Homicides in the city of Baltimore have risen from 98 last year, to 108 this year. So what does City Council vice president Robert Curran propose should be done? Curran wants to give the mayor the ability to enact “public safety zones” in high-crime areas, which would give police the ability to shut down bars, liquor stores, and halt traffic for two weeks at a time. Never-mind that the bars and liquor stores are privately owned, but the bars aren’t causing people to die. The culprit in Baltimore’s culture of crime is the drug war, brought on by bureaucrats like Curran, who mistakenly believe that more government will solve social ills. Curran obviously hasn’t done the research on the causes of death in his own city.
“Criminals” in Baltimore kill each other over drugs. Like the war on terrorism, the war on drugs results in the deaths of innocent Americans. The market for illegal drugs has always been the violent version of a free market. Its not the lack of government intervention that allows these deaths to occur, but the fact that government intervenes at all. Since alcohol prohibition ended, people are no longer shooting each other over bottles of booze, yet politicians can’t seem to come to the same conclusion about the effects of making drugs legal. Giving the government the power to shut down private business in the name of public safety severely damages the economy, because only one of two things will happen if the mayor and citizens embrace Curran’s plan.
First, the business owners will get fed up at the loss of revenue and likely move their businesses elsewhere. Or, secondly, the government will have to promise relief to the business owners in the form of tax revenue.
Even if the war on drugs were effective, Curran’s plan doesn’t seem to even address the issues of drug-related violence.
Why is this one man’s opinion so important for the shape of things in Baltimore? Mayor Shiela Dixon (being vague as bureaucrats are) said that Curran’s plan was interesting, but she’d like to integrate it into plans she already has. Curran helped to pass Baltimore’s smoking ban, and there is a current trend in American culture to not attend city council meetings, thus giving bureaucrats the ability to vote their own ridiculous legislature into law. Nothing good ever comes when politicians are given the ability to pat each other on the back.
Throwing police officers and laws at the drug problem would be like Dr. Frankenstein attempting to deal with his monster by building more monsters to go after him.
John C. Keyser
May 18, 2007