Posted on 07/09/2002 12:48:48 AM PDT by Alan Chapman
Trever Palmer, 17, says he felt nervous and slightly heroic the night he picked up the phone, dialed 911 and informed the King County Sheriff's Office that his father was growing marijuana.
Minutes later, when Aaron Palmer, a Covington computer programmer, returned home from an evening of swimming laps at the local pool, deputies arrested him. They later found more than a dozen marijuana plants growing in a hidden room in the garage and booked the single father of three into the King County Jail on drug charges.
Two months later, as Trever Palmer prepares for his last year of high school, the 140-pound wrestler is still grappling with the consequences of his actions and talked about them in an interview yesterday.
Although police lauded him for doing the right thing, he says half his relatives are mad at him. He's "found out who my friends really are" while trying to avoid Kentwood High School classmates who scorned him, calling him "a weasel" and names much worse than that.
Palmer made the 911 call largely because of a lesson he learned in a Junior ROTC ethics course: "Stand up for what you believe in, don't follow the crowd and be your own person."
He still thinks he did the right thing.
"I felt like I was saving my sister and brother from this guy," he said. "You can only put up with so much."
But his family is torn apart, and his 15-year-old sister may not see the 911 call as such a brave act.
The night her father was taken away, "she really didn't speak much to me," Palmer said. "She was crying and trying to get her stuff together."
Today, she "just kind of avoids me," he said.
Palmer said his 7-year-old brother didn't know what was going on.
Palmer, who is spending part of the summer with his grandparents in Pennsylvania, plans to live with his best friend's family until he graduates and joins the Air Force. His sister and brother are staying with a cousin. Their mother, who is divorced from their father, is unemployed and "doesn't have room for them in her apartment," Palmer said.
Palmer's sister could not be reached last night, and Palmer's father did not return phone calls. Aaron Palmer, 38, was released on $5,000 bail shortly after his arrest and pleaded not guilty last week to a felony charge of drug manufacturing, the South County Journal reported. He faces up to five years in prison.
The boy said many of his relatives can't comprehend his motives for calling police.
"It sucks," Palmer said last night. "I was really hoping that they would understand. It's kind of like that hole in (me) that needs to be filled."
He has tried to explain himself to his father's parents, who "kind of understand, but they are upset."
When he called police, he said, he wasn't considering what would happen to his family. "I kind of figured that would fall into place."
What went through his mind?
"I thought: no guts, no glory," he said.
He thought marijuana growing was taking over his father's life. Instead of spending time doing things with the family, his father tended to his plants -- moving the pots around and watering. He said that on two occasions, people visited the house on account of the marijuana.
Living around drugs is "the part that no kid should have to go through, and I didn't want (my younger brother) to go through it."
There were other conflicts. He thought his father paid attention to his sister's accomplishments, while ignoring his own. And he thought his ROTC courses, which were based on Marine Corps leadership training, put him at odds with his ex-Army father "on different military perspectives."
The "stand-up" message from his ROTC course echoed in his head.
"That set it straight, why I should do it," Palmer said. "For one thing, it's illegal."
He said another factor was the emotions stirred by reading "The Red Badge of Courage" for an English class. He said he was impressed by how a character in the book, a soldier named Nick, discovered his own bravery.
"He stood up for what he believed in," Palmer said.
Which is beside the point of the article. It's point is about a son turning in a father. If it wasn't about that, it wouldn't be news. Thousands upon thousands of people are arrested every day in this country for using unapproved substances, it's not news. Turning on your parents is news.
That's no example to set for your child.
But parents turning in children is a good example? Perverse.
From my perspective it is the other side.
Obviously thats just an ancedotal observation on my part but its hard to ignore.
Anecedotal for sure, and hard to ignore from the my perspective as well.
You are wrong. That is an opinion based on nothing. I don't think it's OK and if you say it again that would make you a liar.
That separates you from the other "moral" people here. They would turn in a family member, mother, father, sis or bro, son or daughter, the first time, for their own good.
If he continually did it, I would feel I'd have to turn him in for HIS good. I know you disagree with that but tough love is better than letting the child ruin his life with drugs.
Yes, a few years in the pen where drugs are as easy to get as anal sex will not ruin his/her life. It will make them a better person.
Damn, this is sad.
Lets see, an example of flamming is calling those who are opposed to the War on Drugs "potheads", "crackheads", "Liberaltarian-dopers" or "people who want to see this country fall"., because, the accusations have no basis in fact. The words are used purely for inflamatory purposes.
On the other hand, when posters who oppose the WOD refer to those who support it as "statists" or "jack-booted thugs", they are stating the facts as they are, for those who support the WOD(for whateevr reason) support the kicking down of doors, imprisonment and killing of those who are peaceful, but who have violated some edict.
If you can not differentiate between "flames" and the truth, then oh well.
I believe the motivation was either revenge or delusions of heroism. If the kid believes that abiding by the law is the same thing as being moral then I submit that the kid is confused.
What a good person you are. I'm so proud of you for keeping your criminal life away from your family. It almost makes it OK.
You did serve your time in the pen, didn't you? What prison were you in?
But you had respect for yours? Kinda like Vito Corleone?
This does not prove your point. The restaurant does not qualify as private property unless the parents own the restaurant.
depends on the state you live in. In some states supervised cosnsumption of alcohol is allowed as long as it is the parents own child and in their own home.
GSA(P)
And I do.
GSA(P)
Modern-day liberals would make the same argument with respect to having guns in the home with children.
If you are raising children, you don't raise pot plants in the house at the same time.
Why not? Parents keep all sorts of noxious cleaners and solvents in the home. Should that be made criminal?
You have an obligation to protect those children, and having a garden in the garage isn't the way to go.
If the father could buy marijuana at the drug store it's unlikely he would have to grow his own plants in secret.
Would he have liked it if the cops did a raid and busted down his door and trained their guns on his 7 year old while he was playing video games?
No-knock raids and similar law enforcement practices are a violation of everything that is right. One can hardly lay the blame for such actions on the parent.
I sure ain't stupid enough to have a pot garden in my garage while my kids are living on the other side of the door. That's just ignorant.
Well, I'm sure the same argument could be made with regard to a wine collection. Or, maybe even a collection of weapons.
I can understand what you are saying, and will not flame you for your views. This boy felt he was in the right to turn his dad in, doesnt he have that right, based on what you just said above?
Can you open your eyes and realize that "morality" is not universal, while the violation of rights is. People have many different views on the "morality" of certain laws.
My eyes are open. Are yours to the rights of this boys rights to his ideas of morality?
Sounds like a tonguer twister, and I am sorry. Dont know how else to ask my question.
I have been flamed because I will not tolerate drug abuse from my children. I am trying to teach them that drugs are wrong, and harmful to your body.
My daughter has a very good concept of that already. (She gets onto her dad for smoking cigarettes, and is very proud of me for quitting). I dont believe I will ever have to turn my own children in because I am trying to practice positive parenting now. We have discipline (consequences for bad behavior). They realize that at 7 and 2 YO. They are being taught that the consequences of drug use is Jail time. I am hoping that by teaching them that now, we will not be faced with that situation later.
Blessings, trussell
I meant consumption (hick, pass me a beer)
GSA(P)
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