Ah, those compassionate Democrat DOJ's.
Posted on 05/21/2012 7:31:52 AM PDT by Altariel
At 5:30 a.m. on May 10, armed men broke into the bedroom of Kirk Kyle Farrar’s 12 year-old daughter and shook her awake. The men led her downstairs at gunpoint and forced her to lie on the floor next to her mother and father, with her hands behind her head. Another armed man took Farrar’s two-year-old son from his crib, and would not let his parents hold him. “My son screamed for his mother for what seemed like an eternity,” Farrar wrote in an email to friends, obtained by Reason. “I will never forget the hopeless feeling of not being able to comfort my son or daughter.”
The armed men who broke into Farrar’s home were officers with the Meridian, Idaho, Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. They were executing a federal warrant for Farrar’s arrest for the crime of selling bongs.
Farrar’s wasn’t the only family traumatized that morning. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Idaho National Guard, and four Idaho police departments raided the homes of 13 other headshop owners and employees on May 10. All of the headshops had their inventory seized. One shop lost more than $80,000 worth of merchandise (bongs and pipes marketed as “tobacco water pipes”). Another headshop owner had his and and his employees' vehicles seized.
The investigation into these 13 shops and their employees (two of which are still at large) for selling drug paraphernalia was led by U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson, a Barack Obama appointee. Nine of the shops were also accused of selling "spice," a synthetic alternative to the prohibited and significantly safer drug marijuana.
In his email, Farrar denies selling spice. "Piece of Mind Boise has never carried these products EVER! We made a commitment from the start not to carry it because we believe it is dangerous and not being used in a legal fashion."
He also notes that his cousin, "[who] has never previously committed a crime and has absolutely no criminal record," has been charged with "with 4 Federal felony charges stemming from selling tobacco products."
“The open sale of drug paraphernalia promotes unlawful drug use and helps drug traffickers thrive,” Olson said at a press conference on May 10. “These indictments show federal, state and local law enforcement partners will attack drug trafficking on all fronts.”
During a speech at the Center for American Progress earlier this month, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said that the law enforcement-only approach to America's drug problem was not "humane, compassionate" or "realistic." He also said that the Obama administration does not believe it can "arrest its way out of the drug problem."
Reason spoke to one headshop owner. At his attorney’s behest, this owner declined to go on the record, but did say that local police had been aware of the store’s existence and sales of glass pipes for years, but had never threatened charges or discouraged the business from operating. The owner believes that the raids came at the behest of federal law enforcement officials.
According to the Idaho Statesman, “the DEA, Idaho National Guard, IRS and the U.S. Marshals and Attorney’s offices worked on the case,” which the agencies built over the course of an entire year.
As if more evidence were needed that President Obama's drug war looks a lot like George W. Bush's: The charges against Farrar and the other Idaho headshop owners are reminiscent of the federal prosecution of actor Tommy Chong under Bush's DOJ. Chong was convicted in 2003 for distributing paraphernalia through his company Nice Dreams Enterprises. Chong was fined $20,000, and made to forfeit his domain name, all of his inventory, and $103,514 in cash.
Apparently the logic is that if a pipe is not available, a drug user will quit.
Sure
They know the risk going in when they operate on the fringes. The mindset of people today is even if they break the laws ultimately they will get a slap on the hands at worst....which is generally quite true.
As for their children....well it's apparent were they serious about their welfare they would not be involved with such a "business" in the first place.
Ah, those compassionate Democrat DOJ's.
1. True.
2. True again.
Kid will have nightmares and PTSD for the rest of his life, presaging a life of substance abuse and fear of authority. Nice work, DOJ.
BTW, what are the chances these head shop owners are Republicans?
That’s kind of simplistic thinking. The more they interdict, the higher they drive up the price of the product that does make it through, which just increases the incentive to find new ways of getting it across the border. Not to mention the steadily increasing domestic crop that doesn’t have to cross the border.
As long as people demand the product, and a profit can be made supplying it, it will get through. That’s just basic economics.
“but not something similar for MJ?”
Originally, cannabis was not banned, but they put a 200/oz tax on it. Which in 1934 or whenever, was most of a year’s pay.
Since it was not banned per se, no need to amend the Constitution. The “tax” issue morphed into a ban.
Of course, the ends justify the means, don’t they? And if one of the weapons “accidentally” discharged, killing one of the children, well, you’d justify that too, wouldn’t you?
The State must be defended! No atrocity is too great when the State is conducting the Business of the Punishment of Criminals, Comrade!
Back in the day, I saw college kids clearing a bong three feet long. Their poor lungs!
The caption at the photo at the article said it was Wendy J. Olson.
http://reason.com/blog/2012/05/20/a-report-from-obamas-humane-drug-war-my
Here’s your babe independently confirmed:
Both kids will; the 12 year old will have much more vivid and concrete memories than her brother.
Neither child will likely trust a law enforcement officer for their entire lives.
When the State finally gets around to terrorizing the children of law abiding gun owners, dog owners, truck owners, butter consumers, bacon consumers, etc. (all in the name of our Health and Safety), it will be too late for those here today who are justifying this now.
For there will be no one to speak for them, because they did not first speak up on behalf of others.
Sadly, some Freepers here will gladly kiss the boots of the State when that day comes, and encourage their children to do the same.
If one of the children were injured then yes, I would blame the parents for putting their children in that situation by the choices they made to ride the fence they chose.
You play with fire you and are yours are more than likely to eventually get burned. That’s the risk and they chose that path.
Why would ANY parent of children under 18 be STUPID enough to get involved in the drug trade, even legally selling the paraphernalia?They know the risk going in when they operate on the fringes. The mindset of people today is even if they break the laws ultimately they will get a slap on the hands at worst....which is generally quite true.
As for their children....well it's apparent were they serious about their welfare they would not be involved with such a "business" in the first place.
You might find these words cold comfort when they come for the guns. Or when those gun dealers you depend on find that even though they are selling a "legal" product that the law is no longer a factor, there is only power.
In most parts of this country the Second Amendment is regarded as merely advisory. I hope you don't find this out the hard way.
Butch and Hussein have some ‘splainin’ to do.
How about we say it like this: A justice tactic of which Vlad Tepes would approve?
Google a picture of Dean Graziosi to see the resemblence.
Again....you play with fire you risk being burned....the kids were put in harms way ‘by the parents’ choices. The state didn’t “terrorize the children”...the parents are responsible for this entire situation ...and all the scars which will come from it.
“Yes, I do blame the parents for owning guns. They should have known better than to put their children into harms way. Who cares if the [insert ages of your children, grandchildren or nephews/nieces] will be emotionally and psychologically impacted for life by the actions of Jack-Booted-Thugs?
The State must not be questioned!”
That shoe is really going to pinch when it is on your foot; I hope your children/grandchildren/nieces or nephews aren’t threatened with death/shot as an “example” because you are a “gun-owning, dangerous conservative terrorist”.
Today, constitutional rights are trampled for the “good cause” of drugs.
The “good cause” of many Americans is ridding America of gun ownership.
When they come for you, don’t say you weren’t warned. You tried to justify the actions of the government Hydra, instead of cutting it down to proper size.
It will devour you, in its turn.
What’s the next step. “get your screaming toddler under control, or I’ll shoot him?”
I wonder if it’s only a matter of time. I also wonder if that would finally wake Americans up or not.
“Again....you play with fire you risk being burned....the kids were put in harms way ‘by the parents’ choices. The state didn’t “terrorize the children”...the parents are responsible for this entire situation ...and all the scars which will come from it.”
So, no Freeper in the future who is arrested/tormented/watches as his or her children is threatened with death for the “crime of gun ownership” should be pitied, in your view?
After all, they played with fire by owning guns without the Permission of the State.
Be careful the justifications you use to justify the actions of the government hydra.
They can also be used when you are the victim it devours.
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