Gee. As if we don't have enough to be concerned about already, the tea-bagger mantra, "I want my country back," has some added relevance for all of us.
In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.
Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.
Want to invoke your right to remain silent? You'll have to speak up.
In a narrowly split decision, the Supreme Court's conservative majority expanded its limits on the famous Miranda rights for criminal suspects on Tuesday – over the dissent of new Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who said the ruling turned Americans' rights of protection from police abuse "upside down."
[...]
This decision means that police can keep shooting questions at a suspect who refuses to talk as long as they want in hopes that the person will crack and give them some information, said Richard Friedman, a University of Michigan law professor.
A SWAT team raided the home of a mayor in Maryland on July 29 and killed his dogs. FedEx had delivered a package containing 32 pounds of marijuana.
Police officials now believe the shipment was part of a scheme in which packages were sent to unsuspecting recipients and picked up by someone else shortly after they were delivered.
The chief of police finally called the mayor and his wife to apologize. Gee, you'd think a personal visit wouldn't be out of the question after the first "visit."
Let's give a round of applause to the Miami Police who arrested more than 50 people in a crackdown on marijuana "grow houses." Miami residents must be feeling safer already.
Dubbed "Operation D-Day" more than 100 Miami Dade police officers, along with state and federal agents, raided 50 grow houses across the county.
During the day long blitz, officers arrested 49 people and confiscated more than 2-thousand marijuana plants along with 17-hundred pounds of marijuana which had a street value of nearly $7-million.
They also confiscated 8 firearms, a bullet proof vest and $113,600 in cash.
According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Miami Dade has the highest number of "grow houses" in the state; so many are popping up across the state that agents have had to double the number of raids they conduct each year.
In 2007, federal and state agents along with local law enforcement raided one thousand suspected "grow houses"; the year before that only 510 drug houses were found.
I'm not sure how much that operation cost, but it's nice to know violent crime and other non-violent crime in Miami is so low that police have little else to do besides raid homes growing weed. And real drug use such as cocaine and methamphetamines, not to mention prescription drug abuse, are on the back burner in importance. And $113,000 in cash counts for something!
No raid is complete without bragging about the "street value" of the "drugs" which are seized. The street value is only that high because the weeds are illegal and growers are constantly under threat of raids. The actual value of 2,100 marijuana plants would be a mere fraction of that. But it makes for some real sensational news reporting. As the reporter in the WFOR clip says, "seven..MILLION..dollars." Whooo-hooo!
We have serious problems in the US right now which should rightly give us cause for alarm and anxiety. The worry that a SWAT team could theoretically and legally enter your home and blow you to smithereens ought not be one of our worries, but it is.
Last Thursday's issue of the weekly Arkansas Times had an article about Tracy Ingle of North Little Rock who had, shall we say, a rather nasty encounter.
No matter what Ingle or those he gave a temporary home to may have done, however, it's hard to imagine he deserved what he got Jan. 7. That night, the North Little Rock SWAT team stormed Ingle's house on a high-risk, “no-knock” search warrant. By the time all was said and done, Ingle had been shot five times — including one bullet that pulverized his femur and left his leg dangling from his body, connected only by a bloody mess of meat, skin and tendon.
According to an evidence list left at Ingle's house after the shooting, no suspected drugs or drug residue were recovered from the residence — only a digital scale, a notebook and a few plastic baggies, all of which Ingle's family members have identified as part of the junk they had collectively stored at the house.
This is why the "war on drugs" is a bad idea. And the no-knock warrant needs to go the way of Nixon: dead and fucking buried.
Conceived during the Nixon administration, the no-knock warrant — and the use of militarized Special Weapons and Tactics teams to execute them — came of age during the drug wars of the 1980s. The rationale behind no-knocks and using SWAT to serve them was simple: As the criminals became more savvy and well-armed, serving drug warrants demanded the element of surprise, and a more well-armed show of force.
The no-knock warrant is a recipe for disaster, particular in a state such as Arkansas, for an interesting reason.
Arkansas is one of many states that has enshrined some version of the Defense of Premises Doctrine in its laws. It is, simply put, the right to defend your home without fear of prosecution, up to and including killing an intruder who has made forcible entry.
It's an idea that is dangerously at odds with the concept of no-knock search warrants, says Radley Balko, senior editor of Reason magazine. A former fellow at the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C., libertarian think tank, Balko did some of the early research into the use of no-knock warrants and militarized police units. Over and over again, Balko said, he sees cases where a SWAT team breaches a house, the homeowner exercises his right to defend his home, and either an officer or the homeowner is killed or injured. The only difference is that when it's a cop who gets shot, the private citizen nearly always winds up in jail.
This entire article is gut-wrenching and fills me with anger. And yet, Ingle doesn't hold a grudge against the two police officers who shot him, according to the article. If that's true, it's pretty amazing considering how pissed off I am after reading the article.
I don't like junk mail, solicitations for money, catalogs full of crap I wouldn't dream of owning, and department store flyers with perfume samples. Accckkkk!
Quite a bit of that stuff comes to kona ranch and immediately goes into the trash.
And given the fact that I am about 6 months in default on a number of credit cards saddled with ex-business debt, you can imagine I get lots of lively letters in the mail from salivating collection agencies every week.
It's a rare day when I find something in the mail to excite me enough to blog about it. Lo and behold, today is the day.
Now, I'll admit, I wasn't exactly excited at the prospect of opening this envelope from the County Sheriff. Christ, that makes the anxiety of a root canal pale in comparison.
But here we go:
Dear konagod:
I am writing to you because I believe you are a law-abiding citizen who has worked hard for what you have. I also believe you are tired of people who turn to crime as an easy way to make a living with little responsibility to society.
Right off the bat, we have a problem. Up until just a few years ago, I would have been guilty in the great state of Texas of a felony for being caught in bed with my partner while rubbing our winky-dinks together. So whether I'm a law-abiding citizen is up for debate.
Next paragraph, please:
Almost every day you and I see or hear of the violence and criminal activities of crooks, thieves, rapists, drug pushers, and murderers.
[...]
The Sheriffs of Texas want to see tougher laws for criminals, more meaningful prison sentences, [yadda yadda yadda...], but we need your help.
Drug pushers: "If you don't buy this fucking pot right now I'm gonna blow your fuckin' brains out."
Where are those pushers? (And why can't I find one?) And what if they really don't need to push... at all. What if I am perfectly willing to buy some pot in a very cordial business exchange? Hey, good for the economy! Potmeister gets $500 for an ounce of premium weed. He or she goes out and buys goods and services, thus stimulating the economy. konagod gets some good weed, stays home de-stimulating the economy, laughing his ass off at bad tv, and writing an occasionally stupid blog post. It's all the same in the end. Whether I'm spending the $500, or the "dope pusher" is spending it, the end result is the same. The economy gets stimulated and that's a damn good thing. And if the issue is the pot seller evading taxes, then legalize it! City dwellers will still buy it, the pot sellers can pay taxes to fund the local Sheriff's department in their pursuit of real crime, and those of us living on a little piece of land can grow our own if we so desire, in much the same way I grow my own collard greens, basil and cilantro, thus circumventing a for-profit visit to my local supermarket. But I digress.
I really don't mean to make light of this. I know there are serious problems in this country with manufactured drugs (legal and illegal). But we know where the Sheriffs of Texas are probably going to focus their attention. And why on earth would my unemployed pot-loving ass send money to help the sheriffs in their quest to round up the very guy or gal who might be my next source of entertainment?
And I simply love how they lump business people in a supply and demand situation (is anything more American than that?)with all kinds of other lowly contemptible thugs. In another paragraph they attempt to appeal to my passions by focusing on their need for funding to improve child safety, stopping family violence, and sexual assaults against both women and children. Oh, and drugs. And the arrest and prosecution of drug traffickers.
Again, I'll say there are indeed some very nasty drugs out there. But only a fool would refuse to believe the vast majority of people involved in this clean-up would be marijuana users and sellers. And my dear friends, the last time I checked, marijuana was a plant that grows from a seed, not cooked up in a meth kitchen with diet aids, paint thinner, and freon, among a list of many unhealthy substances.
So with all due respect to the Sheriff of my County, I will not contribute $25 to your cause. And I'm a little concerned about why you are needing to raise money via a direct mail campaign. And I'm very concerned about why you'd think I'd rather throw my money at you so you could further suppress my right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Maybe, just maybe, if you dropped all the wasted resources you pour in the direction of marijuana control, you might actually be able to make a dent in the other heinous crimes without even asking the tax-paying public for more financial support. Just a fucking thought from a worthless and stupid pothead who loves to be equated with scum of the earth murderers and rapists. And as far as crooks are concerned, you might well have a look within.
I wonder if Willie Nelson got one of these solicitations, and if he finds it as humorous as I do.
I just heard txrad say, "there's a bunch of cops outside our house." Well, they are on the street, and there's three FOUR of them with lights flashing. We live in a rather rural quiet neighborhood so this is unusual. But I'm not about to go outside to see what's going on. I'll just be glad when they wrap up whatever it is they are doing and move on along.
I didn't threaten Bush or anything on a blog while intoxicated, did I? Oh no, our house would be surrounded by black Suburbans in that case. They seem to have pulled someone over but came in from two directions in order to trap the person. Too bad I don't have a police scanner.
I'll be glad when all the brush grows up so our house isn't even visible from the street. That would be me happy: I don't know what's going on out there, and they don't know what's going on in here.
Ideal.
OK, they've been here now for at least an hour. How long does it take to arrest a dude? Huh?
Notice the posture of the donut-eater with the shaved head. We seem to have a problem. The victim's girlfriend is sitting on the hood of her car with her head bowed in disgrace. Either you have a cause to haul the guy in or get the fuck out of our front yard. At least one of the cops is from the city of Austin, and they have no jurisdiction here. We aren't in the city limits.
And what the fuck is the purpose of the blue gloves? Aside from the color matching the victim's shirt.
Just get the hell out of my space. You're causing bad vibes. This is probably something drug related, we suspect.
We think the cops are out of control and if they had a legitimate case against this guy he'd already be hauled downtown to the chapel of love. They are obviously trying to harass and coerce something. Just our opinion.
Reno 911 is on now but somehow I'm just not in the mood.
From Bob Herbert's column in the New York Times this morning:
No one is paying much attention, but parts of New York City are like a police state for young men, women and children who happen to be black or Hispanic. They are routinely stopped, searched, harassed, intimidated, humiliated and, in many cases, arrested for no good reason.
[...]
Leana Matia, an 18-year-old student at John Jay College, was one of those taken into custody. “We were walking toward the train station to take the L train when all these cops just swooped in on us,” she said. “They cursed us out and pushed the guys. And then they handcuffed us. We kept asking, ‘What are you doing?’”
Where do young blacks and Hispanics go in NYC to get the necessary permits to freely move about in public?
