Drug WarRant

“bullet” Via Radley Balko comes a letter from Kent Corbett – a Milwauke police detective and former SWAT officer – who defends the actions of police in the horrible raid on Mayor Cheye Calvo and his family (where the dogs were killed and the innocent family terrorized with no investigative work by the police). Corbett writes:

As a former S.W.A.T. team member and a current homicide detective with the Milwaukee police department, I must take issue with the tone of a paragraph in ‹The WeekŠ (September 1). The piece addresses the Cheye Calvo incident, in which police raided a Maryland mayor‰s home looking for drugs, killed his dogs, and restrained him and his mother-in-law. It turned out the man was innocent.
I have personally been involved in the execution of no-knock search warrants, the killing of dogs during those executions, and the investigations of numerous drug-related homicides and officer-involved shootings. Yes, no-knock warrants are issued to avoid the destruction of evidence such as drugs, but they are also issued to protect the officers executing those warrants. In addition, each warrant requires a judge‰s authorization, and obviously the available evidence satisfied the judge in this case.
Sorry if Calvo and his mother-in-law were ‹restrainedŠ for ‹almost two hours.Š Would you rather have them be comfortable for those two hours, and risk officers‰ lives and safety? Calvo should be able to understand what the officers did and why they did it.
Municipal police departments do fight a war on the streets of this country daily. This incident should not be considered overkill (to take a word from Reason‰s Radley Balko), but sound police tactics. As soon as some police administrator starts to second-guess the training and experience of the officers charged with doing these types of investigations, someone will get hurt or killed. Drug investigations are inherently dangerous, and so is the Monday-morning quarterbacking you are doing.
Kent Corbett
Milwaukee, Wis.

What kind of system allows such a malignant tumor to exist within our law enforcement ranks unchecked? This is such a perversion of America – a repudiation of everything for which we stand. Does Kent Corbett put out an American flag on national holidays? Does he know what it means?
“bullet” Here’s one that’s a little subtler, but a sickness nonetheless.

JOLIET — Assistant State’s Attorney Michael Knick, a member of the Drug Prosecution Unit, and administrative assistant, Kathy Kearney, the secretary supervisor for the unit, were recognized by the Illinois Metropolitan Enforcement Group Directors’ and Task Force Commanders’ Association, Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow announced.
Knick and Kearney were honored for their work in processing 858 narcotics cases during 2007 and 2008. The conviction rate for these cases was 95 percent.
“I congratulate Mike Knick and Kathy Kearney on receiving this prestigious honor and for going above and beyond their duties to fight the war against drugs in Will County,” Glasgow said. “Mike and Kathy, along with my entire Drug Prosecution Unit, have worked tirelessly with the Metropolitan Area Narcotics Squad ( MANS ) and our local police departments over the past four years.
“The unit has seen a 50 percent increase in the number of search warrants granted to detectives who are conducting narcotics investigations.”

The sickness here is using the benchmark of quantity in dealing with drug issues (or criminal justice issues in general). And we see that far too often in campaigns for prosecutors and Attorneys General. All about the numbers of people prosecuted and the numbers of convictions achieved, like points in a basketball game.
In prosecuting, it takes more than scoring points to be a true success, and prosecution “points” are costly, both in terms of the financial cost to taxpayers of prison and prosecution, and in the effect on lives, sometimes innocent ones.
I would like to see a prosecutor running for office who says:

I was a good steward of your money and your trust. I made efficient use of jail time and prosecution resources to lock up the most dangerous criminals, while finding alternatives for non-violent criminals when possible. I refused to waste your tax dollars on cases that didn’t deserve to be in a courtroom, and I made extra effort to insure that innocent citizens were not convicted nor put through a damaging criminal justice process.

But I don’t hear that much. What I hear is prosecutors bragging about breaking scoring records, as if that means they get to go to the regional finals.

“I think it’s unconscionable that the medical use of marijuana is not legal. … We can do better”

Yes on Proposal 1.

Via TalkLeft, John McCain writes in the National Law Journal:

Terrorists are not the only threat to public safety. Lax enforcement policies, judges who legislate from the bench and lack of support for law enforcement personnel all continue to force our innocent citizens behind the barred windows of their homes and allow criminals to roam free.
And now drugs are bringing waves of crime and organized gang activity to rural areas thought to be nearly immune from such problems. The federal government must both support state and local law enforcement and effectively enforce federal laws designed to root out violent crime, organized gangs and other interstate criminal activity.
None of these law enforcement efforts will succeed without a judiciary that understands its proper role and its proper mission. Senator Obama would appoint liberal activist judges and supply them with greater sentencing discretion. I will appoint judges who will strictly interpret our Constitution. Senator Obama’s judges would coddle criminals. I will appoint judges who will hold criminals accountable.

This is just completely messed up on so many levels, both practical and logical.
Again, I don’t expect great things in the way of enlightened criminal justice reform from Obama, but McCain just seems to be going out of his way to pander to the authoritarian base that has been taking us down this dangerous path for years.

“bullet” Evan G at D’Alliance with Hey Mom and Dad: Thanks for the Dog covers the latest effort in causing long-term damage to developing the notion of a free society in our youth: renting drug dogs to sniff your teen’s bedroom and possessions.
“bullet” Alix at Art of the Possible has a detailed post on Meth and public policy: Yes, an article on the ups and downs of the alleged meth epidemic
A couple of points of interest in it. One, this delightful quote from the Oregonion on how to create a meth panic article

Start your article with an anecdote, preferably one about a user who testifies about how methamphetamine destroyed his life. Toss out some statistics to indicate that meth use is growing, even if the squishy numbers don‰t prove anything. Avoid statistics that cut against your case. Use and reuse the words ‹problemŠ and ‹epidemicŠ without defining them. Quote law enforcement officers extensively, whether they know what they‰re talking about or not. Avoid drug history except to make inflammatory comparisons between meth and other drugs. Gather grave comments from public-health authorities but never talk to critics of the drug war who might add an unwanted layer of complexity to your story.

And Two, what should be even more the focus of the article:

It was the Federal Drug Abuse Control Amendments of 1965 which actually made illegal production of speed a profitable business. Prior to that, ‹illicit speed labs had to compete with diverted legal tablets priced at wholesale as low as thirteen or fourteen tablets for a pennyšš 75 cents per thousand.Š After the government intervened, the amphetamines that even JFK once regularly took became harder to legally acquire, but they could still found on the streets.

That’s exactly why meth has what little popularity it has today. It is a byproduct of prohibition. In fact, it is a byproduct of particularly stringent prohibition. Illegal, yet easily diverted, and much safer, amphetamines would reduce the lure of meth.
It’s just like the often volatile alcohol stills that sprung up during the other prohibition.
“bullet” I’ve been meaning, and neglecting, to link to Lee’s article on Afghanistan over at HorsesAss: Chasing the Dragon in Afghanistan. Definitely worth a read.

A snog and a bang.

One in five Brits has had sex at work, according to a survey which brings a whole new meaning to the term “job satisfaction”.

Wow! And yet here in the states, our drug czar is all up in arms because 3.1 percent of employed drug users have admitted to being high at work. With Walters’ obsession with illicit drug use, he may be missing an epidemic of on the job bonking.
Sure, you don’t want your airline pilot to be stoned while he’s flying, but you also don’t want him going around the world with the flight attendant when he’s supposed to be going to Cleveland with the plane.
And in the office, being stoned is not a good way of being productive, but a shag on the desk can mess up your files for weeks.
So maybe instead of getting cups for employees to randomly urinate into, companies should look into purchasing these.
It makes as much sense.

Link

A LaSalle County task force arrested 14 people Friday as part of a three-month investigation into the sale of drugs at Streator taverns.

The nerve of these people — selling drugs at taverns.
Um… wait… isn’t that what taverns are supposed to sell?
I think I could have figured that out in much less than three months. I’d just walk in and say “Can I have a beer?” and if they sold me one, I’d go “Yep, this tavern sells drugs.”

“bullet” On this day in history…

• The United Nations charter took effect,
• The 40-hour work week began,
• “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” opened in theaters,
• Kevin Kline was born…
• and so was I.

“bullet” Take the Handcuffs off the Economic Recovery Eric Sterling has a great OpEd at the Huffington Post about saving the economy through taxing marijuana and taking non-violent drug criminals out of jail and putting them back into the economy where they can be producing and buying cars and other products.
“bullet” Interesting article from Georgia about marijuana and legalization/decriminalization. Lots of people with differing opinions, some misguided. It really points out the need for more open, public dialog.
“bullet” Drug Czar busted again from Paul Armentano at NORML
“bullet” Editorial: What is San Diego smoking? “The County Should Drop Its Legal Attack On Medical-Marijuana ID Law”
“bullet” Racial disparities in Cleveland drug prosecutions from TalkLeft

via Transform

Over at Hit and Run, Radley discusses the The 190-Million Person Exception to the Fourth Amendment, based on an ACLU report that the U.S. is expanding invasive checkpoint searches around the country under the guise of homeland security.
This is obviously a concern to people who believe in, oh, say, the Constitution, or, maybe, America.
But not Lou Dobbs. No. In the bizarro world where he lives, somehow the idea of the ACLU complaining in order to protect the Constitutional rights of Americans, is, in his fevered mind, unconstitutional.

Under a graphic reading “ACLU amnesty agenda,” he sneered, “The American Civil Liberties Union claims the Department of Homeland Security’s efforts to enforce immigration laws are ‘unconstitutional.’ In point of fact, it is the ACLU actively trying to block enforcement of this nation’s laws. Is that constitutional?” […]
“There is no legal recourse for an American citizen against the ACLU, is there?” Dobbs concluded, laughing. “Isn’t that unconstitutional?”

Dobbs also has a bizarro twist on the ACLU’s view of the drug war:

“And they want the drug war to continue to be decided in favor of the drug traffickers.”

Um, no. I’m pretty sure they’d like the drug war to be decided in favor of the people. It’s asshats like Dobbs who want to continue to make the black market profitable.

“bullet” Polk County, Florida is flushed with excitement over drug testing

High school athletes have been tested for drug and alcohol abuse use for almost five years, and the program needs to be expanded to include more students, said Audrey Kelley-Fritz, the senior manager of Prevention, Health and Wellness Services for Polk County Public Schools. […]
Kelley-Fritz said the district would be “behind the times” if the request to expand drug testing had not been made.

Behind the times? Hey, we’d better expand our drug testing. All the cool schools are doing it.

District officials determined that students in extracurricular organizations, such as the Future Business Leaders of America and Future Farmers of America, might benefit by being added to the testing pool.

Determined? How? Benefit? How? Are those really your target population for intervening with problem drug users?

The district’s expanded testing will include students who participate in activities that involve some kind of competition, something in which a first-, second- and third-place award is presented, Kelley-Fritz said.

Yeah, that makes sense. Wouldn’t want to let the potheads have an unfair advantage in capturing those blue ribbons. Although I wonder if you’ll see an increase in groups that only have a first and second place award.
“bullet” In Kanawha County, West Virginia, the school board voted to randomly drug test all teachers and school employees. That drew this strong OpEd from Steven Shamblin

This board cut field trips because of lack of funding. Where is the drug-testing money going to come from? Hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent frivolously to accomplish the noneducational tasks and agenda of the board. Yet the students, the children of the Kanawha County constituents, suffer from the indulgences of this board.
Why is the board attempting not to fund the county library under the pretext of needing more money? Funding the library — and its branches in the public schools — would be a more effective use of money now earmarked for drug testing and its associated court costs.
With this policy, the board is declaring a warrant against every employee in the county as having probable cause. Every teacher and prospective teacher in the United States will know that Kanawha County schools is not the place to work. Not only is West Virginia ranked 48th in teacher pay, Kanawha County is ranked 18th in the state for supplemental teacher pay. Kanawha County schools may have a shortage of teachers to test.
What about school employees who have given their lives to the county for the education of its youth? After 20 to 30 years, are they now suspect? These professionals should be lauded for their service to Kanawha children, not stripped of dignity by asking them to provide a urine sample. Apparently the loyalty of employment flows only one way in Kanawha County.

And he notes the real truth that puts the lie to random drug testing:

The current policy is more than adequate; it gives the board authority to test “with cause.”

The use of random testing, instead of testing with cause, is evidence either of poor management skills or a solution in search of a problem.
“bullet” South Africa’s government is excited about implementing drug testing in schools, although some teachers and students are not.

One Durban teacher said she was terrified of testing pupils for weapons, let alone drugs. […]
Phila Masango, a 16-year-old pupil from Durban, said no one was going to force him to urinate.
He said by so doing they would be infringing on his dignity and privacy rights.

Random drug testing is an inefficient, unproductive, and cowardly way of managing. It is also the preferred style of the authoritarians — getting people accustomed to humiliating themselves before authority.
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*Title reference: “Urinetown” is a darkly funny musical about a town where authoritarians control the facilities and the poor people have to pay to piss. In our version of Urinetown, people have to piss to get paid (or to learn).