cannabisnews.com: Law Would Attack Crime by Targeting Drug Houses





Law Would Attack Crime by Targeting Drug Houses
Posted by FoM on February 07, 2000 at 18:54:14 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: NewsDay
A new state effort aims to fine landlords when they rent to known drug dealers.A landlord could be targeted after repeated police raids and convictions of the same drug suspects living in or operating from leased properties, according to a plan outlined Monday by state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
"Drug dealers cannot be permitted to plant a flag in our neighborhoods, claim it as their turf, and proclaim they are open for business," Spitzer said.His office is seeking court orders against a landlord and to keep five alleged dealers from within 200 feet of one suspected marijuana operation in Albany. The strategy will be duplicated statewide and eventually take on crack houses and other centers of harder drugs and violence, Spitzer said.This turf battle is nothing new for Linda Miller or Elfrieda Textores."People are afraid to walk; people are afraid to use the telephone booth and the traffic is going in and out all night," Miller said."What I object to is all the people who come from the suburbs and get their drugs," said Textores, who has lived her 68 years in the inner-city neighborhood. "I'm tired of having people afraid to visit me.""This is the message," Miller said sternly: "The South End is not going to tolerate this kind of behavior anymore."Clean Sweep is being tried at the Albany duplex first. While the civil action backed by police reports and records of convictions began Monday, Spitzer said a court injunction might not be granted until March 22 under the law. Despite the delay, Spitzer said the suspects are unlikely to move before the court acts.That's how stubborn the players are and how persistent the problem is, Spitzer said.Spitzer said the constitutionality of the program is sound because property owners are required by safety codes to report and deter crime in their buildings. He also said the potential penalty - fines - is a measured, reasonable response that will withstand a legal test."We are fundamentally shifting the focus of our attention," Spitzer said. "We want to bring different tools to the situation."Miller and Textores said it's about time.They remember an editorial once said crime in her neighborhood was simply a fact of life: live with it."Well," Miller said, "We don't think we have to live with it."Albany, N.Y. (AP) Published: February 7, 2000Copyright © Associated Press. Related Article:Unwary Landlords Run Risk of Ruin http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread3593.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on February 08, 2000 at 15:14:12 PT
It's like squeezing a balloon
The antics of the antis are getting downright silly.First they try to get dealing off of the street corners by aggressively arresting dealers. The dealers just go elsewhere. The antis keep up the pressure, and dealers just go indoors, start sporting beepers and use kids and drop points. The antis then try to use the 'nuisance' laws against renters and try to make them accomplices in their WoSD by threatening to steal their funds as they have the property of those less well-heeled or legally savvy. But the only way that this can be done is if the the renters adopt Soviet-style building wardens, who watched everyone and reported on anything they thought suspicious. Which is how tens of thousand of people over the decades wound up in Gulags. Is this what we want?This DrugWar is like squeezing a balloon; squeeze in one direction, and it bulges in another. Most reasonably intelligent children would get bored very quickly with this kind of entertainment, and find something better to do.Unfortunately, nothing about this DrugWar is reasonable or intelligent. Like mentally deficient children, the DrugWarriors are trapped in a game of forever trying to squeeze the balloon, in the vain hope that someday, the thing will stop bulging. Fat chance.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 07, 2000 at 19:57:47 PT
They are on the run!
Hi military officer guy! The news is so interesting to me. Reality says they want us to all go away and please go quietly but guess what! We aren't going anywhere. If we give up then what? I know I will always be involved in a cause that needs attention and I know if this one ends I'll find another cause to get involved in but this one must be stopped and we need it now more then ever! They are beginning to see the results of keeping the drug war going. It doesn't work. It is a failure and all the money in the world will not stop man's desire to alter his consciousness! It never has and it never will and thank you for the supportive words!Peace, FoM!
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Comment #1 posted by military officer guy on February 07, 2000 at 19:23:37 PT
on the run...
when i read crap like this, i actually think we have the law makers on the run...it looks like they're grasping for straws, and making crap up like this...it's said, but encouraging for our side...keep it up, and spreading the truth, we can win this war...
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