Former U.S. Marshal Says Suburban Drug Busts Were Verboten

Says the war on drugs is "a virtual race war"

A former Drug Enforcement Administration agent says he was blocked from doing drug busts in the suburban parts of Washington, D.C. -- as in, the parts where white people live. U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, who is black, says "I personally witnessed racially biased enforcement procedures when I ran a joint [Drug Enforcement Administration] task force... When I requested equal enforcement of upscale suburban areas, I met internal resistance," published in a statement released by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The group, working with Blacks in Government, is calling for a federal investigation into why more than half the people arrested for drug offenses are black, even though whites and blacks use drugs in equal amounts.

Reason's Mike Riggs notes that earlier this month, the NAACP called for an end to the drug war. The White House has been reaching out to black leaders recently as President Obama's still-strong approval ratings among black people decline. But Politico reported Tuesday that black leaders worry Obama is taking them for granted and have begun openly criticizing him. In June, John McWhorter wrote that "The Obama administration's deafness to the growing chorus of opposition to the senseless war on drugs has become so appalling that you almost start thinking Cornel West was right. About Obama's supposed lack of interest in black concerns, that is." McWhorter continues:

Drug arrests during Obama's first year in office were higher than they were in George Bush's first year. There have been about 100 marijuana raids under the Obama administration so far, while during all eight of the Bush years, there were only about 200. ...

 

Obama could get people like West off his back and be a meaningfully pro-black president -- not to mention a bracingly pro-human one -- by addressing the war on drugs for real. No more lip service, such as Holder's dutifully hoping for another season of The Wire, despite his apparent lack of interest in actually putting to use the show's lessons about the drug war. The Wire's creator David Simon hit the bullseye in saying that he and co-creator Ed Burns would be happy to launch a new Wire season if the Obama administration would get real about the war on drugs.