NEW YORK (AP) _ U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani, who bought two vials of crack in an undercover operation with U.S. Sen. Alfonse D’Amato, says the court system is bankrupt because arrested dealers are freed too quickly.
Giuliani, wearing a black leather Hell’s Angels motorcycle vest over his white button-down shirt at a news conference Wednesday, said changes must be made in how local, state and federal courts deal with those who sell crack, a potent cocaine derivative.
″You’re building on what was already an emergency problem, an epidemic,″ he said. ″We need a lot of changes in a system which was pretty much bankrupt already.″
Arrested dealers are often on the streets a day later, and rarely serve lengthy jail sentences, he said.
″What we’re teaching kids is you can sell drugs, you ca make money and you can get away with it,″ Giuliani said.
Giuliani, D’Amato, R-N.Y., and Benjamin Baer, chairman of the U.S. Parole Commission, worked with federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents to highlight what they described as an epidemic of dealing in neighborhood streets.
D’Amato, dressed in a khaki Eisenhower jacket, green fatigue cap and tasseled black loafers, said he and a female agent had ″absolutely no problem″ buying two vials of crack.
The female agent, parked with D’Amato at an intersection in Upper Manhattan, touched her nose and signaled that she wanted two vials and a dealer went into a nearby building, D’Amato said.
″He came back out,″ the senator said. ″I handed him the $20. He gave me the two vials and that was it.″
The transaction was recorded by agents and news photographers in a nearby van. The dealer, a bearded man wearing a sleeveless plaid shirt, took about eight seconds to make his sale.
No arrests were made in Wednesday’s operation. But Robert Stutman, special agent in charge of the DEA’s New York office, said he expected arrests to be made after more evidence was collected.
The senator, who is running for re-election in November, called for new laws to lessen the amount of crack needed for a felony charge of possession and also demanded mandatory prison terms and tougher parole rules for convicted crack dealers.
Of more than 56,000 drug arrests made in New York City in 1985, D’Amato said only about 5,000 people spent more than one night in jail.
Baer joined an agent in a third car involved in a drug deal, buying two vials of crack for $15 each.
″This personal experience ... gives me a feeling that the problem is much much, much greater than I ever imagined,″ said Baer, dressed in white overalls and a painter’s hat.
The costumes were supplied by the DEA.
DEA spokesman Robert Strang said laws against drug possession would not apply to D’Amato or Baer in this case.
″When a citizen is in the company of a DEA agent on an investigation, it is not a crime to purchase narcotics,″ Strang said. ″The reason is that you’re doing it to build a case against a defendant.″
D’Amato also said his presence had nothing to do with his re-election campaign and that he has been working for several years to tighten enforcement against drug smuggling and sales in the city.
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