Almost all that cocaine that became crack and was the big push for a hugely increased drug war, mandatory sentencing, and platitudes from Nancy went through Freeway Rick Ross. Ross got all his coke (literally tons and tons of it) through one man and at rock bottom prices. A dealer could buy a kilo of cocaine from Rick for about $13,000 dollars that, without any cutting or processing, could be sold in most other American cities for more than $20,000. I wish i knew what Rick’s price was, we can assume less than the $13K and with a limitless supply.

Rick’s supplier was a Nicaraguan being handled at times by either/both the CIA and the DEA. The former was of course running the Contras in Nicaragua and Congress refused to fund it. CIA docs released pretty explicitly say that drug running would be part of the funding. And really, what are the chances of getting that much cocaine into the US with such regularity and low prices without the USG looking the other way, especially considering it was all through a single channel – an uncommon structure for the drug trade? And then came the guns. Rick’s associates talk about getting rocket launchers. Of course, we all know the story of gang/drug violence in LA and the local armories containing military grade weaponry (AKs, Uzis, etc.)

Eventually, Rick went to jail. His first conviction was lowered by turning evidence on the LAPD task force assigned to him as it was full of crooked cops. When he went away again, it was because he was set up by his Nicaraguan supplier. Standard procedure in drug policing is to use smaller players to move up the chain, but in this case, the guy responsible for bringing the tons of cocaine into the US set up the guy directly under him in the distribution network and did so as an agent of the DEA. So Rick went to jail for life (later reduced) and the LAPD/politicians could say, “the crack scourge of SCLA has been caught!” But the USG operative above him was free.

Funny how justice in the US works. I bet the Reagan administration players who were deeply involved in running drugs and guns into the US, breaking all sorts of laws, that were never punished don’t feel an ounce of regret. And none of them served the kind of time Rick Ross did.

Or maybe two, three birds with one stone there.

The American Institutes for Research’s own description of its counter-insurgency program included: “assassinating key spokesmen, strengthening retaliatory mechanisms and similar preventative measures” and efforts to “neutralize the political successes already achieved by groups committed to the ‘wrong’ side. This typically involves direct military confrontation.” The AIR program also tested crop destruction and artificially induced starvation in order to pacify restive populations, described as a “behavior control plan enhanced by crop destruction.” Referring to its staffers like Charles Murray, the AIR proposal promised: “The social scientist can make significant contributions to the design of all [these] operations.”

The religious undertones that have risen to be overtones since the Reagan era are apparent in Murray’s thinking and in the so-called justice system in this country. David Simon, Ed Burns, Bill Zorzi, and other writers from “The Wire” are all in favor of jury nullification to bollux up the works:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1720240,00.html

I did some volunteer work in prison when I was in college. Having a lifelong interest in penal reform, I considered studying to become a criminologist. Then I realized it would be a lifetime of banging my head against a wall. There was no political will in this country to create a system of justice and to treat prisoners humanely. And that was back in the late ’70s. God knows it’s worse now.

Your observation re rise in incarceration of the Nixon administration was the result of Nixon’s political “Law and Order” which saw the criminalization of dissent and drugs on a national scale, is correct. The use of FBI and DEA as purveyors of a terror policy to quell dissent worked and eventually broke the spirit of that era (plus a number of notable assassinations). While this policy was taking place, a surreptitious agenda was being installed in requiring judges to face retention elections to remain in office. This policy was spread nationwide. In quick order, judges found themselves getting ‘permission’ from the Fraternal Order of Police as acceptable for holding their office. For higher judicial positions, the recommendations of the traditional American Bar Association were replaced under Reagan’s ideological imprimatur by the privately funded American Heritage Foundation and the wholesale replacement of judges took place at state and federal levels. Obama’s failure to fill the nation’s positions for Attorney Generals is a look into the stranglehold on the judiciary the Heritage Foundation has on the political policy of the Republic. This is the foundation of the steep rise in incarcerations you have noted.

Of course, I don’t see the radical increase in incarceration that came in with Reagan as mirroring a commensurately radical increase in crime. It’s just that more people and activities were deemed criminal. I have a friend who works in mental health who says it more directly: Reagan explicitly created the homeless in this country. They didn’t exist before him.

To my prior comment, insert before the final line:

> An unhindered national discourse devolved into an exclusive partisan monologue

That should complete that list but by no means is it comprehensive. Thanks.