Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon is exceptionally definitive when it comes to discussing causes for crime and incarceration in the nation, particularly in the metropolitan Detroit region for which he is ultimately responsible. The former city of Detroit police chief who was elected head of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department in 2010, doesn’t shy when asked some tough questions about crime and punishment in the region.
Napoleon, a revered and highly respected law enforcement official, spoke candidly with rolling out regarding his position on narcotic use. During our interview, he left no room for speculation about the root cause of crime in the country, and specifically in African American and minority communities. –roz edward
Shortcomings in narcotics related law enforcement …
The fact is that we have done nothing to stem the tide of illegal narcotics that are coming into this country. By all accounts if you talk to criminal justice professionals, they will tell you that the crime rate in this country is directly related to the strong appetite for illegal narcotics that Americans have. So until such time that we either control the flow, decrease the appetite or do something different than what we have done for the last 40 years, we’re going to continue to see the same kind of problems in the criminal justice system that we see now.
The penal system …
Some of the problems we are seeing with the penal system are super high incarceration rates and we have issues with the profile of the average inmate in our jail system — [there are] some consistencies. They are either black or brown — predominantly [and] disproportionately. They are uneducated, they are poor and they are male. … When you look at the proliferation of and the introduction of narcotics in our community, that’s when you saw our incarceration rates rise to the levels that we are seeing now.
Unemployment as a factor …
Most people have other alternatives [to unemployment] that they would seek out other than crime if it were not for drugs being so prevalent in our community.
Note: Sheriff Napoleon is quoted in Wayne County and southwest Michigan media outlets as having said that his department is going to continue to “ruin someone’s day” by busting illegal drug operations in Wayne County. The statement came on the heels of the arrest of a Detroit senior citizen who was charged with running a more than $1 million marijuana operation, officials said.
The 70-year-old man was allegedly running a distribution network and according to Napoleon, it was not possible that the marijuana was being used for medicinal purposes.
