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How to put a drug dealer out of business...

Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein at 8:51 AM on September 28, 2006.


Tell his mom.

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Police in North Carolina are taking a novel approach to shutting down local drug dealers--telling their moms.

Officers "influentials" in a dealer's life and cultivate relationships with them. Then when they've amassed enough evidence to arrest the dealer, they hold off and get Mom, Grandma, and the other influentials to pressure the dealer to stop plying his trade.

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this. On the one hand, any strategy that deescalates the War on Drugs is a good thing. Still, I'm not entirely comfortable with the police essentially blackmailing third parties to reign in their adult family members.

[Grits for Breakfast]

Digg!

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.


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I disagree
Posted by: trampoline on Sep 28, 2006 11:18 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I disagree with your concern. I think it's much more positive than traditional policing, and it empowers families and community. People crow about the "good old days" all the time. Whether they were actually any "good" is a debate for another time, but what I think those people miss about those old days are stronger familial bonds and natural consequences for wrongdoing that came from the community, rather than the government.

Personally, I'd like to see this approach applied to gun ownership.

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