Give peace a chance?

It’s got to be a joke, right?

A Webb Hubbell website? It reminds me
of a line by Robert DeNiro in “Analyze This.” He’s involved in a
discussion of the way the world of the Mafia is changing since the days
of the dons.

“So, what do you want to do, start a website?” he asks rhetorically.

I guess Webb Hubbell saw the movie.

But it gets better. Not only has one of the principal architects of
the Waco slaughter, Whitewater, the Vincent Foster cover-up, Chinagate
and more launched a public relations offensive on the Internet, he is
using the new technology to make some incredible claims and
observations.

In his latest commentary, “America’s Other War”
oddly dated May 1, 1999,
Hubbell says America needs to “give peace a chance” by calling off the
war on drugs.

Now, I might agree that the federal government’s war on drugs has
been little more than a sham designed to increase government power and
deprive individuals of their civil liberties. But it strikes me as odd
that someone so close to the president — someone who was the No. 3
official at the Justice Department a few years ago — would make this
argument.

Hubbell says it’s time for a “truce” in the war on drugs. Interesting
terminology. If only Hubbell had been such a peacenik in April of 1993,
the lives of 70-some men, women and children huddled in a church in Waco
might have been spared.

He argues that the main reason we must stop jailing people for drugs
is because those arrested and convicted are disproportionately black.

“This year over 1 million African-Americans will be incarcerated,” he
writes. “At our current incarceration rate by the year 2020 there will
be 5 million
African-Americans in prison. That means that two-thirds of all young
black men in the United States aged 18-34 will be behind bars. Blacks
make up 12 percent of the nation’s population, 13 percent of its drug
users. Yet for drug possession, African Americans constitute 35
percent of the arrests, 55 percent of the convictions, and 74 percent of
the incarcerations. Still our leaders tell us there is no racism in our
justice system.”

I’ve never quite understood this line of reasoning. Because the
overwhelming number of convicted serial killers in this country are
white males, does that mean enforcement of laws against murder are
racist? Personally, I think it is a racist notion to conclude that black
people are incapable of resisting drugs and crime and that, if left to
their own devices and current trends, two-thirds of all young black men
will be incarcerated in 20 years.

It is also a racist notion to conclude that our drug laws would
somehow be more acceptable if only the color of those incarcerated was
different. The real question ought to be: Are the laws right or wrong?
Is enforcement constitutional or not? Is there a better way to achieve a
sober and productive society?

The other thing I don’t understand is how administration apologists
speak out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to crime
statistics. I keep hearing from Bill Clinton that crime in America has
virtually vanished. Every category of criminal activity is down. If that
is so, how can it be true that we are on the road to incarcerating so
many more people in the next 20 years?

“Do we really want the legacy of our nation to include the
elimination of freedom for an entire race once again?” Hubbell asks.
“Do we want to be known as the country with the highest rate of
imprisonment in the entire world? How can we talk to any world leaders
about human rights with our current track record?”

Aren’t you glad we have civil libertarians like Hubbell to keep our
country honest? Just listen to his conclusion: “Finally in order to
catch the devil (drugs) are we willing to destroy a justice system
founded on the principles set forth in The Declaration of Independence
and the U.S. Constitution? I do not think so. It is time to use the
methods of Ghandi (sic) and Martin Luther King to stop this war. It is
time once again to take to the streets to say give
‘Peace a Chance.'”

Kind of brings a tear to your eye, doesn’t it?