What If Geraldine Ferraro's Convicted-Felon Son Had Been Black?

It's hard to speculate--with any degree of certainty, I mean--but something tells me this 1988 scenario might have played out a little differently:

John Zaccaro Jr., son of the 1984 Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, Geraldine A. Ferraro, is spending his four-month prison term for selling cocaine in a $1,500-a-month luxury apartment in Vermont with maid service, cable television and privileges at the Y.M.C.A. next door.

John Zaccaro Jr., son of the 1984 Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate, Geraldine A. Ferraro, is spending his four-month prison term for selling cocaine in a $1,500-a-month luxury apartment in Vermont with maid service, cable television and privileges at the Y.M.C.A. next door.

He is staying at his own expense in one of 12 units in a building designed for expense-account business people on short assignments in Burlington, Vt. ''We like to think of it as a cross between an apartment and a hotel, with the advantages of both,'' a spokeswoman for the building's owners said, according to an article yesterday in The Daily News in New York.

Mr. Zaccaro, convicted in April of selling a quarter-gram of cocaine to an undercover officer, was determined eligible for the state Correction Department's house arrest program, under which nonviolent convicts can find their own housing and live under what is said to be close supervision by correction officials.

John Quinn, who prosecuted Mr. Zaccaro, said, ''This guy is a drug felon and he's living in conditions that 99.9 percent of the people of Vermont couldn't afford.''

Also at Cogitamus.