I saw some news that shocked me into action. I have been reading the Drug War Chronicle for many years, three weeks ago I saw this
Feature: Narcs Cheer -- House Economic Stimulus Bill Would Give Byrne Grant Program $3 Billion Over Three Years
The party I had worked for, supported and loved was promoting a program that inflicts mass casualties on our own neighborhoods, erodes civil rights, imprisons innocents and petty criminals alike.
I want to educate progressive activists, politicians other drug policy reformers and motivate them to act.
Byrne grants are a program that Drug Task Forces that focus on small dealers and are mostly targeted on Black and Latino communities.
The Byrne grant program, and especially its funding of the scandal-ridden multi-jurisdictional anti-drug task forces, also came in for harsh criticism from drug reform, civil rights and criminal justice groups. For these critics, the program was in dire need of reform because of incidents like the Tulia, Texas, scandal, where a Byrne-funded task force police officer managed to get 10% of the black population of the town locked up on bogus cocaine distribution charges. Scandals like Tulia showed the Byrne grant program "did more harm than good," the critics wrote in a 2006 letter demanding reform.
Of course, Tulia wasn't the only Byrne-related scandal. A 2002 report from the ACLU of Texas found 16 more scandals involving Byrne grant-funded task forces in Texas, including cases of witness tampering, falsifying of government records, fabricating evidence, false imprisonment, racial profiling, and sexual harassment. Byrne-related scandals have also occurred in other states, including the misuse of millions of dollars of grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions because of police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower charges in exchange for cash or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
I saw that Rep Jared Polis D-CO-02 was having an open house at his new office. I studied the issue of Byrne Grants and went to meet him in person. (we had been Facebook friends) I talked to him for a moment about the issue and I asked him who on his staff worked on the drug policy issue. He gave me the name and I called her.
I found that she was new to Congress, but she wanted to learn about the issues. I said I would try not to overwhelm her with information, she said not to worry about that.
I sent a "The sky is falling" email to the Directors of the major national Drug Policy organizations. I received an Email from Ethan Nadlemann, Director of the Drug Policy Alliance that said, "WE ARE WORKING ON IT!" I took a deep breath and started to study the issue more.
A few days later there was a Washington Post Magazine story, Deadly Force about a small town Mayor whose house was raided by a SWAT team and his dogs killed. I learned that Bryne Grants funded a lot of the equipment for SWAT teams.
I wrote a note to the Post Writer April Witt to thank her for the article and to tell her about the Byrne funds in the stimulus bill. She wrote back and wanted more information about the program.
I contacted some Drug Policy Bloggers for help in replying to April. Through this process I met Scott Hensen, who Blogs at Grits for Brekfast. Scott had worked for the ACLU of Texas and had authored several studies that were critical of the Byrne Grant program. He also sent April information.
In the initial Senate bill Bryne Grants were reduced to $1.5 Billion with $1.2 Billion going to other police funding programs. The Collins cuts wacked another $340 Million from Byrne funding.
Now as the Bill moves to conference, I am looking for ways to influence the conference Committee members. Any Suggestions?