I patrolled the beat of South Central Los Angeles at the height of the crack epidemic, when that drug took thousands of lives in a 15-square mile neighborhood. Those glistening crystals of crack cocaine snuffed out the lives, the hopes, and dreams of mothers, fathers, and too many children to count.

The problems then were made worse by bad laws and soft-on-crime judges, who released violent, dope-peddling criminals back on to the streets. Now, some on Capitol Hill and elsewhere are intent on repeating the mistakes of the past.