a middle class/affluent neighborhood, depending on the saleability of it, it too would receive media attention. It has to have "juice" to make it to the media though.
I remember many years back when an elderly couple were murdered by two Schenectady thugs who co-conspired with the couples grandson to rob them for drug money. That happened in Colonie I believe. They made a movie about it. It had "juice". There are far more "murder in the hood" stories that the media can plug into to sell the "news" on a daily basis.
"I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix,"
There were murders in that neighborhood long before the surge of and reaction to a the cocaine and heroin trade.
Once again, we attribute every bad act as a consequence of a pet cause. Drug policy was ill advised so every act of violence in that community is a result of drug policy. This reduces individuals into mindless, powerless robots unable to control their actions due to environmental circumstances.
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