Inmate from the documentary “The House I Live In”
The War on Drugs, a label we inherited from Richard Nixon, is a lie. It is simply a war on people, and has had the most dire effect on people of color, whether inside the borders of the U.S, or as a part of destabilizing military interventions in other countries.
If you have not yet watched the documentary film The House I Live In, it is a must see. It was the winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-Documentary.
As I was perusing the news this morning, I noticed an article from the AP on the confirmation hearings for former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, Obama’s presumptive Drug Czar- and something he said chilled my blood to the bone.
(Kerlikowske) said that as national drug czar, he would take a balanced, science-based approach to the job.
A thoughtful, balanced approach to drug policy with an emphasis on treatment over incarceration?
Dear God… this man is screwed.
Lately I’ve been following a certain something very closely: the drug war. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico has become one of the deadliest cities in Mexico as the result of drug cartels fighting over territory and fighting with police enforcement. It’s a crazy issue for me because its literally happening at my doorstep [I’ve spent most of my life in El Paso,TX; 5 minutes away from Mexico].
As of today, the violence has let up a bit. But the first 2 months of 2009 were something to really take your breath away. More than a death a day and the acts of violence became more and more barbaric. There were 200 deaths in February alone in Ciudad Juarez.