Posted on 09/28/2006 5:26:29 PM PDT by Sir Gawain
Another victory in the War on Drugs.
Huh?
Any stranger who breaks into my house like that dies, end of story, whether they're screaming "Police!" or not. I have three fully loaded guns (a .22, .38 and 12 gauge shotgun) lying at easy-hand right now, and this sort of bullshit doesn't fly with me.
No, I don't sell or smoke marijuana (at least, I've not smoked it in many a year, and I've never dealt), but it's this sort of thing that more and more drives me to identify myself as a libertarian, and not a conservative.
Most likely, I've broken ten laws the past week without even realizing it; we're legislated to death, and the WoD is one of the worst offenders. Free country? My ass.
If marijuana was legalized, the value of it would be pennies per pound. If the parents chose to smoke it, then their children probably would too. But the economic incentives would be gone. When is the last time you heard of a police swat team busting down a door, killing a pet, and terrorizing children over the manufacture of alcohol? Even with substantial taxes added, it would be very difficult to compete with commercial producers of alcohol.
The War on Some Drugs is costing us all of our freedoms. Gangsterism has led to anti-gun laws. Cash is assumed to be ill-gotten until proven otherwise, with no lower limit to the amount. Police forces are adopting militaristic processes to oppose heavily armed, heavily financed drug cartels.
The drug laws have created zones in the inner-city areas where it is possible to make a better living outside the law than by seeking education or productive skills. The cultural decay which results have doomed many of our minorities to the worst social conditions imaginable, simply because there will never be a way to eliminate substances that so many people will break laws to obtain.
"America today has 22.5% of the worlds prisoners. But, after all that time, after all the destroyed lives and after all the wasted resources, prohibited drugs today are cheaper, stronger, and easier to get than they were thirty-five years ago at the beginning of the so-called "war on drugs".
Nonsense...The stats are distorted because certain Asian and Arab countries execute drug dealers. We keep them alive to be released and deal again.
Of course, you'll be dead to, but maybe someone will write a folk song about you.
Not that any of this justifies the heavy handed tactics the SWAT team used in this case. The boy who faced a lawman's shotgun in his face will probably never serve his country in uniform voluntarily, even if he does not fall into the drugs and crime lifestyle.
I agree with you. When I first started reading about the abuses of no-knock raids, one story stood out : A BATF agent who was so angry when they didn't find drugs in a raid, that it stomped a 9 year old boy's pet kitten to death before leaving . It (the BATF agent who commited that act) has a vagina attached to its worthless carcass, which I supposed shouldn't make a difference in how I perceive the event, but it does. So far as I'm aware, it incurred no penalties for an act which can only be explained as a temper tantrum-it was mad because there were no drugs in the household, so no praise, no brownie points, no medal, or whatever it expected to gain from the raid. Unprofessional as well as vicious-a GREAT combination with a badge and a gun!
Can't argue with you on that. Something should be done. I think too many people are making money by not making it legal for sure. I know I would rather be around a person smoking pot then drinking. I myself, do neither though when I was younger I did. What I have seen first hand now with drugs is alarming. I had 2 of my older kids go thru terrible addictions with heroin. Spent over 40 thousand on one of them for rehab. Jail is what finally did the trick. Thankfully both are clean & sober and married . The system is in need of change but I don't know when that will happen. I often wonder why we don't bomb the opium fields during this war. I don't have any answers but in regards to why the police come at night and why the dog was shot I know thats how they do things. I am not pro cop though with dealing with my 2 children I sure learned quite a bit. Some truly care and others just have the attitude the kids are worthless.
I'm thinking that if the dog ran into the bathroom, they could have just shut the door.
Excellent link to the CATO institute's interactive no-knock map. I love CATO!
If strangers broke down our door and ran into our house no matter what the time, my 5 year old would be swinging. He wouldn't understand what was going on, he would hear yelling, see guns, etc. Now imagine the reaction when being woken up to that chaos. It would most certainly be my reaction too.
"Do you have children? Do you know what they do, if you have them? If you don't know what you're children do under the roof you provide them then, IMO, you are subject to the fate that they incur. Let's step away from personal attacks, since you know I am not dense at all and realize that from the article you have absolutely no idea how involved the son was in drug dealing. In addition, the officers, regardless of the amount of drugs that were found, had enough of a reason or they wouldn't have had the raid."
Alrighty then, let's see whatcha got. First, I have grown children and know from that experience that I could not have possibly been aware of their every move as teenagers. Later in life they have told me things they did I would never have suspected. If you have kids, and believe otherwise, then you are living in a fantasy world...that or you are abusing their rights and privileges to experience life...keeping them under lock and key 24/7.
Course then again, if they are just the perfect little angels, then aren't you the lucky one...that one in a million parent of teenagers.
I am also speaking from my own experience as a teenager doing things then I would never do today, and my parents never knew and never will. Maybe you lived this quiet sheltered life as a teenager, but that is not the common experience.
Actually we do know what the kid sold and the amounts he sold as asserted by the chief. You did read the article right?
Regardless, this assault was way over the top for the alleged crime. Therefore, I have an opinion already expressed regarding anyone unable to comprehend that.
That is reason enough to shoot a Pit Bull.
The agent stomped a kitten? Sick. I'll get flamed for this, but I would support life in prison for that agent. People like that shouldn't be walking the earth freely.
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