End of the Prostitution and Drug Free Zones

Mayor Tom Potter is an idiot. The drug free zones are racist because more African-Americans are excluded than whites. That is an idiotic statement. There are a lot of reasons that more African-Americans are excluded that have nothing to do with racism. (By the way, this rant only pertains to the drug free zones. Over 80% of the prostitution exclusions were white, but that isn't a problem for anyone at city hall).

One - African-Americans commit more crime. Period. Is it politically incorrect to mention? Yes. Is it true? Yes. FBI crime statistics have shown repeatedly for years that African-Americans are arrested and/or convicted at rates statistically way higher than any other race for their percentage of the population. Am I saying that therefore African-Americans as a whole are lesser human beings or have a higher propensity for crime based on race? Of course not, THAT would be racist and flat untrue. There are a dozen societal and economic reasons that African-Americans turn to crime at higher rates. African-American communities tend to be less affluent. People that don't have enough money to survive are way more likely to commit crime and/or abuse narcotics. Do more crime, do more drugs, have more contact with police, get excluded more often from the drug free zones. The statistics regarding exclusions are consistent with statistics regarding arrest and conviction. That is the way it should be.

Two - The zones weren't created in the west hills. They were created in areas that are high vice areas. The people getting excluded from these zones are usually transient and living in the zone or living (transient or not) close by. African-American drug users prodominanty use crack. Whites - Meth. Why? Who the hell knows. But, the two are distributed and used in vastly different ways. Crack is sold on the street and used on the street. Crack users are going to be more exposed and will be seen and contacted by police at a higher frequency than meth users. Thus, more African-American exclusions.

So why keep the zones? Because they put drug users and criminals in contact with the system. Is that a good thing? Good is a stretch, but its all we have. The more a drug user is arrested, the more opportunities they will have for treatment and/or social services. Think drug abusers go to prison in Multnomah County? Get real. Dealers, sometimes. Users? Hardly ever. They are put through STOP court and sent for treatment. When they don't go, they get pulled in on a PV and told to go again. Been through stop court before? Fine, here is probation. Now stop doing crack. Possession of drugs is presumptive probation/no jail on Oregon's sentencing grid. The only way they go to jail is violating their probation. And even then, it is not for long. Think they are getting treatment living on the street in a high vice area? Then you have no link to reality.

If we had real politicians, real people who would deal with the problem trying to find a solution , then it could be addressed. Stand up and tell the idiot race warriors that they are idiots. They are not helping the problem. It does nothing to help the African-American community to stand up and scream that the police and the system are racist and that is why a disproportionate number of African-Americans are arrested and excluded. That is BS, that is ignoring the problem. And the reasons African-Americans are arrested and excluded more often are not going to go away by ignoring them. Come to terms with the FACT that the African-American community is committing crime at higher rates, including drug crimes, and start discussing why. Is it the high rate of unwed mothers? Teen mothers? Lack of supervision of youth in single parent houses? Lack of job opportunities? Lack of funding? Education? What? Something is causing it, it isn't the color of our skin. But whatever it is isn't being addressed because our leaders, and to a large extent, our communities, don't dare to even speak about, let alone address the problem. Instead, it is just the damn police being racist again.

The result is that the drug free zones disappear because our idiot mayor jumps to the conclusion that they are racist. Nice job Tom Potter, you are so scared to offend the African-American community that you are going to do nothing to help it, and at the same time, completely screw every narcotics user in the city who might have benefited from contact with the system. That is an utter failure to do your job, and in my opinion, makes you an utter failure as a human being. Right now, there are HUNDREDS of people who are poor or homeless, African-American or White or another ethnicity, and the only thing they have in common is 1) they are addicted to narcotics, and 2) they are miserable. They don't want to be addicted, they don't want to be homeless, and they don't want to be miserable. But for any myriad of reasons, they continue to abuse drugs and solidify their circumstances. As your own statistics point out, a good percentage of them are African-American. But because you see that as a problem when it isn't, you personally took away the single most commonly used tool for police and social workers to intervene and put them in contact with the social services and treatment they need because you fancy yourself progressive. I guess that is 3) that they have in common. They all got screwed by you.

Measure 49

So Measure 49 is coming up for a vote and I am curious on other people's opinion. I voted for measure 37 but am probably one of the pro-37s who would consider measure 49 if it wasn't such a sham. It claims to "streamline" those who want less than 10 homes and hinder giant subdivisions. Sounds good. Then you read about how they basically cheated to secure an unfair and inaccurate title and summary for the measure. But it gets even worse when you actually read measure 49. I encourage anyone who is hearing all the back and forth about what this measure actually does to PLEASE JUST READ THE LANGUAGE. It has always bothered me that the common voter thinks they won't understand. It is fairly straightforward. Measure 49 guts measure 37, it helps no one who is making or has made a claim. Hell, even the Oregonian opinion section had a good article about how it hurts anyone applying, even Dorothy English wouldn't qualify for the streamlined process. This is a shady attempt to kill a voter approved initiative by lying to the voting population. I hate the Oregon legislature. I hope this measure dies fast and hard.

Good article with summary of measure 49:

http://www.oregoncatalyst.com/index.php?/archives/912-Absurdities-of-Measure-49.html