Comments on: Macho Stupidity Runs Amock

By: Peter W

Peter W — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 14:53:49 +0000

Blame Det. Shawn Scarlata. He was too busy running his criminal real estate business and publishing his newsletter the night before to bother doing research on the address and occupant whose life he destroyed. This guy should be put in jail for a long time.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:45:10 +0000

I totally agree Steve V. It is my sincere hope that the War on Drugs goes away as completely as the Temperance Movement did.

Me too. Never tried drugs (other than as perscribed by a doctor) and have no real interest. I just think it is doing bad things to our society on a number of levels.

When you can get busted for essentially having severe allergies something is wrong.

By: steve s

steve s — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:55:18 +0000

I don't even care for drugs. I would maybe have a pot plant, maybe, if it was legal, for occasional smoking. I'm not all that interested in pot. I'm more interested in stimulants. Working on an ether-based nicotine extraction at the moment--don't get the water too hot, fellas: nicotine hydrolyzes--but as a liberal, I don't want cops abusing their authority and kicking down doors. Living in a very conservative community, I wouldn't operate a grow room right now come hell or high water. Too costly. I look forward to the liberal/libertarian day when adults can go about their business unmolested by Big Business/Big Law Enforcement.

By: steve s

steve s — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:47:09 +0000

On this we can totally agree steve s.

I totally agree Steve V. It is my sincere hope that the War on Drugs goes away as completely as the Temperance Movement did.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:31:44 +0000

Ah, yes, the New Professionalism that Scalia uses to bend the rules to the cops.

On this we can totally agree steve s.

By: anjin-san

anjin-san — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 04:21:08 +0000

The war on drugs is something I studied in depth when I went back to school in the 90s. The more you learn, the scarier it gets.

Ditto for the militarization of police forces. The Bush administration was working hard to put Posse Comitatus to sleep, and that is something we all need to pay attention to. The rapid proliferation of government cameras in public places is also troubling. The very expensive cameras the city of San Francisco installed have had no effect on crime, but big brother is in a much better position to keep an eye on us.

By: steve s

steve s — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:45:03 +0000

Frankly, I blame the voters. I live in an uneducated, rural community in North Florida. The kind of place that went overwhelmingly for Prop 2 (our version of prop 8) If you run for Sheriff you have to promise to give ZERO TOLERANCE to 'drug dealers', which everyone around here interprets to mean 'the coloreds'. If you send the swat team out and seize some pot you look like you did real good. When my friend Mandy got caught with a joint and had to drop out of the local community college, people around here probably thought that was justice. Fortunately, the new cohort of voters, the same group that went for Obama 2-1, generally know that pot is harmless. So I expect to see decriminalization sometime in the next 2 decades. It's not a war on Drugs. It's a War on Citizens Who Use Drugs. And it needs to stop.

By: steve s

steve s — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:31:58 +0000

Last time I checked, it was not against the law to have large amounts of cash on one's person. Posted by tom p | February 2, 2009 | 08:32 pm | Permalink

Where did you check?

By: steve s

steve s — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 02:30:21 +0000

Ah, yes, the New Professionalism that Scalia uses to bend the rules to the cops.

By: Franklin

Franklin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:46:52 +0000

And the reason they come with excessive force is that the dealers are well-armed. How and why? Again, it's the War on Drugs which results in drug-dealing being a lucrative career that demands being well-armed.

By: tom p

tom p — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:32:26 +0000

Given that the main reason for the increase in SWAT tactics and these types of raids IS the War on Drugs, I am not sure how this can in any way be divorced from the War on Drugs. Indeed, this is a direct manifestation of the War on Drugs---and this kind of thing happens far, far too often.

my point exactly Steve, and it gets even worse than that. Consider, for example, the assets that are seized, without adjudication of fact, because some drug dealer, somewhere, at some time, had $10,000 on him?

Last time I checked, it was not against the law to have large amounts of cash on one's person. And yet, these monies are seized all the time, without benefit of law.

By: Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:00:27 +0000

Okay, let's call this what it is and it is not about the war on drugs, it's about modern police techniques and training.

Given that the main reason for the increase in SWAT tactics and these types of raids IS the War on Drugs, I am not sure how this can in any way be divorced from the War on Drugs. Indeed, this is a direct manifestation of the War on Drugs---and this kind of thing happens far, far too often.

By: tom p

tom p — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:56:10 +0000

Okay, let's call this what it is and it is not about the war on drugs, it's about modern police techniques and training.

This is what happens when one militarizes one's police force. Do we want to be Iraq? (this has been coming for a long time, and has played itself out in a thousand smaller cases...) I wonder, would any one have noticed if he hadn't been the mayor?

By: sam

sam — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:54:13 +0000

And there's this: Prank 911 Calls Send SWAT Teams to Unsuspecting Homes I'm not sure a no-knock warrant was involved (though I'll bet one was). We're all at risk. The new sport is called "swatting".

By: sam

sam — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:34:13 +0000

Okay, let's call this what it is and it is not about the war on drugs, it's about modern police techniques and training.

Well, the instant case issued from the War on Drugs, and Radly Balko has detailed a number of these atrocities and the WOD. But I take your point. However, there is something more fundamental underlying these kinds of things, something that goes beyond training, I think. The no-knock warrant is the real culprit here. When police are given a no-knock warrant, the floodgates are opened to excessive force:

A police spokesman told reporters that Prince George's narcotics investigators had sought, and been granted, a "no-knock" warrant before searching Cheye and Trinity's house. Maryland law authorizes police to request a no-knock warrant, one intended to be served by force and unannounced, if they have a "reasonable suspicion" that evidence would be destroyed or officers' lives placed in danger if they knocked on a suspect's door and demanded entry.

The assumption behind a no-knock warrant is that the targets of the warrant will resist the officers, as the above states. That assumption predisposes the police to use maximum force in execution of the warrant: Shoot first and ask questions later.