Until this morning, I had never heard of Randy Cohen. He writes a Q&A Column, "On Ethics," which apparently has something to do with - ethics. If he'd title it something like "the lack thereof," he might have a hit.
The Socialist People's Republic of Seattle Times attempts to buy him some credibility by noting that Cohen is the author of "The Good, the Bad and the Difference: How to Tell Right from Wrong in Everyday Situations."
Cohen's e-mail address is even ethicist@nytimes.com.
Jeze... and I haven't even told you what this guy had to say yet... how rude.
The title of this week's column is Dealing with Dealers, and Cohen misses the pot the moment the urine starts to flow from his scat encrusted lips.
The question from 'Anonymous in Brooklyn':
I live in a gentrifying neighborhood. Someone on the block is dealing drugs that, I recently learned, are less benign (WTF?!) than I'd assumed; he's dealing crystal meth. I believe that the drug laws are overly punitive, and I've never had a problem with the dealer. But I would like to see the block cleaned up and the drug traffic gone. What's the morality of narcking on the neighbors?
Cohen's "answer" (in part):
...with my commentary in gray:
If your local drug dealer is merely unsightly, do nothing.
"Merely unsightly?" What the...?! Show me a drug dealer who is "merely unsightly" and I'll show you a hundred crack whores who's so-far unaborted children are destined for an encore of their drug infested womb-provider's (no, I didn't say "mother's") so-called-life. And that is a hell of a lot more than "merely unsightly."
I would be reluctant to invoke laws that can be both inflexible and ineffectual.
Laws that are not applied swiftly, surely and severely are ineffectual and "merely unsightly," Mr. Cohen. There's a reason we call them penitent-iaries and sending these people off to a country club to be coddled and share the tricks of their various trades is NOT, NOT, NOT what anyone in their reasonable mind refers to as "Justice."
If this drug dealer is a nuisance -- attracting a raucous clientele, perhaps -- you might consider measures that do not involve the police: speaking to your community board or local church groups or other neighborhood activists, for example.
How many "community boards, church groups and neighborhood activists" have successfully removed law-breaking drug dealers from our communities and at what percentage, Mr. Cohen? We're a nation of laws for a reason. If people choose not to abide by those laws, we have prisons that ought not resemble the aforementioned country clubs that I'm sure you advocate. It's all too unfortunate that people who "think" like you don't have to live in the squalor that your ludicrous "policies" would dictate.
Ethicist? ...someone gag me while I puke!
Mr. Cohen deserves nothing better than a taste of his own medecine. Perhaps he'll get lucky and find himself the neighbor, or - better yet - the landlord of a meth cook. Then, let's hear what he has to say about right and wrong when HE is stuck, by law, paying for the $10,000-plus clean-up and remodelling job.
One can only wish...
And if there's anyone at NY Times with a clue, they need to issue a pink slip. Let Mr. Cohen make his money a more ethical way... rather than delivering this kind of tripe as "ethics," let him spend a day as a first responder so he can find out first-hand what is and what is not "merely unsightly."
He can start with the guest model in the picture above...
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