17 December 2019
Chief of Police Hugh T. Clements, Jr
Providence Police Department
City Hall
25 Dorrance Street
Providence, RI 02903
Dear Police Chief Clements:
I hope this message finds you well. Before I get to today’s topic, I would like to thank you. This past August, my girlfriend had surgery and as part of her recovery, we spent a week staying at the Graduate. Each day, I went out to talk to homeless people looking for addicts and the mentally ill. I never felt unsafe. That is due to the effort of the folks on your team.
I am about to disagree with something you did. Please understand that I am not trying to tell you how to do your job. I am fully aware that in toto, the job of running the Providence Police Department is much more complex than the science I want to discuss. However, if I did not bring the science forward, that is on me.
I also admit I have no idea what kind of feedback regarding certain problems that arise in the city on a daily basis. I do know that most of the public, since folks like me do not discuss our diseases nearly enough, is not immersed in addiction science. In fact, the exact opposite is true. That again falls on people like me to make our stories known more often.
Back in early December, your team concluded a 4 month investigation by charging 23 people. 12 were arrested that day. I would guess you have picked up a few more since then. You are not going to like this. Not only was that a waste of time and money, you might have set things backwards.
The only thing good that came out of it was your seizure of Fentanyl. Of course if drugs were decriminalized as they should be, see the nonsense that used to go on during Prohibition mirroring the nonsense now, that would not even be an issue. Not only can you not arrest your way out of this problem, every arrest makes it worse.
How do I know?? In the late 90’s I was a successful salesman living in Fall River making around $1500 a week which was great money at that time. The only problem is my addictions caused my living expenses to be around $1900 a week. A friend suggested that I should start dealing crack for him.
I went from low level dealer up to owner of my own franchise rather quickly. I soon realized that I needed to control the means of production so I started producing crack in my own kitchen. Yes, I do know what it is like to drive around with a couple of kilos in the trunk. Funny, every dealer I have ever known always wears a seat belt.
While dealing crack, I never had a problem. My alcoholism was an entirely different story. Every night I would drive drunk. Lord knows how many times I came close to killing myself. I have rolled 3 cars over in my life, 2 of them alcohol induced. Just as I had started, everyone who dealt on my behalf was an addict. You even admitted that is what you arrested.
You do realize we are not running out of addicts anytime soon, right?? These folks will be quickly replaced and probably have been by now. In the meantime, if this arrest does not cause them to “bottom” all you ended up doing was made their path more difficult since now they need even more money and will probably turn up the crime level a tad in order to accomplish that. Was the one day headline and news stories worth it??
When you get down to it, you probably only caused 1 of the 23 to bottom. That means via court costs and other fees, you imposed a “tax” on the other 22. Is the amount the city will recoup from the “tax” equivalent to the 4 months of activity it took to get there?? More than likely not. By the way, I get the whole, “Every freaking day we get complaints about Kennedy Plaza, Jesus Christ, we gotta do something” angle.
Would it not make more sense to attack the problem at the cause?? Kindly consider what you spent in 4 months. I am not asking you to reveal it. I would just like you to participate in a couple of mental exercises.
For instance, since we know that 80% of all addicts, I’m on this list, have co-occuring mental issues, imagine if we spent that money educating parents and teachers who deal with mentally ill kids what to look for?? I grew up with money, went to all private schools including skipping a grade, was labeled as a gifted kid, and still started drinking at 10 and using cocaine at 12. Imagine if my parents knew what to look for. These other parents deserve the same chance.
Imagine if we spent the money educating the public on how to react if they run into someone in full addiction. Imagine if they spotted someone in full addiction and had a number they could call so one of us from the recovery community could go talk to the person. Remember, if that effort gets two people sober it performed better than all the arrests did. It also reminds everyone that addiction is an illness. That reduces stigma. When you reduce stigma, more people seek help. Do you really want your Officers to have an encounter with someone too ashamed to seek help due to the stigma?? How about a loved one just going about their day??
Imagine if the money was spent lobbying our political leaders to decriminalize drugs. Fentanyl would be off the streets in no time. A lot of people would never discover opioids because they would stop at weed for pain management. Stigma would almost disappear. Tax revenue would be through the roof. Crime would be even lower and public safety would be easier to maintain.
By the way, if you need to talk to somebody, Sheriff Robert Maciol in Oneida County is a great resource. While he does not agree with me on “decriminalization” he does agree that trying to arrest your way out of the problem will eventually fail.
I have no idea how many people in recovery are in your life. If you need us to talk to you, your Officers, or the folks you had to arrest, please let us know. It cannot be stated strongly enough that you are not up against “choices” or “irresponsibility”. You are up against a disease.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Robert T. Oliveira
315-864-1229
Quahogs United 