L. Neil Smith's

The Libertarian Enterprise

Number 65, February 15, 2000
State of Disunion

---

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

---

L. Neil Smith, Publisher [email protected] John Taylor, Editor [email protected]

Vin Suprynowicz, Honorary Editor [email protected] Ken L. Holder, Webmaster [email protected]

Alan Wendt, Internet Service Provider
[email protected]

The Libertarian Enterprise is available at http://www.webleyweb.com/tle/. Web edition of TLE courtesy of Ken Holder.

To receive a text version of The Libertarian Enterprise by subscription, send an e-mail message to [email protected] In the body of the message, please type: "subscribe [your email address]" (without the brackets). E-mail distribution courtesy of Alan Wendt.

Permission is hereby granted to quote from The Libertarian Enterprise, provided that the article is printed in full, recognition is given to the author, and TLE is cited (please mention the issue number).

You may also forward the text-based e-mail edition of TLE intact without restriction (but be sure that your intended recipient will welcome the rather large message in his/her mailbox!)

Note: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, the material contained herein is distributed for nonprofit educational purposes, and for other fair use purposes including criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and/or research.

Editor's Notes
by John Taylor
[email protected]

Submitted for your consideration: a plan endorsed, praised, and actively promoted by the NRA. A plan whose alleged successes in Boston and Richmond are prompting law-and-order socialists nationwide to call for its adoption everywhere. A plan which is the linchpin in the NRA's mantra to "enforce existing laws" -- a chant now heard from every dark corner of the Quisling Republican political camp. Witness the casual disregard for rights and justice in the case of Joseph Quarles:

* * * * * * * * * * *

In Richmond, Va., where zero tolerance and Project Exile make justice unforgiving, Joseph Quarles drew five years in prison last week for public urination. More or less.

Quarles stepped out of a car last August to relieve himself on a city street. When police arrested him they found a .22 caliber Jennings pistol and heroin residue on a dollar bill.

As any lawyer or professional would give him five years automatically. [sic - ed.] That's the law in Virginia.

Maryland's law against possession of handguns could be equally tough -- and should be. Project Exile has shown that tough enforcement can cut deeply into the murder rate without demonstrably trampling on the Constitution.

The Quarles case suggests to some that Exile draws the net of enforcement too tightly. More flexibility is needed to create a truly just system of punishment, according to this view.

For the criminal justice establishment of Virginia, though, the offense promised another opportunity for a city to show its determination to get rid of gun violence.

Baltimore surely faces similarly challenging circumstances. The murder rate has exceeded 300 a year for 10 years. Innocent bystanders -- often children -- have been wounded and killed. Young men who might make different choices turn to guns because they feel they must protect themselves -- or because guns are a tool of the drug trade.

In Richmond, the U.S. Attorney decided to shock the city out of its helplessness. Though judges were skeptical, police and local prosecutors willingly joined in the Exile army.

Exile's aggressively unforgiving system snared Joseph Quarles at an awkward moment. But perhaps it saved his life and the lives of others. Similar saving arrests could be made in Baltimore -- if the state's attorney or the U.S. Attorney weren't so short on the will to make it happen.

Quarles and his family -- including one of his daughters in a bright pink knit hat -- pled for leniency at last week's sentencing. His mother said he was a good father. He said he was "doing the responsible thing in an irresponsible situation" -- holding the gun for a friend, keeping it from a really bad guy.

Often in these cases, the defendant stands alone. No family. No employer. Nothing but the sorry record leading to a long tour away from home turf.

Judge Thomas N. Nance waited for Quarles to finish.

Then he said, "The [Virginia] General Assembly has decided that most of the [crime] problems in this state are caused by guns and drugs." As a result, he said, it imposed a mandatory minimum sentence of five years for possession of drugs and a gun. The assembly passed a statewide Exile program two years after the U.S. Attorney invoked it in Richmond.

The city's per-capita murder rate was then second highest in the nation.

Some 326 cases were brought under Exile in less than three years -- and Richmond's murder rate fell 40 percent.

"It was such a target-rich environment before," says the project's principal architect Jim Comey, an assistant U.S. Attorney and former federal prosecutor in New York under now-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "You could poke a stick on any street corner and find a felon with a gun. We had a public emergency here. Exile was like calling out the national guard."

The case of Joseph "Baybay" Bullock shows how far out of control things had gotten on Richmond's streets. He shot two people to death on a street corner and, minutes later, came back to accept the accolades -- or exult in the fear -- he knew his deeds would engender.

Federal authorities held him without bail -- a prominent feature of Exile -- giving witnesses confidence they could testify against him. He was convicted and sentenced to three life terms and exiled to a federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind.

Despite the celebrated history of Baybay Bullock, Joseph Quarles told the judge he knew nothing of Project Exile. If this is so, he may be the last to learn in this city of 200,000.

The word is on the streets: Police hand out calling cards that say "An illegal gun gets you 5 years in federal prison." A series of TV advertisements -- done without sound because drug dens are so noisy that silence alone grabs attention -- make the point starkly.

Project Exile "has scared the crap out of a lot of people," says David Baugh, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense attorney in Richmond. Exile has helped reduce the crime rate, he acknowledges.

But at what cost?

Mr. Baugh worries that juries will begin to nullify the law by acquitting defendants who are clearly guilty and that the nullification impulse will arise in other cases.

He says Exile lands most heavily on African-American defendants and the record shows that this is so.

Mr. Comey agrees. But, he says, Exile imprisons people who are, themselves, jailers, holding people hostage to fear in their own houses and neighborhoods. Assistant commonwealth attorney Vicki Harris says the "race card" is not playing well in Richmond.

Outside the courtroom in Richmond last week, Joseph Quarles' mother, Delores, and several other family members tearfully challenged the judge's sentence.

Their questions were fielded by Carolyn V. Grady, a defense lawyer, called by Quarles' mother for advice.

With an Exile case, Ms. Grady said, "It wouldn't have mattered if Joseph was the president's son." An appeal could be filed, yes, but the chance of success was not good. The cost would be $4,000 or more.

Quarles had been exiled.

And in precisely the way the program demands: His family will tell his story and the lack of leniency will become part of the larger message to anyone who wants to carry a gun.

Meanwhile, the murder rate in Richmond is down more than 40 percent. In 1997, the city registered 139 murders. In 1998, the figure was 94 and last year it dipped to 72.

"Kids will play in our playgrounds," says an assistant commonwealth's attorney Harris. "People will shop in our stores."

In the beginning, police and prosecutors ran through cases Mr. Comey referred to as "low hanging fruit" -- cases involving those multiple repeat offenders Exile was designed to remove from the streets. Joseph Quarles, though not a high-profile offender, suffered the same stiff sanctions because gun possession itself is regarded as a violent crime.

Perhaps Joseph Quarles would have "skated" if Exile did not exist. Perhaps, instead of prison he would have died on the street.

Instead, his case helps to send the message:

Before Exile, says Assistant U.S. attorney Comey, "Every criminal in Richmond carried a gun. In the morning, they put on their socks, their shoes, their belt and their gun with an equal of reflection."

No more, as Joseph Quarles should have known.

- - -
Source:
Changing a culture of gun violence
No compromise: Unbending enforcement makes criminals less likely to carry guns and kill
Originally published on 02/08/2000 in The Baltimore Sun

* * * * * * * * * * *

We can only hope that indeed "juries will begin to nullify the law by acquitting defendants who are clearly guilty and that the nullification impulse will arise in other cases." For it is certain that this kind of program, with support from everyone from William Jefferson Clinton to James Jay Baker, with numerous stops in between, will take root like kudzu unless we, the people burn it out -- and burn it out right now!

Liberty!

John Taylor
[email protected]

Table of Contents

1. Letters to the Editor
                  by Our Readers

2. Bet I Can Sell Out Faster Than You
                  by David Roberson

3. The Minority of Mike
                  by Michael J Bates

4. The Longest Wish-list Ever
                  by Vin Suprynowicz

5. The State of The Union, 2005
                  by David Roberson

6. Miscellany

Back to The Libertarian Enterprise 2000 Issues.