Priorities
AC wonders whether law enforcement priorities should include shutting down weed farmers. Like Chuck says, end the drug war and release the prisoners. It’s not that I think legalizing drugs would be a great wonderful thing but the instances of the cops shooting 90 year-old grandmothers or raiding the wrong houses would probably drop significantly.
September 14th, 2007 at 9:16 am
If you want to stop the raiding of wrong houses of shooting of grandmothers, wouldn’t it be more politically effective and cheap to… I dunno, maybe get rid of the policies that directly result in shooting grandmothers?
The ones that are nearly universally unpopular, like sending tens of thousands of dollars of SWAT teams after a dime bag of pot?
It just seems to me like there are a lot of people who think the above example is a waste of time and money, but don’t think legal crack or a pile of stoners all in a row on the freeway is a good idea.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:38 am
[…] Moveon.org is to the War In Iraq, Say Uncle is to the War On Drugs: [E]nd the drug war and release the prisoners. It’s not that I think […]
September 14th, 2007 at 11:56 am
We have so-called laws against victimless “crimes” involving drugs, and others involving guns. Getting rid of one without also eliminating the other would have tremendous negative consequences, both practically and morally: In a practical sense, it would increase the risk of violence against innocents caught in the crossfire; and in a moral sense, it would continue to send a false, evil message regarding responsibility.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
The drug war has dissolved the Constitution and Bill of Rights, distorted the courts and bar, perverted law enforcement, abolished democratic governance in every country south of the US, and jammed the prison system, state, local and federal, with it’s victims.
Drugs are cheaper than ever and the criminals who wholesale them have become multi, gluti, zulti quadrillionaires.
Besides all that, the drug war is going great. We don’t want to see someone standing on the curb puffing away to get blissful do we?
Anyone who is FOR a drug war and thinks they are PRO-Bill of Rights has some intellectual gears grinding.