|
|
"We caught you three times now. ... You obviously have a habit," Vetere said. "We told you to seek rehabilitation. You went through it, we caught you again. The second time we told you to seek rehabilitation again, we gave you some probation, blah, blah, blah.
"The third time you're out," Vetere said. "Three strikes, you're out, and we take your possessions."
Vetere's opponent, incumbent Democrat James Sottile, called Vetere's plan ridiculous.
"This one takes the award for being the most outlandish," the mayor said. "To say to these folks, 'Sorry, but since you have been convicted, we are going to take your homes and put you out on the street' is just outrageous."
City Police Chief Gerald Keller and City Judge Edward Feeney, a Republican, doubted such a law would do much to reduce drug use or dealing in the city.
Each noted that New York is moving more toward treatment, rather than punitive measures, for misdemeanor drug offenders, and they don't believe such a law would be constitutional.
Feeney said forfeiture laws are designed to punish dealers and those who have profited from drug sales.
"From my perspective ... I would much rather deal with the impact (of the drug problem) with helping people," said Feeney, who oversees the Ulster Regional Drug Court, an alternative court set up in November 2001.
"It is kind of silly," Feeney said of Vetere's plan. "People who are narcotic users, because of their addictions, should really be given treatment."
Keller said law-enforcement officials, politicians and judges even are questioning the constitutionality of existing forfeiture laws in felony drug cases. In some of those cases, Keller said, police departments are being criticized for being "too overzealous."
Keller said the felony forfeiture laws were meant to punish people making a profit from the sales of drugs, not people convicted of misdemeanors. For the most part, he said, people arrested on misdemeanor charges in Kingston are users, not dealers.
"As far as being an effective tool in fighting drug use, no I don't think it would be an effective tool at all," Keller said of Vetere's proposal. "She has a distorted view of who drug users or drug dealers are. ... They (Republicans) are swinging in the dark."
But Vetere said such a law would work.
"We need to get tough on selling or buying," she said. "It (the forfeiture proposal) would help to keep (drugs) off the street and actually would make you think about coming into this area because it easy to buy and it is easy to sell."
Michael Sweeney, the Republican candidate for alderman-at-large, sided with Vetere.
"If they (drug offenders) are not going to pay attention to what the (laws) are saying, then, you know what, we don't want them in the city of Kingston anymore," Sweeney said. "And if they want to stay in Kingston, we are going to make it very uncomfortable for them."
