COPS AGAINST DRUG WAR TO SPEAK 1-27, wants airtime on VFR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Eric 01012
hey all,
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition [LEAP] is having a speaker in springfild on Sunday, January 27, 2008; 9-10 am. i think this is a retired high level NYPD officer.. check their site at http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php....
they would love to have someone from VFR cover the event [eh-hem, active ingredients]. their speaker would also come up here, and could be here between 1130am and 130pm or so [i'm looking at you lisa D., sundays noon-1pm].
i've been encouraging these guys to pursue bigger media outlets than us but they are still down, so give them a call if you are interesed. info about the speaker, leap and contact info is below:
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> From: smit...@twcny.rr.com
> To: endo...@hotmail.com
> Subject: RE: media for the springfield speech
> Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 00:02:51 -0500
>
>
> Thanks for this stuff, Eric. I’ll follow up on the recommendations. Jeff will be avail on Sunday, at or abt 11am for an interview. He can do others in the preceding wk via phone. He needs to be back on the road to NYC by 1pm, though.
>
> The basics of the presentation:
>
> EVENT SPEAKER: Jeff Kaufmann
>
> EVENT TITLE: Presentation at First Hour Forum
>
> EVENT WEBSITE: http://www.uuspringfield.org/uusgs/home.html
>
> SPONSORING CLUB OR ORGANIZATION: Unitarian Universalist Society of Greater Springfield
>
> EVENT TYPE: presentation
>
> EVENT DESCRIPTION/DETAILS: presentation/discussion one hour
>
> EVENT LOCATION/DETAILS: 245 Porter Lake Drive, Springfield, MA
>
> Directions: http://www.uuspringfield.org/uusgs/directions.html
>
> EVENT DATE/TIME: Sunday, January 27, 2008; 9-10 am EST
>
> EVENT CONTACT NAME(S) & POSITION:
>
> Bruce Randall--person who pitched this to the congregation
>
> Joe Gervasini--coordinator of First Hour Forum
>
> CONTACT E-MAILS(s): Bruce Randall: comra...@verizon.net (no email for Joe)
>
> CONTACT PHONE NUMBER(S): DAY OF EVENT EMERGeNCY NUMBER:
>
> Bruce: 413-567-0411
>
> Joe: 413-746-6087
>
>
>
> Mike
>
>
>
> Mike Smithson
>
> Speakers Bureau Director
>
> Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
>
> http://www.leap.cc spea...@leap.cc
>
> 131 Flint Path, Syracuse, NY 13219
>
> Cell: 315-243-5844 fax: 315-488-3630
>
>
>
> "First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me." German Protestant Pastor Martin Niemöller 1892-1984
>
>
ABOUT LEAP:
After nearly four decades of fueling the U.S. policy of a war on drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies, our confined population has quadrupled over a 20-year period making building prisons this nation's fastest growing industry. More than 2.2 million of our citizens are currently incarcerated. In the last five years we have arrested 9 million people for nonviolent drug offenses--far more per capita than any country in the world. The United States has 4.6 percent of the population of the world but 22.5 percent of the world's prisoners. Every year we choose to continue this war will cost the United States another 69 billion dollars. Despite all the lives we have destroyed and all the money so ill spent, today illicit drugs are cheaper, more potent, and much easier to get than they were 37 years ago at the beginning of the war on drugs. Meanwhile, people continue dying in our streets while drug barons and terrorists continue to grow richer than ever before.
The stated U.S. drug policy goals of lessening the incidence of crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use, while stemming the flow of illegal drugs into this country, have not been achieved. Fighting a war on drugs has magnified our problems many fold but the U.S. still insists on continuing the war and pressuring other governments to perpetuate these same unworkable policies. This scenario is the very definition of a failed public policy. This madness must cease!
With this in mind, current and former members of law enforcement have created a drug-policy-reform group called LEAP. The membership of LEAP believe that to save lives and lower the rates of disease, crime and addiction, as well as to conserve tax dollars, we must end drug prohibition. LEAP believes a system of regulation and control is far more effective than one of prohibition.
The mission of LEAP is to reduce the multitude of harms resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition.
LEAP's goals are: (1) To educate the public, the media, and policy makers about the failure of current drug policy by presenting a true picture of the history, causes and effects of drug use and the elevated crime rates--more properly related to drug prohibition than to drug pharmacology--and (2) To restore the public's respect for police, which has been greatly diminished by law enforcement's involvement in imposing drug prohibition.
LEAP's main strategy for accomplishing these goals is to create a constantly growing speakers bureau staffed with knowledgeable and articulate former drug-warriors who describe the impact of current drug policies on: police/community relations; the safety of law enforcement officers and suspects; police corruption and misconduct; and the excessive financial and human costs associated with current drug policies.
LEAP is a tax exempt, international, nonprofit, educational entity based in the United States that was modeled on Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They had an unassailable credibility when speaking out to end that terrible war and LEAP has the same credibility when its current and former drug-warriors speak out about the horrors of the war on drugs. LEAP's message both catches the attention of the media and rings true with many other drug warriors who are questioning current U.S. drug policies.
LEAP's Board of Directors is made up of Jack Cole, who retired as a lieutenant after 26 years in the New Jersey state police--14 years in their narcotic bureau; Peter Christ a retired police captain from Tonawanda, New York; John Gayder a currently serving police officer with a department in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada; Terry Nelson, who served in the US Border Patrol, the US Customs Service, and the Department of Homeland Security; Tony Ryan, a retired police officer from Denver, Colorado; Eleanor Schockett, a retired Florida Circuit Court Judge; and Richard Kimball Watkins, a retired senior warden of a Texas state prison.
The LEAP Advisory Board is composed of many esteemed and respected, current and former members of law enforcement.
Membership in LEAP is open to anyone, but only current or former members of law enforcement can be board members or public speakers for LEAP.
In four years we went from five founding police officers to a membership approaching 9,000. We are no longer just police. Now LEAP is made up of police, parole, probation and corrections officers, judges, and prosecutors. We also have prison wardens, customs inspectors and DEA agents who help make up our bureau of some 90 speakers. LEAP has members and supporters across the United States and in eighty-six other countries, which is fitting since U.S. drug policy has ramifications that affect the entire world.
LEAP presents to civic, professional, educational, and religious organizations, as well as at public forums, but we target civic groups; Chambers of Commerce, Rotaries, Lions and Kiwanis Clubs, etc. The people in these organizations are conservative folks who mostly agree with the drug-warriors that we must continue the war on drugs at any cost. They are also very solid members of their communities; people who belong to civic organizations because they want the best for their locales. Every one of them will be voting in every election. Many are policy-makers and if they are not, they are the people who can pull the coat tails of policy-makers and say, "We have someone you must hear talk about drug policy."
After making thousands of presentations where LEAP calls for the government to "end prohibition and legalize all drugs--legalize them so we can control and regulate them and keep them out of the hands of our children," we have discovered that the vast majority of participants in those audiences agree with us. Even more amazing is that we are now attending national and international law-enforcement conventions where we keep track of all those we speak with at our exhibit booth. After we talk with them, only 6% want to continue the war on drugs, 14% are undecided, and an astounding 80% agree with LEAP that we must end drug prohibition. The most interesting thing about this statistic is that only a small number of that 80% realized any others in law enforcement felt the same.
This also holds true for policymakers. In August 2005, five LEAP speakers staffed an educational booth at the National Conference for State Legislators in Seattle, Washington. We spoke with 450 of the 5,000 attendees on a one-on-one basis and 86% of them agreed that we should legalize drugs--only 4% wanted to continue the war and the other 10% were undecided. If we can show these legislators that they won't lose one more vote than they will gain by backing drug policy reform, they will end drug prohibition.
LEAP does not release names or contact information unless they are for board members, speakers, staff or public volunteers helping with the administration of the organization. Anonymity is guaranteed to anyone who chooses to be a stealth member. If you wish to participate actively and publicly in drug policy reform, we are in need of people around the globe who will spread our message and help recruit more members. If you choose to be a LEAP local representative, your name and assigned LEAP email address may appear on our website and publications. There is strength in numbers. By publicly declaring your advocacy for using common sense in formulating drug policy, you will encourage others to do the same. Before long, people who share our desire for change will be contacting you to form local networks and alliances.
Please take time to view the new LEAP promo Click here
"Anyone concerned about the failure of our $69 billion-a-year War on Drugs should watch this 12-minute program. You will meet front line, ranking police officers who give us a devastating report on why it cannot work. It is a must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with this issue."
-- Walter Cronkite
ABOUT THE SPEAKER JEFF KAUFMAN:
Jeff Kaufman
Speaker
jeff.k...@leap.cc (714) 834-4680 www.leap.cc
“If they caught the owner of the Empire State Building smoking a joint in the lobby, they could take the whole building.”
Jeff Kaufman began his criminal-justice career in 1980 as a beat cop for the NYPD just as the department was emerging from the budgetary crisis caused by the city's near-bankruptcy in the mid ‘70s. Says Jeff, “At the time, the force consisted of officers who were getting ready to retire and officers like me, young and motivated to ‘take back the streets’ from the ‘bad guys.’” He was assigned to the 75th Precinct in Brooklyn—one of the busiest in NYC. Within a year, he would be one of the responding officers to the “Palm Sunday Massacre” of eleven people, thus introducing him to the effect of drugs and the ‘War on Drugs’ on his community.
In his free time, Jeff attended law school. When he passed the bar, he was transferred to the NYPD’s Legal Bureau, where, among other duties, he brought cases against individuals for forfeiture of their property. Targets included both drug dealers and recreational users. But after Jeff attended the first National Conference on Asset Forfeiture in Washington, DC, he began to see just how wrong these policies were. “The conference organizers boasted that federal asset forfeiture was the only effective way to stop drugs. They claimed that if they caught the owner of the Empire State Building smoking a joint in the lobby, they could take the whole building! The [police] chiefs that accompanied me to the conference drooled with anticipation. Finally, an answer to their budget problems.”
Shortly thereafter, Jeff left the police department and became a defense attorney for the indigent. “My caseload rapidly swelled with drug cases, and I saw from another vantage point how the ‘drug war’ was destroying us. More police were hired. New tactics were utilized, where large numbers of people were caught in police sweeps and arrested without regard to our basic constitutional principles. What affected me most were the number of young people who faced draconian sentencing guidelines. Lives snuffed out by our ‘drug war.’”
In the mid ‘90s Jeff learned about the need for teachers at a high school in the precinct in which he’d once patrolled. Originally intending to return to criminal law, he was offered a teaching position on Rikers Island, where he developed relationships the nature of which was unable to do as either police officer or attorney. “I taught criminal law to adolescents facing life sentences for violent crimes and drug felonies. In class, we had the opportunity to fully explore the ramifications of the ‘drug war.’”
To book a speaker, contact:
Mike Smithson, Speakers Bureau Coordinator
spea...@leap.cc
fax: (315) 488-3630 cell: (315) 243-5844
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