Reference no: EM133328315

Assignment:

a. State the main proposition (A) about which the two sides disagree.

b. State a second proposition (B) that is both testable and crucial to the two sides' main disagreement.

Issue: Is the policing of drug possession and drug dealing in the United States racially biased?

Gloria Browne-Marshall: Absolutely. Opioids like heroin have become a major problem in many communities. People are burglarizing homes to support their addiction, and possession of heroin is a crime, but in white, wealthy communities, people say that heroin addicts should get counseling, not arrested. Meanwhile, look at the disparities in the way we deal with powder cocaine versus crack cocaine, where we essentially have different laws for different people. That's biased.

Harry Stern: I started police work during the late 1980s, during the crack wars. And I can tell you that what brought police officers into black neighborhoods to arrest crack dealers was the violence. We were there, rather than somewhere else, because the crack cocaine trade generated so much violence. We're not going after the guy who's smoking weed and watching cartoons in his apartment because he's not a threat to public safety. That's the difference, and it's not about race. It's about.