Posted on 08/28/2002 12:27:14 AM PDT by rmmcdaniell
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:08:10 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
DOVER, N.H. (AP) Police arrested nine current and former McIntosh College students on drug charges Tuesday, as the city police chief said he was pushing federal prosecutors to seize a college dorm under federal drug forfeiture laws.
''It is an open-air drug market like we've never seen in the city,'' Chief William Fenniman said of the dormitory at 181 Silver St., where most of the suspects lived. ''My idea is ... to stop the building from being used for illicit activity. Whatever it takes to do that, I'm willing to do.''
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Yeah, a nice little propaganda shot for the cameras. You obviously neglected to read the entire article. I'll repost the relevent section so that you have an opportunity to see what you missed..
From the original article:
Culinary students who saw the raid had mixed reactions. Amy Todd, 19, of Billerica, Mass., and Cecilia Self, 18, of Harrisville, N.H., said police used excessive force.
They said reporters were present before the raid started and news photographers took pictures as students were thrown to the ground and arrested.
''They had guns like in a movie,'' Todd said. ''I thought they were going to arrest all of us.''
''Why do you need M-14s to arrest kids with weed?'' Self asked.
I doubt they had M-14 rifles which are usually used as sniper rifles. The student is probably not that familiar with firearms. I'd say they might have had MP5 sub-machine guns if they had anything other than handguns, as that IS the weapon of choice for SWAT teams.
The picture you posted is more than likely a nice, sanitized press photo that people like you can use as proof that excessive force wasn't used. Eyewitnesses say differently however.
The point is this. As per eyewitness accounts, guns WERE brandished, and they weren't simply Glocks or Sigs. They were brandished at a SCHOOL, with many innocent bystanders nearby. There was what, a park AND an elementary school nearby? What if something HAD happened? What if there had been a "accidental" discharge as happens ALL too often in these situations? What if the bad guys decided to shoot it out with the cops?
To me, any brandishment of weapons at or near a school UNLESS absolutely necessary to protect life is excessive use of force.
Finally, the chief's crusade to seize the dorm from the school isn't only excessive, but a fascist un-American attempt to defy the protections afforded by the Constitution of the United States.
Back to the article:
The two said that some students smoke marijuana in their rooms, but there are few loud parties or hard drugs on campus.
To me it appears that the REAL reason for the raid is that the chief thought he'd make a name for himself, obtain the dorm from the school and sell it off, making a nice little sum of money for the department (and possible for him personally as well), andthen blame everything on the "drug fiends" who run the school. Students smoking pot in their rooms on occasion does not make the place a crack house.
If you don't like the laws in New Hampshire, you have two choices. Run for office and change the laws or get out of my state. OIC, you are already out of New Hampshire. Good! Live Free or Die! Sell drugs and suck pavement!
I find it amusing that you refer to the state motto while advocating a totalitarian solution. You obviously do not understand freedom, what it means, and why our forefathers set out to limit the power of government.
You apparently are too blind to see that you are NOT free if you are at the mercy of a system that can gun you down on any pretense that you might be involved with drugs. You might not be involved, but somebody with a grudge against you COULD say you were. The cops HAVE been wrong about which house they should crash in before, and HAVE killed innocent men, women, and children.
Under that threat, you ARE NOT FREE, although you think that this type of thing is just great stuff. Until it happens to you or your family that is....
READ some of the posts I've posted concerning this. It CAN and DOES happen all the time. I don't accept your portrayal of this as a subdued arrest by neighborhood cops in tennis shoes. Sure, the image you've posted DOES show that. BUT, several EYEWITNESSES say different, and unless you were there, you DON'T KNOW what happened.
Are you also going to sit here and tell me there are NO drugs in Dover high?
You're kidding yourself if you believe that!
Dover Host's some of the Apple Harvest Fest in and around that park. but it is not a "school Zone". Its behind a Bar if you want the honest truth!
Seems to me that they are trying to blow this story into something its not.
Dover is a town run by leftists make no mistake, they are trying to outlaw smoking in bars and everything else in that town. Thanks to the people from MA moving here!! Higher taxes and less freedom... before long one wont be able to tell the difference between the two states
"The picture you posted is more than likely a nice, sanitized press photo that people like you can use as proof that excessive force wasn't used. Eyewitnesses say differently however."Since when is a camera not an eyewittness?
You are quoting 18 & 19 year-old kids saying, "They had guns like in a movie"! You admit that your eyewittnesses don't know an M-14 from an MP5!
I posted a picture "as students were thrown to the ground and arrested." Your wittness Todd thought they were going to arrest him because he was obviously holding - why else would he on the scene or be arrested? Of course, the cops only took down the dealers, not the pot smokers - but you've got a problem with that.
However, you have no pictures to prove anything, other than a rehash collage of Waco and Ruby Ridge. For the record, I'm not happy about Waco or Ruby Ridge but I don't see the link to drug dealers in Dover, NH. What you "doubt" and what you'd "say" really has no bearing on what happened what-so-ever, other than impeaching your own eyewittnesses as being firearm ignorant and untrustworthy - so much for their "eyewittness" testimony. You weren't there and you don't know what happened. I at least have a picture.
The picture is of two aging cops taking down a large young man without the use of MP5's or M-14s and there's no sign of a jack boot anywhere. Of couse, the picture was staged - the Dover cops were brought in for a photo op right after the BATF used assault weapons to shoot and subdue Mr. Wilburn - or is that Chef Wilburn?
I don't agree with the property confiscation but I think alot-make that the majority-of colleges need to clean up their schools.
This story gives Higher Education a new meaning eh?
I am also absolutely disgusted by some Pro-WODers out here. It is my opinion that a couple of these "people" would be perfectly happy working as guards at any giving WW2 German concentration camp.
I'm sure that it technically is, but whether or not they'd ever catch you is a different matter, as they welcome "anonymous tips" 24-7...
You and I both know (I think) that the fact is, that has been true since the 60's. When it turns into a dangerous situation it has to be defused, not ignited. And from what I recollect of your previous postings, I think you know that to be true as well.
God speed.
Too many facts for you to "deal" with VA? Too many excuses, cliches, and factoids to drag out of your can of tricks to address the matter at hand?
Why don't you just admit that you are wrong? It'd reduce FR's bandwidth by a whole bunch, and would be an honest attempt at redeeming yourself...
1_American, it is precisely because of people like you that I DO post here at FR..
God bless you.
Not quite. NH has no income tax or sales tax. That is THE primo reason why people choose to live there. And yes, there are certain freedoms in NH that you wouldn't find in other NE states. Gun rights being the predominant of those freedoms, but I can't really think offhand what any others might be....
Safe and Sane fireworks are permitted. Every other state in the NE bans everything.
Too much fiction. In every one of those made up stories, the perps got what they deserve.
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