Finding common ground over crime

Mark Wells, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013 | 2:03 a.m.

A federal judge has found New York’s “stop and frisk” policy unconstitutional.

That it was done primarily to young black men only makes it stand out as racist. The fact that white men who were stopped and frisked had a higher incidence of having drugs and weapons on them should make even the most conservative person realize that the racism is an outrage.

That, along with the attorney general of the United States changing federal drug law implementation, has put the extreme right and the extreme left on the same side. Instead of automatically giving drug users mandatory sentences, the court will decide on an appropriate sentence (more states’ rights for the conservatives). Drug users (not affiliated with selling drugs, gangs, or illegal cartels) can have alternate sentencing instead of being convicted for minor offenses such as having a little weed on them (more fairness for the progressives). This will stop young minors from going into prison for trying a drug and coming out a trained felon (libertarians especially like that aspect).

The arrests of minority youths for simple drug possession will end (civil libertarians especially like this).

Community policing is more effective than stop and frisk and brings a lot more law enforcement and jobs to cities and communities, something on which the left and right both agree.