The Rev. Wright-ism everyone is avoiding...

[misanthrope]

...The point he made that no one has seemed to touch thus far?

That the gov't spread drugs through the black community.

Know why everyone's avoiding it? Because it's absolutely true, has been shown in a various ways and would only serve to validate his perspective. Why don't the idiots at FOX address it? Because they are scared of the answer and the way that concession would allow leeway in their blanket denials and uber-nationalism.

[Skittles]

1. I do not believe that is true

I do, however, believe there is an absolute discrepancy in the way black folk and poorer people are targeted in drug raids and receive much stiffer sentencing

[misanthrope]

3. Check into the background behind...

...Marijuana criminalization in the first half of the Twentieth Century and the use of cocaine as a profit-maker for covert ops in the last three decades.

[MADem]

2. Gee, I thought it was organized crime that did that. Who knew? NT

[misanthrope]

5. Organized crime was chiefly responsible for heroin...

...but the government has purposefully allowed certain drugs to spread through minority communities and actually facilitated the inflow of other drugs.

[MADem]

6. You're going to have to prove that shit. And not with "Conspiracy Theory News" links, either. NT

[Alexander]

15. Post #8 is full of reputable sources, if you are willing and able to read them.

Given your attitude, I suspect you won't read them at all. Go ahead and prove me wrong.

[MADem]

22. In the eighties, powdered cocaine was sold principally to a caucasian market.

That is the timeframe of that citation in post eight.

Disco drug, that cocaine. They did LINES back then. Then they started freebasing. Remember Richard Pryor? He was the guy who ended his concerts (after he got out of the burn unit) by lighting a lighter, and waving it in a bouncing motion..."What's that?" he asked..."Richard Pryor running down the street..."

Crack wasn't even on the scene back then. When it did arrive, it became more popular, as apparently the process for making it is less "flammable" than the process for making freebase. See http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/coc05.htm

Nice try though.

I'm not closed to the possibility that the government has less than clean hands in the "crack" department, but no one here on this thread is proving it.

Given YOUR attitude, though, you apparentlly just want to be aggrieved -- because I won't "believe" based on your say-so.

[Alexander]

24. I'm sorry you're completely incapable of reading the NS archives.

You cited absolutely nothing disproving the link in post #8. Nice try though.

I'll leave you to your ignorance. I hope it's blissful.

[MADem]

27. Nonsense. You didn't prove your point, and you're trying to blame me. Didn't work.

And sorry, your dismissive post with that foolish I'll leave you to your ignorance. I hope it's blissful snark doesn't conceal the fact that you did not prove, with that cite, the point you were trying to make.

I didn't see any "crack smuggling" in any of those documents. NONE.

Try again. Or don't. I really could care less. You played fast and loose with facts, and I called you on it.

[Alexander]

32. If you can't read the documents in post #8, that's not my problem.

Apparently reading comprehension was never your forte.

"I really could care less."

So you do care, because if you could care less, that means you care to some degree. An idiotic expression. I'm not surprised to see a poster of your intellectual caliber using it.

We're done here. You have no facts, you're being called on it, and you've turned into a whiny baby, as always.

Good night. Or morning. I really couldn't care less.

[MADem]

35. I read them--they aren't NEW you know. Those are OLD CHESTNUTS.

And there's nothing in them about CRACK, now, is there?

Funny that you'd parrot the old "reading comprehension" canard when that seems to be your heavy cross to bear. You just didn't prove your case with that cite.

"We're done here," ONLY because you can't prove what you said. Not because I'm not willing to listen.

You're the one with the supposed "facts"--all I asked for was proof of what you asserted, and you haven't provided that. You apparently are unable to do that, so you substitute for said inability with petty snark that rather misses the mark.

But you still haven't proven the point that YOU averred.

[lapfog_1]

4. There was a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News

and did a whole expose detailing the CIA run drug smuggling operation from Mexico directly into the inner city (crack). It was a very well written series of articles. I don't remember his name or what happened to him.

[MADem]

7. "Crack" isn't a drug to be "smuggled." It's manufactured from plain old cocaine. nt

[ConsAreLiars]

8. Do your own research.

Look up Iran Contra Ollie North Cocaine and stop being a willing tool.

On edit, assuming like most of your type, you won't even make that slight effort, read the actual documents here:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm

[MADem]

20. No, not when you tell me that nefarious people were smuggling "crack"--that's just ludicrous.

Cocaine smuggling isn't "crack" smuggling.

Back in the eighties, the timeframe of your cite, it was white folk with vials and dance fever at discos who were the prime customers for that commodity.

You might stop being a tool, yourself.

[ConsAreLiars]

23. So, you can't, or won't, read.

Ignorance is in some cases an unfortunate situation. In others, like yours, it is a choice. Get back to me if (probably never) you actually read that bit of history. If you ever (I doubt) want to learn how to take off your blinders and face reality, I'm sure their are many here who would help you adjust and adapt and stop serving as a pawn.

(edit punctuation)

[Alexander]

25. I'm guessing "won't". Some people can't have their precious worldview shattered.

And some people are completely incapable of reading archived government documents. They prefer to dismiss them as "conspiracy theories" without actually reading what these documents contain and where they come from.

Unfortunately, some with this ostrich mentality are here on DU. Thankfully there are only a few of them, and they tend to be ill-informed and easy to spot.

[MADem]

30. I read it. Didn't see crack anywhere. Didn't see anything about crack being

distributed to black communities.

If anyone is a pawn, it isn't me. You seem to be carrying someone's water, though--and poorly. Because you don't even have your facts in order.

I'm not saying what you are suggesting didn't happen. See, I'm being polite, and staying open minded, here, even though you're damaging your own case with your inability to prove what you assert.

What I am saying is that you will have to give me a better cite than that old chestnut from the Ollie North days, before crack even existed.

You haven't done that.

Instead, you pull out bullshit words like "ignorance" and bullshit "take off your blinders" lame phrases, when I'm not the ignorant one here--but you're playing the La-z-boy with your absence of facts and your overarching generalizations.

Prove your assertions. Come on. SHOW ME. Cites, facts, links. Valid ones, not bullshit ones.

And not that old Noriega-Ollie North "BC" (Before Crack) crap.

[ConsAreLiars]

36. Well, you can read the Kerry Committee Report.

And I don't believe for a moment that you read the National Security Archive stuff, since those whose ideological blinders rarely, if ever, let any bit of light through. Nonetheless, pointless as at it is ("there are none so blind...")
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerry_Committee_report

But for you, I suppose that commie bastard has no credibility.

(edit a lot)

[MADem]

37. No "crack smuggling" in that, either. You just aren't proving your case.

I voted for that "commie bastard" btw. Several times.

[lapfog_1]

9. Found it.

In August of 1996, the San Jose Mercury News published a three-part investigation by Gary Webb into the U.S. government's links to the trade in crack cocaine in South Central Los Angeles. Webb's investigation uncovered links between the Central Intelligence Agency's covert war against Nicaragua and convicted Los Angeles drug dealer "Freeway" Ricky Ross, whom the Los Angeles Times in 1994 had dubbed the "one outlaw capitalist most responsible for flooding Los Angeles' streets with mass-marketed cocaine." (20 December 1994 p. A20)

The (admittedly sensationalized, but basically accurate) story generated much controversy, and heated denials from the mainstream media (in particular the local paper of record, whose editor Shelby Coffey III couldn't bear the thought of someone else beating his paper out on a major story in his own backyard). This vehement denegation, however, is largely inconsistent with the historical record (some of which has been, and continues to be, reported in these same papers).

This web site is part of a long-standing research project of mine. As a scholar working at the interstices of speech communication and cultural studies, I have been investigating the public discourse surrounding the "war on drugs" as an exercise in disciplinary social control. This site is a database of information, evidence, and other resources that have helped guide me in this research project, and will hopefully help others working along the same lines.

http://www.csun.edu/coms/ben/news/cia/

[2rth2pwr]

16. The Mercury News retracted that story by Gary Webb.

[Skittles]

18. yup

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gary_Webb

[ConsAreLiars]

26. They showed their cowardice, but later government documents affirmed it.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB2/nsaebb2.htm

(edit to fix trivial typo)

[MADem]

31. Oh, dear....nt

[Skittles]

19. here is his name and what happened to him

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Gary_Webb

[Alexander]

10. It is absolutely true, and Bill Clinton himself downplayed such CIA reports during his presidency.

Unfortunately a lot of people, most of them white, like to pretend this is a "conspiracy theory" and "not true" so they can pretend like our government hasn't blatantly screwed over black people by getting them addicted to drugs.

[Skittles]

11. please

unless they came to their doors handing out crack, saying SHOOT THIS I fail to see how people are forced to take drugs - surely personal responsibility plays a role SOMEWHERE

[Alexander]

13. This does nothing to refute post #8, complete with evidence of the CIA's drug trafficking.

Most people smoke crack, rather than shoot it. Injecting crack requires water in the syringe and is quite risky, and it's not as addictive as smoking it.

Nobody held a gun to anyone's head forcing them to use crack in whatever form. But the trafficking of crack and cocaine by the CIA certainly make it accessible to almost everyone. Do you deny this?

Furthermore, I find it atrocious that the US government is throwing people in jail for using a drug that its own CIA distributed to them and made widely available. Do you agree with this?

[2rth2pwr]

12. You can take dumptrucks of cocaine and pour it on the street

and most people will have nothing to do with it.

[Alexander]

14. So we shouldn't care that the CIA smuggled drugs into our own country?

Okay. :eyes:

[Skittles]

17. are there any black folk in government?

just curious - were they in on this too?

[Alexander]

28. Yes, there are black people in government. What an asinine question.

"just curious - were they in on this too?"

Just curious - are you completely incapable of reading the documents in the link in post #8, too? Or have you simply chosen to dismiss them without reading?

Instead of using the worthless blanket term "government", which covers just about every job imaginable from president down to postal worker, maybe you should refine your terms to mean "the higher echelons of the CIA, where these decisions were made". In which case my answer would be a definite "no".

[Skittles]

29. that's not what the OP said

"That the gov't spread drugs through the black community."

That's not what Wright said, either.

[Alexander]

33. Yes, the Reagan-Bush administration did. Through the CIA.

Those are all part of the government.

Rev. Wright's audience probably realized that. Apparently you don't.

A pity you need to pick apart the literal meaning of the word "government" so you can have a semantic victory, because the facts clearly make you look foolish.

Oh well. Good night.

[Skittles]

34. LOL

:rofl:

[glowing]

21. From what I have understood.. the crack into the black community was

deliberate.. Mainly because the organizations that were present and coming from the civil rights era were becoming stronger. They were very afraid of the Black Panthers.. Crack was introduced as an enlightening substance.. Like marijuana.. However it is highly addictive.. and has lead many people downhill.

Also, the punishments for cocaine and crack are wildly different. It is a shame more people do not pay attention. It is a shame that people do not realize that the CIA was essentially an organization that works like a mob.. and because the organization is a govt agency, they get to do things that normal criminals would never get away with. The CIA really needs to be dismantled. Everything the Bush's touch should be dismantled.. because it oozes with evil.

[madrchsod]

38. the cia has been a major drug smuggler

since the early 60`s if not before. it was south east asian heroin and opium during the vietnam war and the contra wars it was cocaine. what the various communities did with the drugs were not influenced by the "man". the cia could care less about who or why they sold the drugs to, it was about money and information. they could care less about the internal politics of these various communties..if a dealer was busted by the feds or locals there was always another buyer.

[malaise]

39. Just as they did to soldiers in Vietnam

This time it's big pharma's drugs in Iraq.

[joeybee12]

40. Oh yeah, and Malt Liquor...according to the CIA chief on

American Dad...actually a pretty funny line, because the guy is really proud of having done that. Has the show been cancelled?