Dealers, deal if you must - but please, stop the killing

The Baltimore Sun ^ | Jun 9, 2005 | Dan Rodricks

[Ranxerox]

DEAR Baltimore drug dealers: I promise this will be the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard. Here goes: How about taking the summer off to see what it might be like around here without all the shooting and killing? Serious. How about a cease-fire? A little break could save lives, maybe even your own.

I know this is crazy, the idea of drug dealers just shutting down the factory for a few months - too much money to be made, and too many customers to serve. And if you back off, even for a little while, some other guy in a long white T-shirt will take your place, and you'll have to find new work.

But I'm not talking about your quitting the life. I'm asking for one step at a time.

You can keep selling drugs. Just stop the shooting and the killing that goes with it.

I'm asking you for a break - for your families and friends, the little kids who live in your neighborhoods, everybody in this city, even those who live in places relatively safe from the violence you guys create.

Just stop.

Today.

OK?

I know what you're thinking: White boy in the newspaper got some screws loose. Drug dealers aren't going to suddenly lay down arms. Unless everybody goes along with this, there's still going to be killing. Some dealers will use the opportunity to wipe out the competition forever, and instead of giving Baltimore a period of relative peace, this "cease-fire" could result in more assassinations than we've ever seen before.

Right.

But I dare you to take the chance, show some testicular fortitude - you can look that up - and make history. I promise excellent media for the drug dealers who honor this truce...

[Ranxerox]

Oh, yeah. This oughta work. Too bad I have to excerpt, it only gets better.

[camle]

what a maroon!

[dfwgator]

Then what. Is he going to thank them for obeying the law, ala David Dinkins?

[MileHi]

Take two gun control laws and call me in the morning...

[dirtboy]

You can keep selling drugs. Just stop the shooting and the killing that goes with it.

Uh, dude, it's the black market. You can't settle contractual disputes in the courts. Instead, they are typically settled with goons and guns.

We don't have drive-by shootings in front of liquor stores. We used to, during Prohibition. If society decides that drugs will be illegal, and puts more effort into the supply side than the demand side, we're gonna see this kind of violence. And the folks who are drawn to the black market sure as heck aint' gonna listen to some kumbaya nonsense like this.

[E Rocc]

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[Donald Meaker]

That is right, Walgreens hardly ever has a shootout with Rite-aid. They sell drugs.

Should we make the drugs legal. We may lose 10 percent of the people to addiction, but the rest will be safer.

Hmmm. does drug violence really kill 10 percent? Is the cure worse than the disease?

[dsc]

How about getting all the people who *aren't* shooting drug dealers out in the streets with guns?

Two, three days, you could solve the problem for good.

[tahotdog]

End the war on drugs and this problem will evaporate.

[joesnuffy]

Let's see he doesnt mind the drug dealers killing off the junior high kids with their poison..

But he doesnt like them wacking each other?

[RushCrush]

If only they could read.

[Protagoras]

"Can't we all just get along?"....Rodney King

[theFIRMbss]

>This oughta work

Dear Anna: High life
in the fast line must be hard.
This summer, why not

take some time off from
the glitter and glam and spend
a few months lounging

in a small cottage
owned by a poor Freeper in
a quiet suburb?

[Unicorn]

It works in West Palm Beach/ yeah right!!!!!!!!

[1FASTGLOCK45]

I know, those new bullets with serial numbers and the new serial number guns with electronic fingerprint recognition, yea that will stop them /sarc!

When they can't get guns, criminals will kill people in worse ways just because the gun isn't available.

[conservativeharleyguy]

Metaphorically, we're all either a sheep, wolf, or sheepdog.

Sheep live their lives denying the existence of the violence of wolves until the wolf comes calling, then it's too late. They don't understand that the wolf needs to kill them in order to live. It simply is what it is. They'll wear a seat-belt, and buy a fire extinguisher, but they won't take up arms to defend themselves or the other sheep because it feels "icky".

Wolves prey on the sheep without any remorse or sorrow. Again, it is what it is. Even a wolf's gotta eat, they need meat, and sheep are made of it. The only sorrow they can ever feel is for the death of another wolf, and even then, their overwhelming relief for remaining alive drowns what little sorrow they feel. They only breed new wolves.

Sheepdogs protect the sheep, but the sheep are wary of them, because they sorta look like wolves, have wolf-like teeth, are inured to the violence of the wolf, and can deal their own violence to the wolf when required. Without sheepdogs, wolves rule the sheep.

Which do you think the author is?

[lionheart 247365]

Is that ozone I smell ???!!!

[Millee]

I bet this metro was sobbing while he wrote this.

[advance_copy]

DEAR left-wing Maryland gun-grabbers: When you outlaw guns, only outlaws have guns.

[redgolum]

How about getting all the people who *aren't* shooting drug dealers out in the streets with guns? Two, three days, you could solve the problem for good.

Then the cops will crack down on all the vigilantes. They hate competition.

That aside, where do I sign up?