Gang Row

Alex Coolman makes a really good point here that isn't made nearly enough. The article he links to is about a widescale bust of college fraternity members in the San Diego area for drug distribution. However, if the alleged drug distributors in this case were urban youths not attending college, their organization would certainly be labeled a "gang." And according to how the laws are currently written, a fraternity that engages in organized drug distribution fits the definition of a "gang."

Considering that busts like these are extremely rare in relation to how common it is for fraternities to be involved in drug distribution, how the prosecutors handle these cases will be interesting. I've often said that once the drug warriors go after the more privileged drug dealers on college campuses with the intensity that they go after minorities, the drug war will quickly be over.

UPDATE: This is becoming a huge story now. And check this out:

Those arrested included a student who was about to receive a criminal justice degree and another who was to receive a master’s degree in homeland security.

“A sad commentary is that when one of these individuals was arrested, they inquired as (to) whether or not his arrest and incarceration would have an effect on him becoming a federal law enforcement officer,” said Ralph Partridge, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego.

It's good that this story is getting a lot of attention because it perfectly illustrates the divide that exists between drug distribution networks run on college campuses and drug distribution networks run in the inner cities. People who run drug distribution networks on college campuses rarely even consider the possibility that they're being watched, mainly because they rarely are. The university wants to avoid the negative publicity and the prosecutors know that many of the parents of those they'd likely bust will be able to hire the best lawyers money can buy. It's simply easier to bust those who don't have the resources to defend themselves, and that's why we have the huge disparities in who actually gets arrested. But this case is looking like a huge departure from that, and I'm really curious to see where it ends up.