,
15 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
1/ New episode with @Marketplace’s #UncertainHour podcast:
30 years ago, President George H.W. Bush used a bag of crack to make a startling point – and get millions of dollars to fight the war on drugs.
Thing is, the whole event was based on a setup. revealnews.org/episodes/ameri…
30 years ago, President George H.W. Bush used a bag of crack to make a startling point – and get millions of dollars to fight the war on drugs.
Thing is, the whole event was based on a setup. revealnews.org/episodes/ameri…
2/ In a nationally televised speech in 1989, Bush said that the issue of drugs was "so important, so threatening, that it warranted talking directly with you, the American people.”
3/ Less than two minutes into his speech, he reached under his desk and pulled out a bag of crack cocaine. @kristianiaclark explains what happened next:
4/ Bush was referring to Lafayette Park. It’s not the sort of place where drug deals go down. In fact, it’s often full of tourists. Police are everywhere.
Reporter @Isikoff knew that. He covered Bush’s speech, and he sensed something else was afoot.
Reporter @Isikoff knew that. He covered Bush’s speech, and he sensed something else was afoot.
5/ So he started digging. One of the first calls he made was to the U.S. Park Police, who patrolled Lafayette Park. He asked them if they’d seen much crack dealing there.
Their answer was unequivocal: No.
Their answer was unequivocal: No.
6/ @Isikoff eventually learned that DEA agents had lured a suspected drug dealer named Keith Jackson out of one of D.C.’s poorest neighborhoods to complete the transaction.
They’d done this at the urging of one of the President’s speechwriters.
They’d done this at the urging of one of the President’s speechwriters.
7/ The story he eventually wrote painted a damning picture of the DEA’s setup: washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/l… 
8/ Bush’s speech aimed to emphasize how threatening and omnipresent the crack epidemic was. No one was safe – not even near the White House.
9/ Yet despite Bush's dramatic language, research showed that by the time he delivered his speech, crack use in the U.S. had peaked and was on the decline. It was largely localized to low-income areas.
10/ The Bush administration had this info at the time. But that didn’t stop them from eventually spending more on anti-drug efforts than Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan.
More than two-thirds of that money went to law enforcement.
More than two-thirds of that money went to law enforcement.
11/ It laid the groundwork for some serious disparities.
12/ Since 1986, when Congress established mandatory minimums for sentencing, the number of people in federal prison has almost quadrupled.
Nearly half of all these inmates are in for drug crimes, and about 75 percent of them are Black or Hispanic.
Nearly half of all these inmates are in for drug crimes, and about 75 percent of them are Black or Hispanic.
13/ The most common drug charges for people in prison these days are for low-level sales, like Keith Jackson's.
@kristianiaclark spoke with people close to Jackson during his childhood. They told her they believed he was a scapegoat in the war on drugs. revealnews.org/episodes/ameri…
@kristianiaclark spoke with people close to Jackson during his childhood. They told her they believed he was a scapegoat in the war on drugs. revealnews.org/episodes/ameri…
14/ The war on drugs was never really the war on drugs,” a former teacher at Jackson’s high school said. “It was a war on us.”
15/ For more stories like this, please consider subscribing to our newsletter: revealnews.org/newsletter
