Drug WarRant

Via Tim Lynch at Cato blog comes the story of a juror in a cocaine case.
Shortly after deliberations began, the jury sent a note to the judge saying that one of the jurors was concerned about the legitimacy of the law in question. When the judge questioned him, the juror explained (this from the 40 page explanation (pdf) by Judge D.J. Young to justify his own actions):

My question was where, if, . . . as every schoolboy knows, the highest law in the land is the United States Constitution, and if [C]ongress had to go to amend the [C]onstitution in, actually it was ratified in 1919, the 18th Amendment, in order to have the power to ban not interstate commerce but mere possession, where is [Congress‰ authority to ban mere possession of drugs] in the [C]onstitution[?]
Congress is empowered by Article I, in a list of about 17 specific empowerments, I‰m unaware, and it was never made clear to me, where [banning mere possession of drugs] is
authorized in the Constitution.

The judge explained that the juror needed to follow the instructions as to the law provided by the court and apply it to the case. When the juror continued to have difficulty, the judge replaced him.
The defendant was then promptly convicted.
Is this a legitimate reason to remove a juror? Because of his view that drug laws are not constitutional? The judge went on for pages and pages as to why it was important not to have someone like him on a jury.
Here’s the part that made me laugh out loud:

If Taken Seriously, Jury Nullification Threatens to Undermine the Democratic Process and the Rule of Law
If it were taken seriously by mainstream Americans, jury nullification would threaten to unravel the fabric of our democracy. The impropriety of nullification emanates from the notion that ours is ‹a government of laws and not of men.Š … This means simply that no
citizen is above the law, and none is free to make his own law.

And the judge then goes off the deep end.

The notion that nullification will change the law is drivel. Those who would characterize it as a noble form of civil disobedience are deeply delusional.

The judge needs some lessons on the sickness in our democratic process already extant that nullification could potentially cure.

Coming to your town soon…

Officers armed with military rifles have been stopping and questioning passers-by in a neighborhood plagued by violence that’s been under a 24-hour curfew for a week.
On Tuesday, the Helena-West Helena City Council voted 9-0 to allow police to expand that program into any area of the city, despite a warning from a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas that the police stops were unconstitutional. […]
“Now if somebody wants to sue us, they have an option to sue, but I’m fairly certain that a judge will see it the way the way the citizens see it here,” Mayor James Valley said. “The citizens deserve peace, that some infringement on constitutional rights is OK and we have not violated anything as far as the Constitution.” […]
“As far as I’m concerned, at 3 o’clock in the morning, nobody has any business being on the street, except the law,” Councilman Eugene “Red” Johnson said. “Anyone out at 3 o’clock shouldn’t be out on the street, unless you’re going to the hospital.”

So let’s see how this happens in seven easy steps…

1. Prohibition
2. Black-market profits
3. Black-market violence
4. Law enforcement crackdown
5. Violence escalates to protect profits
6. Residents seek protection
7. Police state

Video here
The sad thing is that there are actually people out there who think this is a solution to drug war violence.

For the last three days, I’ve been completely out of touch — no news, no email, no phone, no computer. It was tough. But it was also refreshing.
But now I’m back, and I thought that maybe you guys would have solved it all and the drug war would be over…
Hmmm….
Not quite yet.
But this is interesting —
Julian Critchley, former director of the U.K. Cabinet Office anti-drugs unit, left a remarkable comment on a blog post, noting that on the job he had come to the conclusion that “enforcement and supply-side interventions were largely pointless.”

I think what was truly depressing about my time in UKADCU was that the overwhelming majority of professionals I met, including those from the police, the health service, government and voluntary sectors held the same view : the illegality of drugs causes far more problems for society and the individual than it solves. Yet publicly, all those intelligent, knowledgeable people were forced to repeat the nonsensical mantra that the Government would be ‘tough on drugs’, even though they all knew that the Government’s policy was actually causing harm.
I recall a conversation I had with a No 10 policy advisor about a series of Whitehall-wide announcements in which we were to emphasise the shift of resources to treatment and highlighting successes in prevention and education. She asked me whether we couldn’t arrange for ‘a drugs bust in Brighton’ at the same time, or ‘a boat speeding down the Thames to catch smugglers’. For that advisor, what worked mattered considerably less than what would play well in the Daily Mail. The tragedy of our drugs policy is that it is dictated by tabloid irrationality, and not by reference to evidence.

Critchley is now a teacher:

I find that when presented with the facts, the students I teach are quite capable of considering issues such as this, and reaching rational conclusions even if they started with a blind Daily Mail-esque approach. I find it a shame that no mainstream political party accords the electorate the same respect.

Unfortunately, we so seldom hear the truth when they’re in office.

• Confirmation of the post
• Coverage at Transform
• Danny Kushlick

I’m going to visit my mom for a couple of days out at a lake in Iowa. No wireless, no dial-up, no TV, almost no cell coverage. I’ll definitely be going through withdrawal. (Yes, internet use is much more addictive than, say, marijuana.)
Discuss the drug war without me. I’ll stop by if I find a place to get a fix.

Chief High just doesn’t get it.

In a statement released yesterday, High said: “The Calvo family members were the apparent victims of a local drug ring. I called him to express my sorrow and regret for that and for the loss of the family’s beloved dogs.”
High stopped short of apologizing for the actions of the officers, according to the Associated Press.

Um, no Melvin. The Calvo family members were victims of…you. And ‘regret’ simply isn’t going to cut it.
I don’t know if police Chief Melvin High simply is unable to admit wrong, or if he somehow thinks that admitting it will make the investigation go worse for him and his unit, but the guy is not only dangerous, he’s clueless.
And let’s review again:

• The Calvo’s were victims of a local drug ring to the extent that Cheye Calvo had to lift a 32 pound package and bring it inside.
• The Calvo’s were victims of Prince George’s County police by having their home invaded, their dogs killed, the family terrorized, and no apology.

Oh, wait. I forgot — the police actually delivered the package.

Link

“We have witnessed a frightening law enforcement culture in which the law is disregarded, the rights of innocent occupants are ignored and the rights of innocent animals mean nothing,” Calvo said, surrounded by county elected leaders and friends on the front lawn of his house. “A shadow was cast over our good names. We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us.”
June White Dillard, president of the NAACP’s local chapter, also called for a thorough investigation and said Calvo experienced police action familiar to many young black men in the county.

“bullet” For a scary look at how little things have changed in 38 years, read this amazing OpEd by Gore Vidal on September 26, 1970

Will anything sensible be done? Of course not. The American people are as devoted to the idea of sin and its punishment as they are to making money-and fighting drugs is nearly as big a business as pushing them. Since the combination of sin and money is irresistible (particularly to the professional politician), the situation will only grow worse.

“bullet” Reuters OpEd by Bernd Debusmann: America’s never-ending prohibition. A good piece.
“bullet” Quotable from WindyPundit:

If cops can’t do their job without terrorizing the citizens, then they’re trying to do the wrong job.

“bullet” Florida Prosecutor Refuses to Work With DEA (more fallout in the Rachel Hoffman case).
“bullet” “drcnet”
“bullet” Oh, and today is the Accountability Now/Strange Bedfellows money bomb. Give to let politicians realize that they must be accountable to us and not merely give themselves more authoritarian power.

Video including the press conference by Mayor Calvo

The FBI is now monitoring the investigation of the raid, and the mayor has also asked the DOJ for an investigation.
The news coverage is also getting pretty big. There’s now international coverage and hundreds of papers around the country are covering it.
Cheye Calvo understands full well the fact that media coverage isn’t always equal for everyone as he addressed the press, talking about the need for changes in how things are done:

“I happen to be a Mayor, and so you all are all here right now. But Trinity and I deeply feel the pain of the people who don’t have that opportunity to tell their story, and often are just presumed guilty.”

Classy guy.

So the cops intercept a package full of marijuana addressed to Mayor Cheye Calvo’s wife, deliver it, and when nobody opens it, they go in, kill the dogs and terrorize the family. Just routine police business.
In bizarro-land.
Of course, this is horrible policing. Even if you discount the fact that they entered illegally. And then, this

Prince George’s County police announced yesterday that they have arrested a deliveryman and another man who they say are involved in a scheme to smuggle marijuana by shipping packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients, including a delivery last week to the wife of the mayor of Berwyn Heights.

Of course.
Even if busting people for marijuana was defensible (which it isn’t) and even if was defensible to use violent home invasion techniques for marijuana busts (which it isn’t), there’s no excuse for going in with such horrendously poor information.
An address on a box? I can write any address on a box that I want. It’s really easy. I use a pen. And the person at that address won’t even know that I wrote it! It’s basic literacy, which apparently eludes the police of Prince George County.
So are the police ashamed? Have they turned in their badges? Have they wept for the loss of two loving dogs?

Neither [Police Chief Melvin C. High] nor Sheriff Michael A. Jackson apologized for the raid, which they said was conducted responsibly, given what deputies and officers knew at the time.

Translation: “we were so f-in’ stupid, we didn’t know what we were doing, which makes it OK.”
So what did the deputies and officers know at the time?

• The address on the box.

What didn’t they know at the time?

• Who lived there — they didn’t know it was the Mayor, or that there were dogs, etc., etc. — things that are apparently only impenetrable secrets to illiterate county police, who apparently also don’t know how to do… police work.
• Whether the addressee had any knowledge of the contents — something else that would have required actual police work.
• Whether there was any possibility that someone might have purposely misaddressed the package.

Now about the last one — maybe this was a brand new trick — something that nobody had ever done before — so diabolically clever that nobody could have anticipated it.
Except that… the idea of a purposeful wrong address was, in fact, the very first thought I had when I first heard the story. And let’s see, could it have actually happened exactly this way before? (like in March of this year)

Shortly after that, Halperin was sitting on his couch next to the unopened package when a special police enforcement team rushed in with guns raised. […]
“He was handcuffed at gunpoint, strip-searched, taken to jail and placed under a $25,000 secured bond for a crime he did not commit,” Thomas said.
The incident was the third of its kind in the past 11 months in which a Duke student was accused of trafficking drugs contained in a package intercepted from DHL, an express shipper with offices around the world. […]
“The power to arrest someone is a tremendous power,” Thomas said Wednesday. “But with that power goes a tremendous responsibility to conduct a full and complete investigation. You investigate first, and you arrest after the investigation.”

Investigate first, then arrest.
Oh, and yes, this can happen anywhere…
In my own town, a judge last week reversed his ruling and freed a woman who had received, but not opened a package of marijuana. Prosecutors claimed that she should have been able to smell the marijuana in the hour it was in her home (despite the fact that none of the officers testified smelling it). The judge realized that there was no reason to assume this. (I wonder if he heard about the Mayor Cheye Calvo case).
There’s no excuse for these officers in Prince George’s County, MD to continue to have jobs. The Police Chief and Sheriff should be gone. They are an embarrassment to law enforcement everywhere, and a danger to their communities.

It’s a little early to give out details right now, but I’ve been invited to participate in a prestigious debate overseas in a couple of months, which will focus on one aspect of drug policy.
I’m glad I’ve spent so much time on my Elevator Arguments (pdf). After having to get a point across in 30 seconds, the seven minutes I’ll be allotted should be a luxury.
I’ll let you know more when I have more details to share, and I’ll probably be running some ideas past you.