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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:25 am Post subject: Gotcha! Drug warriors bust Christmas tree growers |
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http://www.reason.com/blog/show/130429.html
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KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.
The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster�s attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster�s secret mobile office nearby.
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First, how did the cops get turned on to the house in the first place? Cooper suspects they were using thermal imaging equipment to detect the grow lamps, a practice the Supreme Court has said is illegal. The second question is, what probable cause did the police put on the affidavit to get a judge to sign off on a search warrant? If there was nothing illegal going on in the house, it's difficult to conceive of a scenario where either the police or one of their informants didn't lie to get a warrant.
Cooper chose the Odessa police department for baiting because he believes police there instructed an informant to plant marijuana on a woman named Yolanda Madden. She's currently serving an eight-year sentence for possession with intent to distribute. According to Cooper, the informant actually admitted in federal court that he planted the marijuana. Madden was convicted anyway. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:28 am Post subject: |
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I read somewhere that a reality TV show would be made out of a sustained campaign like this. Maybe that was satire? Dunno.
Either way, the war on drugs is madly misused by law enforcement for personal gain and abusive expressions of power. A new paradigm is sorely needed. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:42 am Post subject: |
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| Either way, the war on drugs is madly misused by law enforcement for personal gain and abusive expressions of power. A new paradigm is sorely needed. |
Very true. But I don't see public opinion shifitng over to legalization. Even Canada, supposedly one of the most laidback countries about marijuana use, couldn't bring itself to legalize the stuff, and that was with the Liberals in power for more than a decade.
For a lot of people, there's just a psychological block when it comes to thinking rationally about drugs. Sure, they read about Keystone raids and police graft, but at the end of the day that just gets filed away under "things that happen to people in a world I'm not part of". Plus, you've got the whole line of thinking that goes "Well, I smoked a bit of weed in college and tried a bit of coke at an office party once, and I don't think I deserved to go to jail for it, but now that I'm a parent, I sure don't want to send the wrong message to my kids blah blah and blah". |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:44 am Post subject: |
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Also...
The "medical marijuana" movement is something of a trojan horse in my opinion, since it allows governments to posture as kindhearted toward "good" users, while continuing to torment the "bad" users. Furthermore, I don't know if marijuana really qualifies as medicine in the way that the term is usually understood for legal purposes. Yeah, it can kill pain, but so can a few shots of whiskey. |
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mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
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| Posted: Thu Dec 11, 2008 10:51 am Post subject: |
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Very true OTOH. But, aren't opinion polls in Canada showing majority support for decriminalization?
I just came across this:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blog.html
The first post is an interesting critique of the war on pot. |
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On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
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| Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 2:47 am Post subject: |
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Very true OTOH. But, aren't opinion polls in Canada showing majority support for decriminalization?
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Quite possibly. But what people will answer on an opinion poll is not neccessarily indicative of what they'll be willing to fight for in the realm of actual politics. My guess would be that, among those saying yes to decriminalization, you've still got a lot of people who are basically apathetic about the question. Sort of the same "well that's too bad, but it doesn't impact my corner of society directly" atttitude that I was referencing earlier. |
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cangel
Joined: 19 Jun 2003
Location: Jeonju, S. Korea
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| Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:18 pm Post subject: |
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| What's wrong with a little pro-active law enforcement..... |
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jkelly80
Joined: 13 Jun 2007
Location: you boys like mexico?
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| Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2008 1:58 am Post subject: |
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| cangel wrote: |
| What's wrong with a little pro-active law enforcement..... |
It's illegal? |
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