Posted on 11/18/2003 4:37:41 PM PST by freedom44
A commando-style police drug raid on a high school in South Carolina was "a new low" in America's War on Drugs, Georgia Libertarians have charged.
"Police entered a school and intentionally terrorized over 100 innocent children, all in the name of a War on Drugs we all know to be an abysmal failure," said Georgia LP State Chair Helmut Forren.
"[The War on Drugs has] trampled the rights of law-abiding citizens, and now jeopardizes our most precious resource, the lives of our children. America hit a new low in the War on Drugs."
On November 5, about a dozen police officers and drug-sniffing dogs burst into Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina. With guns drawn, they wrestled students to the floor and restrained 14 students with plastic handcuffs. No drugs were found and no arrests were made.
The incident was filmed on school security cameras and broadcast on news shows around the world, sparking harsh criticism of police tactics.
But such raids are an inevitable byproduct of the War on Drugs, said Georgia LP Legislative Director James Bell.
"This can and will continue to happen in our schools as long as our nation continues to treat drug use as a police matter rather than a health issue," he said.
Goose Creek police defended their actions, saying they had not "intentionally" pointed guns at school children.
However, such excuses won't heal the trauma students felt when being confronted by a swarm of armed officers, said Georgia LP Vice Chair Garrett Michael Hayes.
"Once again, the drug war brings violence into our schools," he said. "This time, though, it's the police, waving guns in the faces of children. If we worry that children are becoming desensitized, we don't need to blame video games; the real-life authorities are doing enough on their own.
"When are they going to realize that their medicine is worse than the disease -- a disease that should be treated as a public health issue, not a criminal one?"
Goose Creek, which has a population of 30,000, is about 15 miles north of Charleston, South Carolina.
Are we to believe, then, that the cases of guns pointed at centermass or headshots were "accidental" gun pointings? For those who have seen the videos of these events?
you really like to hit hot button issues
In other words, the L.P. would make it a crime to discourage or thwart recreational drug use. Harry Browne has stated that any drug should be available to any adult or any child at any time in any quantity for any reason.
Then every cop that unintentionally pointed his gun should be FIRED and then charged and fined for brandishing, and for being a dumbass who is extremely ignorant of gun safety.
What was it that Claire Wolfe said again?
They aren't elitists.
There's no bigger busy-bodies willing to stick their noses into other people's business than the ideologues of the L.P.
LOL! A press release is hardly "sticking one's nose in other's business" - compared to, say, sticking guns into the faces of school children, which is what the Drug Warriors have done in this particular case.
Straw man argument (as usual from you). Making it a health issue rather than a police issue, could still "discourage or thwart recreational drug use" as you put it.
Sigh.
Whew dude, that is one wild tangent.
Some defense. This madness has to end someday, folks, and the sooner the better. My kids are approaching high school age quickly, and I don't want police doing this to my children any more than I would want them to be approached by some punk trying to sell them crack cocaine. I look at it like this: alcohol and cigarettes are both legal for adults and addictive, but gangs don't go around selling it to kids (generally) or getting into shooting wars on the street over those substances... but gangs did just that when alcohol was illegal under Prohibition, & I imagine it would be the same if cigarettes were ever criminalized.
I'm just a concerned parent who thinks drugs are bad, but the war on drugs is a well-intentioned failure, right up there with welfare, social security, and most environMental causes.
A commando-style police drug raidWow!
Out and out hyperbole and misrepresentation to the third degree!
Wow!
DISTORTING the facts on this scale rivals lying ...
"Was there any statement from them suggesting why this course of action was taken?"
Your question's kinda vague. Are you talking about the drug raid, or the press release?
Was there any statement from them suggesting why this course of action was taken?
The principal of the school, IIRC, stated that there was drug activity going on.
This principal also got lambasted by a local liberal reporter as a fascist because that principal also chastised some students for not having their shirts tucked in.
Oh the horror, according to liberal eyes.
On November 5, about a dozen police officers and drug-sniffing dogs burst into Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina. With guns drawn, they wrestled students to the floor and restrained 14 students with plastic handcuffs. No drugs were found and no arrests were made.LIBERTARARIANS getting only HALF the story right?TELL me it isn't true!
LET'S review the details of what went on AGAIN:
The Story behind the story - How the truth gets trampled under foot by those rushing to make 'noise'Police fail to find drugs in Stratford High raid
BY SEANNA ADCOX
Of The Post and Courier StaffGOOSE CREEK--Reports of drug deals at Stratford High School led to an early-morning police raid this week in which about 15 officers cordoned off the main hallway to search for marijuana. Several drew their guns but did not use force, police said.
Officers did not arrest anyone during the lockdown at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday.
A police dog sniffed residue on 12 book bags but found no drugs, said Lt. Dave Aarons of the Goose Creek Police Department.
"Several officers did unholster their weapons in a tactical law enforcement approach," he said. "There was no force whatsoever. Everyone was very compliant."
Officers charged a ninth-grader Wednesday afternoon with filing a false police report.
The juvenile said an officer shoved her to the ground during the search, Aarons said. Principal George McCrackin said he, other school officials and the girl's parent reviewed video surveillance tapes and determined she wasn't even in that hall at the time.
McCrackin went to Aarons on Monday with suspicions about marijuana exchanges at the school, based on camera recordings and reports from students and teachers.
"Within the last three weeks, there's been an influx of drug activity. I've been in this business for 34 years, and I've never seen the amount of activity we've experienced recently," said McCrackin, who has been principal at the school since it opened in 1983.
Several weeks ago, a student was arrested trying to pass out between 200 and 300 prescription pills, he said. After school ended Friday, one student threatened another and claimed to have a weapon.
"We're not going to tolerate it," McCrackin said. "We have to ensure the health and safety of our students and staff."Aarons said he watched school surveillance tapes from four days that showed students congregating under cameras, periodically walking into a bathroom with different students and coming out moments later.
The suspected group of about 10 students comes to school in early buses. Tapes show a network of lookouts, Aarons and McCrackin said.
"They're pretty knowledgeable in terms of where to stand. They know where the cameras are. If they stand directly under them, the cameras don't look directly down," Aarons said. "Faculty can view the students from other cameras, but from quite a distance away. They see silhouettes."
Fourteen officers and a police dog sealed off the main hallway Wednesday as about 20 administrators and teachers helped steer other students away, Aarons said. There were 107 students who happened to be in the hallway at the time, he added.
Police told the students to sit on the floor and put their hands out, McCrackin said.
Officers searched only book bags that the police dog responded to, not students, he said.
McCrackin said he believes a lookout alerted the group Wednesday morning by cell phone after seeing police arrive.
Later in the day, two other students who fought in the cafeteria during lunch were charged with disturbing school.
One of those received a five-day suspension, while the other received a 10-day suspension and is recommended for expulsion, he said.
About 2,760 students attend Stratford High, the largest school in Berkeley County and among the largest statewide.
Two officers work in the school full-time. The high school in the county's growing southern end has an academic reputation as one of the Lowcountry's best. It received a score of excellent on state report cards released Wednesday.
McCrackin, who has two children at the school, said the problem mostly stems from students who transferred into the school this year from out of state.
"No school is immune, whether it's one of the best or one of the worst. It's anywhere and everywhere," said Harriett Dangerfield, chairwoman of the Berkeley County School Board. "I'm proud we don't deny those things occur. I'm delighted we're being proactive and not reactive, because it is out there."
Nice emphasis.
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