The American Drug War

The American Drug War is a war being fought in US cities between the government and residents of poor neighborhoods. The American Drug War began in earnest during the 1980s when President Reagan militarized the police forces and expanded the US prison system. In response to the rapid proliferation of crack-cocaine in the United States during 1985 the US government imposed de facto martial law on poor urban neighborhoods. This state of de facto martial law continues to this day. A set of draconian measures known as the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was signed into law by President Reagan on October 27, 1986.
Reagans new laws required longer prison sentences for all types of crime, especially drug offenses. As a result the United States now has the highest incarceration rate in the world.

Background

Coinciding with the proliferation of crack-cocaine was a surge in gang violence and police repression in African-American neighborhoods. Similar trends occurred in Latino neighborhoods in the 1980s. Flashing blue-light surveillance cameras are now installed all over Chicago. Each year, approximately 7,000 Americans die in U.S. prisons and jails.
One million of the two million people in US prisons are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Usually those nonviolent offenses are drug offenses. African-Americans are now imprisoned at 8 times the rate of whites and Latinos are imprisoned at 3.5 times the rate of whites. The American Drug War is the most violent conflict to occur in the United States since the late 1800s. According to the United Nations a conflict involving more than 1,000 battlefield deaths a year is a major war. Therefore the American Drug War is a major war like the Iraq War. In the spring of 1992 there was rioting in Los Angeles because of police brutality. President Bush sent the Marine Corps into Los Angeles to put down the rebellion. Other mass uprisings against police repression have occurred in Cincinnati, Toledo and other US cities since then. The United States government has received international condemnation from groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for violating the rights of its prisoners. "Police death squads in American cities are a sign of the times. Every year in the USA anywhere about 800-1,000 persons are killed in police custody. Like the nine people in Detroit this year, Amadou Diallo in NYC, Tiyesha Miller in Riverside, California, and many others whose names we don't know, they were undeniably slaughtered by the police. But these were no accidents, idle acts of racism, or even isolated vigilante actions by crazed cops. No, these death squads are carrying out *government policy* to rid the cities of "undesirables". In that sense, they are little different than the death squads in Latin America, who kill poor people and street kids in Brazil, Leftists and labor leaders in Guatemala, or police goon squads in any military dictatorship.This killing is consistent government policy, and part of a policy to seize control of and maintain the "peace" in the cities. This is all happening in the face of serious urban decay, and inner city demolition. The government of all major cities want to reclaim the inner cities for the rich and their corporations, they want to move the poor out and they want to move their white middle class workers in. It's already this way in most parts of Europe, the suburbs are for the poor, while the more valuable inner city is reserved for the rich."Lorenzo Komboa Ervin

Relation to other conflicts.
The American Drug War is an internal conflict like most other wars currently being fought. It is a separate war from the Mexican Drug War because the combatants in the Mexican Drug War are not the same groups as those fighting the American Drug War. The Mexican Drug War is a war being fought between the Mexican government and Mexican drug cartels. The American Drug War is a war being fought between the US government and American gangs. The War on Drugs is separate from the American Drug War and the Mexican Drug War because the War on Drugs is a global campaign being waged by the US government and its allies against alleged dealers of illegal drugs.Therefore the War on Drugs is an umbrella term for the various drug wars going on in Mexico, Colombia, the United States and other countries around the world.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu