5 Columbia students arrested for drug bust

7 Dec 2010
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25 notes

This happened this morning and it’s been all over the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Twitter, etc.

Everyone seems to have something to say about it, whether or not they go to Columbia.

It got me thinking about privilege. And ethics. And the law.

I don’t like how the entire undercover operation was called “Operation Ivy League.” What does being in the Ivy League have to do with this?

But the more I think about it, it does.

Here is what a commenter, signed “becca” on Bwog, said:

You know, these 5 guys are pretty lucky. They have parents to back them up, they have friends who are praying for and are sad for them, they have access to non-court appointed attorneys, and any judge they get put in front of is going to see some nice young men who made some bad mistakes and who deserve a second chance at life. They’re having a bad day (which is entirely of their own making, by the way), but their lives are hardly ruined.

They’ll get kicked out of Columbia? Lose scholarships? Spend a couple years in jail? And because of this, we assume their lives are over?

Columbia community, your privilege is showing.

Look–anyone who’s done research on the drug war for more than five minutes knows the racist and classist policies it upholds. Most drug users are white, most of those in prison on drug charges are black; sentencing disparities between crack and cocaine, etc etc. So the real question here isn’t “Oh boohoo why is the NYPD wasting its resources taking down our best and brightest,” it’s WHY DON’T THEY DO IT MORE OFTEN. Clearly, there is a culture of immunity here. Clearly, drug use is an open secret. So why does the NYPD expend the vast majority of its resources in poor minority areas, locking up black and Hispanic* kids, and not on the Upper West Side?

And no, there’s no good way to try to say “But our drug dealers are GOOD KIDS and BRILLIANT LEADERS while their drug dealers are EVIL VIOLENT CRIMINALS” without coming off as a racist. Because the policy is racist, the whole war is deeply racist, and to try to argue that the cops should get the hell off our nice privileged hillside only mirrors the same.

Maybe it wouldn’t bother me enough to make me want to post if I thought more than one in ten of you here (and on the NY Times website, and the Spec website) who are all angry about this useless stupid drug war didn’t just get caught up to this issue THIS MORNING, because it was your incredibly privileged friend who got caught–and not yesterday, or last year, or the thirty years before that, when it was invisible because it was mostly poor black kids. Drugs ravage poor communities, but so do drug policies–just head down to Prospect Heights and ask around to see who has drug records, and ask them if it’s gotten in the way of them finding any kind of employment. Somehow, I don’t think these kids will have that problem. Anyone whining about how they should legalize drugs just so we can use them with impunity is an asshole.

*I know not all the kids arrested were white, please excuse my simplistic, linguistic shorthand. Privilege is a complicated thing.