"WAR ON CRACK" = WAR ON BLACKS, LATINOS

Reprinted from MIM Notes 102, July 1995.

Despite evidence that large numbers of whites use and 
sell crack cocaine, federal law enforcement in Southern 
California has waged its "war on crack" almost 
exclusively in the internal colonies, sentencing Blacks 
and Latinos to some of the harshest drug penalties in 
the United States. Prosecutors hammer Black and Latino 
defendants with 10-year mandatory federal sentences 
while whites prosecuted in state courts face a maximum 
5-year sentence.

In the United States, whites account for over 67% of 
people who have ever used crack (2.3 million out of 3.4 
million total) and 53% of those who used crack in the 
last year (488,000 out of 906,000). But less than 4% of 
the defendants prosecuted in federal courts for crack-
related offenses in 1994 were white. Whites accounted 
for 51% of crack users in the Los Angeles metro area, 
but not a single white has been convicted of a crack 
cocaine offense in Los Angeles federal courts since 
1986, and only 4% of those prosecuted in state courts 
were white.

Federal lawyers deny that nation plays any role in 
prosecution patterns--but they openly admit that 
federal and local law enforcement agencies concentrate 
almost exclusively on minority communities. For 
example, 96% of those arrested during a 1989 anti-drug 
sweep of L.A. schools were minorities, because only 
minority schools were targeted. Whites charged with 
possessing enough crack to be prosecuted under federal 
laws are not referred for federal prosecution because 
they are not considered "big enough." They are 
considered to be middle-people while Blacks and Latinos 
are considered to be top dealers.

At the same time, Blacks and Latinos are regularly 
handed over to federal prosecutors for possessing 
similar amounts (or less) than amounts for which whites 
are only charged locally. In many cases, undercover 
agents make larger and larger demands on suspects they 
buy from--entrapping suspects into carrying amounts 
sufficient for federal prosecution.

Note: LA Times 5/21/95.