With Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday approaching 27 Dead Including 14 Decapitated Withn One Day In A Drug War With

With Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday approaching, we are forced to draw connections between the war on drugs and the disintegration of low-income and black communities in America. As Dr. King so poignantly reminds us in his critique of the Vietnam War, "a time comes when silence is betrayal." With many communities disparately impacted by the drug war, many of us working for justice have come to the realization that America's war on drugs is really a war on families and communities. In the spirit of Dr. King, we must now ask: Has this assault on the poor and the marginalized become the next big civil rights struggle?

Civil rights advocates are honoring Dr. King's legacy by standing up against the "new Jim Crow" -- mass incarceration and the racially disproportionate war on drugs. It is impossible to talk frankly and honestly about racism without talking about the drug war. Few U.S. policies have had such a devastating effect on blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities than the drug war. Every aspect of the war on drugs -- from arrests to prosecutions to sentencing -- is disproportionately carried out against minorities.

One great example of this is the crack cocaine sentencing disparity that has reinforced our country's historically racist attitudes toward minorities. For two decades, a person with just five grams of crack cocaine received a mandatory sentence of five years in prison. The same person would have to possess 500 grams of powder cocaine to earn the same punishment. This discrepancy, known as the 100-to-1 ratio, was enacted in the late 1980s and was based on the myth that crack cocaine was far more dangerous than powder. The 100-1 ratio caused many problems, including perpetuating racial disparities which targeted low level offenders, especially blacks. Advocates pushed to eliminate this disparity for many years and only recently managed to convince lawmakers to reduce the 100-1 disparity to 18-1. The repeal also eliminated the five-year minimum for simple possession for five grams of cocaine. This was the first repeal of a mandatory minimum drug sentence since the 1970s and has reduced the federal prison population and saved an estimated $42 million in criminal justice spending over the first five years.

The crack cocaine disparity laws bring a host of questions to mind. Why are black men imprisoned for drug offenses at 13 times the rate of white men despite equal rates of drug use and selling across races? How do we begin to address the connections between astronomical rates of incarceration, disintegration of black families, and the war on drugs?

These questions and many more will be addressed at a town hall forum at First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. on Friday, Jan. 14. The forum, "Ending the 40 Year Drug War: Promoting Policies That Rebuild/Reclaim Our Families and Communities," will bring together a diverse group of scholars, community activists, social service providers, and religious and political leaders. They will discuss viable alternatives to the quagmire of the misdirected war on drugs, which has torn apart the fabric of many communities.

Hopefully the legacy of Dr. King will be carried on in an attempt to solve the problems associated with the black community. Our goal is that both panelists and attendees will be guided to action by Dr. King's wisdom: "If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight".

For more information, please contact Yolande Cadore, the director of strategic partnerships at the Drug Policy Alliance and contributor to this piece, at ycadore@drugpolicy.org.

27 Dead Including 14 Decapitated Withn One Day In A Drug War For Acapulco

Warning... the video below is very graphic and disturbing.

On Saturday we saw the latest results of a threeway drug war for Acapulco, Mexico. The bodies of 27 people, almost half of them young men who had been decapitated, were found in Acapulco, Mexico in the space of just a few hours. The 14 headless bodies were discovered alongside a 15th intact corpse outside a shopping center. Handwritten signs were left on the bodies - a common calling card for the Mexican drug cartels.

Reforma newspaper reported that the men were killed by the Sinaloa cartel, headed by drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, for intruding on the cartel's new turf. At least a dozen more bodies were found at several scenes of violence around the city early on Saturday. In all, five vehicles were found stuffed with dead bodies. Two police officers were shot dead in front of tourists and locals in a major tourist area. Here is a video report from Reuters:

The beheadings are the latest flare-up in a war for drug shipment routes by at least three cartels, La Familia, Los Zetas, and the Sinaloa Cartel. The Guerrero state prosecutor, David Augusto Sotelo, said seven victims had been identified. Two were 17 and the rest were thought to be in their 20s.

The discovery on Saturday was the largest single group of decapitation victims found in Mexico since President Felipe Calderon began his offensive against the drug gangs. And it brought the death toll from 24 hours of drug violence in the Pacific Coast resort to 27.

The decapitated bodies in Acapulco are also the largest single group of decapitation victims to be found in one location.

Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, has also been the scene of a bitter turf battle between rival drug gangs including three major cartels.

Police received a call alerting them to a burning vehicle near Plaza Sendero, a popular shopping centre. There they found a Nissan four-wheel-drive on fire, and four other abandoned vehicles, one with its motor running.

They also found the beheaded corpses and, some distance away, their heads, piled together. Nearby, two white posters with black lettering bore messages from a drug cartel. The bodies were covered in sand and appeared to have been murdered elsewhere.

While it is unknown which gang is responsible for the beheadings, handwritten posters at the crime scene are signed “El Chapo Guzman,” referring to Mexico’s most wanted man and leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel and crime syndicate.

Before Saturday's discovery, the largest single occurrence of beheadings was in Merida, the largest city in the Yucatan Peninsula, in August 2008, when 12 headless bodies were found. Most of the bodies had dragon tattoos. The heads were never found

Police did not reveal the messages left beside the bodies. But the Blog del Narco website posted photos of the scene and said the posters were written on behalf of Mexico's most wanted drug lord, Joaquin ''Shorty'' Guzman Loera, head of the Sinaloa cartel.

The website said one poster read ''To all citizens, extortion will no longer occur. Sincerely, Shorty Guzman'' and the other ''This will happen to anyone who tries to come into this turf''.

The beheadings signaled that the Sinaloa cartel, considered Mexico's most powerful, had moved into the city and would seek to restore order through strong-arm action to quell extortions and rampant crime.

Acapulco has been caught up in a vicious battle among remnants of the Beltran Leyva drug gang, the La Familia cartel based in the state of Michoacan and now the Sinaloa cartel, all battling for control of a key drug smuggling corridor through the resort.