“Drugs are just part of the game for these guys,” said KPD Special Investigations Unit supervisor Detective Sgt. Brian Robertson. “A lot of them are the same ones involved in the street robberies and everything else. It’s a lifestyle.”
Robertson said undercover officers in the field are not concerned with the race of their targets; in fact, in deals set up by confidential informants, cops may not even know the race of the suspects until they show up for the buy. “If you’re selling drugs, I’m buying. If you’re selling guns, I’m buying. I don’t care if you’re purple.”
But Kossover paints a different picture of the clients who end up in his office because they cannot afford a private attorney. Many, he said, are addicted to the same drugs they sell. The sales, meanwhile, are often for pitifully small amounts sold to informants who are also addicts. Some of the defendants, Kossover concedes, fit the profile of low-level street dealers; others are simply addicts trying to turn a small profit to feed their own habit. In some cases, he said, the deals were made only after the informant made repeated pleas for the drugs. (Local law enforcement officials contend that their strategy of indicting suspects after multiple drug buys ensures that they’re dealing with true drug dealers, not simply someone doing a favor for a friend).
Kossover said that he would like to see Ulster County follow a trend away from incarceration and towards a more public-health oriented approach to drug abuse. But, he said, even programs already in existence — like Kingston’s drug court, which steers offenders through a treatment program with the threat of incarceration if they don’t comply — are underutilized.
“This has been going on for 40 or 50 years, and clearly it doesn’t work,” said Kossover. “[The drug sweeps] are used to justify special programs and grants to assist with the war on drugs rather than stepping back and looking for a better alternative.”
Prison Conditions
The cruel and unusual punishment clause also applies to conditions of incarceration. Prison officials may not deprive inmates of “the basic necessities of life, which include reasonably adequate food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, and necessary medical attention.” (Newman v. State of Alabama, 559 F.2d 283 (5th Cir. 1977).) Nor may they “maliciously and sadistically” use force to harm inmates. (Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1(1992).)
Tell me getting beaten and raped in prison isn’t cruel and unusual: standard of protection, as much as food and water, are required. You can cut out the goddam TV but stop the brutality.
This story just shows how disgusting The Kingston Times is and how LOW you will go for a story. KPD and The Ulster County DA are doing there damnest to clean up our streets. Boohoo, if over 80 percent were black who have been picked up in the multiple operations that have been performed. Stop selling your poison and you will not be arrested..
How dare Kossover say that many of the drug dealers and gang wanna-be’s are mostly black and they are getting picked on. Has Kossover ever sat in Mid-town and watched the drug activity by the Sunoco station in Mid-town?Has he lived in drug alley and watched the drug dealers and prostitutes destroy our City? No,he has not. Then the Kingston Times promotes that biased book in your story and Rev. Clark who has his own agenda. Shame on you. Why didn’t you interview Shabazz and get his racist/biased opinion? I mean you are giving Clark all of the air time he wants, to show how blacks are being picked on. OMG, please. If they do not want to be arrested, then stop selling drugs. Stop destroying our city with there poison and they will not need an attorney. But then again Kossover would not have any clients or money in his racist pockets..
You are no Voice of Reason in my book.
Yes, stooped very low, by allowing the views of the leaders of the black community to be printed in the newspaper. How horrible of this horrible horrible scandal sheet. We all know the only legitimate opinions are those of people in power, and speaking for myself, those are the only ones I want to read. Shame on you, you awful Kingston Times!
If you don’t want to do the time, don’t do the crime. Our symbol of justice is blindfolded for a reason. Justice is served regardless of race, color, creed, or religion. We all are subject to the laws of the land. The incessant pounding of the race drum only further divides us and detracts from the real issue at hand–the degradation of society and our quality of life due to drug abuse and drug related crimes and violence.
When we lost a youth in midtown a couple years back, I did not think of it as a black youth, but just as a young man who was not able to live a natural life–this is sad. How many more must we lose? We must come together and come up with a solution to educate ALL our youth and deter drug use and sales. For those who do not want to listen and commit crimes, then prosecution and incarceration is an effective deterrent.
Kossover, Rounds and Connolly’s cheap theatrics are nothing more than a child’s game. Their words have no substance, no meaning, and no intelligence. They are part of the problem and not part of the solution.
[…] New Jim Crow here in Kingston? (Kingston Times) […]
I think that those who have not had a chance to read Dr. Michelle Alexander’s book “The New Jim Crow” should either read it, or if they don’t have time go to youtube and watch one of her interviews. She is a compelling and articulate speaker and is able to show that the current approach of drug sweeps in the black communities and incarceration is not working.
In Texas they have instituted changes in the law decriminalizing low level drug deals and they put more money into drug treatment programs.
We have around 7 million people in prison, on parole or probation. We can no longer afford this approach which is not working, and which has ruined the lives of two generations of men and women.
whites use illegal drugs at the same rate as black, but you don’t see them going to jail for it.
Let’s go into Midtown and do a “sweep” that helps people: 1)own their own homes and apartments (get rid of predatory landlords who don’t keep their apartments in livable condition) 2)further their training and education 3) provide local LIVING WAGE jobs. Why would anyone want to sell drugs if there are alternatives? You have to be pretty desperate to resort to black market employment.