By Mark David Blum, Esq.

Prior to himself being caught trafficking in narcotics and funding terrorism, Rush Limbaugh famously said that, “What this says to me is that too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too.” (TV Show, 100595).

The “this” to which he was referring was the significant disparity between Whites and Blacks in how our nation’s drug laws are enforced. When shown how our laws are brutalizing entire neighborhoods and communities, all of the same culture and background, Limbaugh agreed. He postulates that enforcement needs to go up in White affluent areas rather than easing up on the non White, non affluent neighborhoods. I am curious if his opinion remains.

Equal Treatment under Law means that the law should be applied fairly to everybody. White, Black, rich or poor, should have no bearing on the outcome of the implementation of our criminal laws. While our attention is being diverted to Lindsey Lohan spending the next few months at the Paris Hilton, more prisoners of our War against our own People are being taken.

I call upon every judge to dismiss every drug charge against every Black defendant in Onondaga County on grounds that the law, as applied, is having a significant and substantial negative racial impact and the law is too broad for the goals stated. I call upon every defense attorney to raise a 14th Amendment Equal Protection argument in their Omnibus Motion. Every drug case should demand a trial date and none should plead. Since our elected ones are too cowardly to fix this problem, it once again falls upon the shoulders of courageous attorneys and persons of law to save our society.

The bottom line is very simple: Ours is a community where the number of Blacks prosecuted for drug crimes are 20-40 times greater than for Whites; despite White drug use being about the same.

Here I sit with the caked-on blood of a thousand court room battles clouding my vision. The hard cold shot in the face of the realities of the justice system have made clear that our Founder’s ideals were long ago sacrificed for expediency and presumption. Even moreso, the Fourteenth Amendment’s decree of Equal Treatment Under Law has lost all meaning before today’s ‘grind em up and spit em out’ criminal justice system. We have sent our police agencies to War against our citizens. At the same time, we deny freedom to the majority for the weaknesses of the very few.

So why should a Black man get a free walk on a drug charge in Onondaga County? Because his community has not only been devastated by the nation’s drug policy – crime, children selling and using, despair and unemployment, but his White brethren live free to do their drugs without harassment.

But if the defendant is guilty of the crime, they should do the time; race notwithstanding. I submit there is a greater question and a larger issue at work here. As a servant of the legal system, it is also my job to always make sure the Nation and its Legal System always reach out for its better angels.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see operation Impact snagging dozens of rich white SU students from frat row and M street on any weekend night. Perhaps if the jails were filling with white drug defendants, our policies would change. Similarly, if the pain felt by minority members of the community is felt by the majority, then perhaps some of the majority will join with the minority and change the policy. But so long as the majority is safe from enforcement and the minority is a target of the policy, race is always going to be an issue.

But there are those among us, who even if they voted in a 100% bloc on a single issue would still be oppressed because their voice is diluted and shouted down by a larger community. To offset this social imbalance, our Courts and Constitution guarantee to EVERY person in the United States and to every citizen of the nation, the basic privileges and immunities enjoyed by every other citizen. The Courts are the line of defense against governmental and oppressive policies that offend the Constitution and target elements of society.

Yet historically, the Courts have turned a blind eye to such policies; yielding to the passions of the day. Both Dredd Scott and Mr. Korematsu could better articulate this argument than can I.

There are times too when through benevolence or the best of intentions an otherwise benign social policy has a discriminatory impact upon a specific group in society. Consider that women in the United States cannot be front line combat soldiers and only recently were allowed to serve in any combat zones, serve on police forces, or even hold jobs or own property. Remember there was a time once when women could not vote or express themselves in forums such as these. (Say “thank you” to us rich fat land owner white guys for waking up one day and realizing how smart ya’all suddenly became).

Since the War is on and there is no end in sight; because we cannot keep drugs and cell phones out of our most secure prisons; because children are using too many drugs; because the market is controlled by organized crime; and because our weakest in society are being victimized not by the drug but by the policy, I say its time to let the Black Man finally walk free.