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Law Bulletin: Policies to prevent predictable homicides
JAMES E. GIERACH
Law Bulletin columnist
Published: March 16, 2018
Shocking! That’s the word that initially dominated news reports of the shooting of a part-time Bellwood police officer and his flight-attendant wife and “perfect” mother on the campus of Central Michigan University last Friday.
James Eric Davis Jr., 19, is suspected of shooting his father, James Davis Sr., and his wife Diva, both of whom were killed. Friends and a roommate described the younger Davis as quiet, and neighbors and friends described the family as “good.”
As a former Chicago homicide prosecutor — any school shooting, assault-weapon homicide or drug story gets my attention, because, in my opinion, the overwhelming focus of homicide-prevention efforts by legislators, police and opinion-makers is largely misplaced.
The base answer to needless killings and shootings is not assault weapon and bump-fire stock bans, a 72-hour “cooling off” period, smaller magazines, age 21 instead of 18, better background checks, boosted availability of mental health services or an Illinois gun registry — through I agree with all those measures.
Gunfire at Water Tower Place, on Chicago expressways and in schools coming from student backpacks indicates the Illinois General Assembly, and maybe the U.S. Congress, are on the right track taking aim at guns, the National Rifle Association, businesses supporting the NRA with discounts and politicians supporting the NRA with double talk.
To many people, America looks like “Guns ‘R’ Us.”
But my homicide prosecutorial experience taught me that some homicides are more preventable than others. Shocking homicides, those marked by the reaction “who would have thought … ,” are very difficult to anticipate and, therefore, difficult to prevent. Falling into this category are homicides perpetrated by “crazies” and those motivated by domestic conflict.
Statistics and authorities cited in a Newsweek article four years ago are daunting, and evidence the commonality of mental illnesses that can trigger homicidal behavior. The article title, “Nearly 1 in 5 Americans Suffer from Mental Health Illness Each Year,” begs the further question — which one of the five?
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Columbine High School massacre and the Parkside School shooting grabbed the attention of the public and pols, deservedly again stirring calls for comprehensive re-examination of American gun policy. Maybe we should follow in the footsteps of Australia following its Port Arthur mass killing and Monash University incident, both leading to its 1996 National Firearms Agreement. The agreement requires Aussie gun owners to be licensed and every gun must be registered by serial number to its gun owner.
Maybe the Aussie reform is not Second Amendment-compatible here.
Regardless, there are more preventable, routine homicides that we can easily anticipate and prevent constitutionally.
Preventable homicides are those perpetrated over money, territory, gang pride, retaliation and business disputes related to drug prohibition policy — the largest share of Chicago’s homicides and, likely, the largest share of American homicides.
We know Capone-like killings are coming. We know the likely who, where and why. The U.S. Department of Justice reported, “In 2006 nearly 50 percent of the homicides and a large percentage of other violent crimes and property crimes committed in Chicago were attributed to street gangs that are involved in drug trafficking.”
Then and now, the cost of stopping those homicides and property crimes is well known: End drug prohibition.
But for many that cost is too high. Many people just cannot conceive giving up drug prohibition as a government policy and switching to a health-based system of drug control, regulation, licensing, labeling and taxation. The cost is high. Shucking drug prohibition intuition for drug tolerance legislation is a very high price. No less difficult than swearing off irrational prejudice based on race, color, creed and the like.
But the cost of ending the War on Drugs is worth it for many reasons. First, it’s the single most important essential step to curtailing systemic black market violence, immediately. Secondly, it’s the surest means to stop “the opioid overdose epidemic,” immediately. Legal, regulated drug markets would enlist the help of drug users in the battle to prevent accidental overdose, because legal regulated drug markets would arm users with information and a label that informed them of drug identification, potency and purity.
Let’s stop the preventable homicides and accidental overdosing on prohibition drugs and help our fellow man. Let’s end drug prohibition.
ames E. Gierach is a former Cook County assistant state’s attorney, delegate to the Illinois Constitutional Convention and executive board vice chair of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a nonprofit educational association.