Drug War and Blacks

Re “Blacks Unfairly Targeted in Fight on Drugs, Report Says,” June 8: “If this were happening to whites, the policies would change,” says Human Rights Watch counsel Jamie Fellner, speaking of the grossly unfair treatment the African American community has received in the so-called drug war. Also, if this were happening to whites, the story would have run where it belongs: on the front page, not relegated to Page 16.

The Times editors’ choice to devote front-page space to a feature on the price of concert tickets, while burying this crucial evidence of institutional racism and the devastation it has wrought on African Americans speaks volumes about what black people are up against in this country. I am white, and I am disgusted.

LAURENCE HAUBEN

Santa Barbara

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It is not surprising that Rep. Maxine Waters considers a “19-year-old, low-level drug dealer in South-Central L.A.” as “not responsible for the devastation of the community.” But multiply that young man by hundreds if not thousands of others, and you do get devastation. In their spare time, these people are not in church; they are engaging in other criminal activities.

The harm that Rep. Waters herself contributes to the problem is incalculable. She provides excuses for lawbreakers when she blames law enforcement and not lawbreakers for crime.

M.H. RODRIGUEZ

Burbank