Drug WarRant

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President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his government may ask the United States to extradite U.S. religious broadcaster Pat Robertson to Venezuela for suggesting American agents should kill him.

[Note: Robertson made the threat after Chavez kicked out the DEA for spying.]
There’s a reasonably good argument that there’s sufficient reason to consider Pat Robertson’s statement a violation of U.S. law.
Now I personally don’t think that Robertson should be extradited to Venezuela (as much as the prospect appeals to me).
But a country that would claim that Canada must extradite Marc Emery for selling plant seeds can hardly be on firm moral ground in refusing to extradite someone who calls for the assassination of a foreign leader on national television.

Shorter Mark A.R. Kleiman

Jack Shafer is dangerous and wrong, and I’m going to prove it by completely agreeing with every point that he makes.

How bizarre.
Jack Shafer says that crack was a problem and that meth is a problem, but we don’t help the problem by over-hyping. Mark Kleiman says that Shafer is full of it and that while we don’t help the problem by over-hyping, we must recognize that crack was a problem and meth is a problem.
Someone needs to teach Kleiman how to read an entire article.
Kleiman says that Shafer’s “whole thesis [is] that a non-problem is being hyped into a problem.” OK, let’s see…
Shafer about crack:

Lives were lost and families ruined, but as god-awful bad as crack was, it was rarely as bad as the press, government, and the rest of the drug-abuse industrial complex made it out to be. [emphasis added so Mark can see it]

Where did he say it was a non-problem? Not there. In fact, he called it “god-awful bad.” OK. Maybe it’s when Shafer approvingly quoted Newsweek:

“The truth is bad enough; there’s nothing to be gained, and a lot to be lost, by hyping the dangers of drugs.” [emphasis added so Mark can see it]

Or maybe Shafer considers meth a non-problem:

Before my in box floods with e-mails accusing me of endorsing methamphetamine, let me extend my strongly worded advice to all: Don’t use this drug. Don’t, don’t, don’t. Don’t.

Somehow Shafer’s “whole thesis” reads a bit differently to me.

Well, I just finished my six-weekend run of my show in Chicago. Was pretty busy over the past couple of days with strike and everything. Looks like a lot of interesting stuff happened in the past two days.
“bullet” Grits for Breakfast has the report on how the states do in incarcerating marijuana smokers. Unsurprisingly, Texas has the lead.
“bullet” Libby at Last One Speaks compliments me, and then proceeds to show me up with a bunch of great posts. Go read. Including:
“bullet” AARP piece on the DEA’s war on pain relief.
“bullet” Tierney does it again. Marijuana Pipe Dreams

D.E.A. officials have already shown they’re quite capable of persecuting someone who uses marijuana to deal with AIDS, and they may well be even more eager to go after someone who encourages research into their least favorite drug. When it comes to marijuana research, the federal policy is “Just Say Know-Nothing.”

“bullet” Surprise. Surprise. (Via Radley Balko.) Newsweek declares Colombia a Failed ‘Plan’
“bullet” Liberals used to care? Jacob Sullum notes:

The drug policy scholar Harry Levine has done some digging in The New Republic’s new online archive and uncovered evidence that liberals used to get upset about marijuana arrests. For those of us who have become accustomed to a New Republic whose editors are at best indifferent to the injustices perpetrated in the name of a Drug-Free Society, even as annual marijuana arrests have reached record levels, these reminders of a time when they cared about such things are poignant.

At New Haven Register: Family wants answers after man’s death in SWAT raid

Since his 23-year-old son, Anthony, was laid to rest Aug. 13, Andrew Diotaiuto has returned repeatedly to his grave at North Haven’s All Saints Cemetery.

He sometimes makes two or three trips a day from his home in East Haven.

Burying a child is always painful, but the last moments of his son’s life are especially troubling. […]

“Why did they do this to my boy?” is the question on Andrew Diotaiuto’s mind, according to his sister, Marie Notarino of Branford.

For those who have not followed the story of the death of Anthony Diotaiuto, see earlier posts here and here.

The family wants answers.

“They’re upset about what happened and want an explanation,” Kevin Boyd, a spokesman for Conrad Scherer, a law firm that represents Whittier.

It appears that this story is one that is not going to go away quietly (and I’m going to do what I can to make sure we continue to talk about it).

Television and print media in Florida have closely followed the story. It also has taken on a life in Internet blogs, where some see it as another call to change the nation’s drug laws.

Good. They noticed.
I wonder if that paragraph got people searching the internet for this story, and if so, whether that’s what brought commenter joe carrol. He’s apparently not completely up on navigating blogs, so he left this comment on an unrelated post.

Like they knew it ws a bb gun! Bottom line is he was knowingly breaking the law and armed himself. The police were doing there job! I know he was a nice boy . They all are after things like this happen He wasn’t an angel. He was an armed drug dealer! If he wasn’t, none of this would have happened. Parents, point to this as a reason why your children shouldn’t get invovved in drugs. I doubt that you would have done anything differently if you were in there situation.I don’t want to see anyone killed, but don’t act like he did nothing wrong!

Joe seems to think that merely breaking the law entitles police to break into your home and shoot you. Joe, have you ever gone over the speed limit? You know, I don’t know many angels (I know some that claim to be, but they’re usually the worst). But calling him an armed drug dealer? How does that fit with a young man who is working two jobs and is living with his mother?
The issue here is not whether Anthony broke a law. The issue is really how law enforcement enforces (with a side issue that the law itself is wrong). You say “I doubt that you would have done anything differently if you were in there situation.” Well, that’s just not true. Because what I would have done differently is never participate in that kind of home invasion (even if it meant getting fired). It’s wrong.
No, the police weren’t doing their job. Their job is to serve and protect. At sunrise, in Sunrise, on August 5, they forgot.

Via TalkLeft comes Reefer Madness in the 8th Circuit by Doug Berman.

The defendant in Chauncey, as a result of a criminal history leading to his classification as a career offender, received a sentence of 100 months after being convicted of possessing with intent to distribute less than two ounces of marijuana. According to Judge Lay’s dissent, “Chauncey’s undisputed purpose was to help [his friend] obtain marijuana to alleviate the painful effects of her multiple sclerosis.”

Excellent comment on this by Aaron over at Sentening Law and Policy:

When Robert Lee Chauncey was arrested, he didn’t resist, he cooperated with the police and told the truth. Unfortunately it seems that his honesty and forthright behavior had no bearing on his sentencing whatsoever. In fact it seems to have worked against him and help consolidate the the prosecution’s case under the letter of the law.

Do we really want to see individuals who are apprehended with a few ounces of marijuana shooting it out with the police because they don’t want to spend the next decade in prison. That will be the likely consequence of these types of decisions.

The Provo Daily Herald discusses the permit issue for the attacked Utah rave. Why it took until today for this detail in reporting to be achieved is beyond me.

While the debate rages over the level of force police used to quell a party Saturday in Spanish Fork Canyon, the crucial legal question has shifted. Organizers may or may not have obtained a mass-gathering permit from the Utah County Commission — but did they need one?

[…]In addition to the health permit ensuring portable toilets, food and other health concerns, Utah County Code 13-4-2-1 mandates a security-related permit for any “anticipated assembly of 250 or more people which continues or can reasonably be expected to continue for 12 or more consecutive hours.”

The electronic dance beats began thumping at 9 p.m. Saturday in the Diamond Fork area and thrived for more than two hours before 90 fully armed SWAT members from various area teams swarmed the crowd of roughly 300.

Had authorities permitted the party to continue, event promoter Brandon Fullmer of Salt Lake City-based Uprock Records said the party was scheduled to conclude at 6:30 a.m. Sunday — a couple hours short of the limit set for the permit. Privately contracted security personnel as well as the sound technician (from Salt Lake-based Performance Audio) both confirmed they were contracted for that same time period. Fullmer and landowner Trudy Childs have retained a Salt Lake attorney who has filed formal legal requests for copies of all related documents from the health department, county attorney and commissioners.[…]

Nonsense, countered Utah Sheriff Jim Tracy. Based on 700 presold tickets and organizers’ anticipated crowd of thousands, he said authorities quite reasonably expected partygoers to linger to 9 a.m. and beyond.

Of course, Tracy has quite a history of poor judgment.
Note: Check out the picture in the first article. Looks like a gorgeous place for a rave.

Somebody put these DEA and SWAT guys away somewhere. Please. For the safety of Americans.
SWAT team raids wrong home:
State Police and DEA agents frighten residents and tear up house

A State Police SWAT team and a swarm of federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents stormed a four-family home in Newark on Tuesday, kicking down doors, waving guns and ransacking two upstairs apartments.

The officers tore through an armoire looking for guns and shouted curses at frightened adults as they clutched their young children.

Then the officers apologized for being in the wrong house.

Home health aide Cedelie Pompee, 59, was livid yesterday as she recounted how police rushed through the Smith Street house that she has owned for 27 years, leaving cracked door frames, broken doors and scuffed walls in their wake. Pompee shares the home with her two sisters, their children and another family that rents a downstairs apartment.

They didn’t realize their mistake at once.

With guns drawn, they went room by room, breaking through locked doors as they went. When Desir and other family members complained, the officers cursed at them and demanded to know where the guns were kept.

But after 15 minutes of fruitless searching, the officers realized they had made a mistake.

This, of course, after cursing at them. ‘Cause that’s how you do law enforcement these days. The people you’re after aren’t human. They’re the enemy.

State Police Sgt. Gerald Lewis confirmed yesterday the officers and DEA agents raided the wrong house. He would not reveal the nature of the investigation that led them to the house, other than to say it is ongoing. Lewis also refused to disclose who they were looking for.

So just how clueless are these people?

This is the second time in four months the State Police have raided the wrong home. In May, officers stormed the home of a retired truck driver in Woodbridge in search of a prostitution operation.

Yesterday, both Pompee and Desir questioned what kind of investigation even led police to a household of devout Jehovah’s Witnesses in the first place. If any surveillance had been done of the house with the iron gate and small herb garden, Desir said, officers would have known that no one in the house so much as smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol.

“You’re trying to work in a community and get bad people, but you don’t even know where they live,” Desir said. “When you’re dealing with these type of neighborhoods, there’s no room for incompetent police officers.”

In Thursday’s Washington Times: Colombia helps Afghanistan wage drug war
Illinois’ Henry Hyde, idiot and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, got this bright idea: Colombia has done so well with its drug war, why not have them tell Afghanistan how to do it?

“We warmly welcome the restoration of formal relations between Afghanistan and Colombia and especially the joint efforts of Colombia and its elite national police to help Afghanistan tackle the enormous problem of heroin production, which also fuels terrorism,” Mr. Hyde said yesterday. […]

“The Colombians are the world’s experts on establishing sovereignty and security over ungoverned space, especially when fighting narcotics-funded terrorists,” said Andre Hollis, a top Pentagon counterdrug official in President Bush’s first term.

And Hyde, of course, takes every opportunity to play the terror card…

“Colombia … has a lot to share and help our Afghan partners with in the global struggle against drugs and terror,” Mr. Hyde said.

When I first read it, I laughed. As I continued to think about it, I just got angrier. So absurd. So stupid.
Remember, despite what morons like Henry Hyde may say, drugs don’t fund terrorism. Prohibition does.

Today’s New York Times article: Profiling Report Leads to a Demotion is interesting in that it describes a process that has become amazingly typical in government use of data (particularly as it relates to the drug war).
Amid all the reports of racial profiling in highway stops, the Justice Department did a study – more comprehensive than past ones. The results were important and should be discussed nationally.
But the administration decided that the press release should only contain one part of the results — the data regarding rates that drivers of different races were stopped (8.6% for Hispanics, 9.1% for blacks, 8.7% for whites). That made it seem like there’s not much of an issue.
What was left out? Percentages of drivers whose vehicles were searched, and percentages of drivers who had force used against them. Those figures gave dramatically different results.
Lawrence Greenfield, the director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics for 23 years and very highly respected in the field, objected to the partial truth press release.
He’s being demoted. Naturally.
Update: Here are some more of the data from the report (via the AP):

–Blacks (5.8 percent) and Hispanics (5.2 percent) were much more likely to be arrested than whites (2 percent).

–Hispanics (71.5 percent) were much more likely to be ticketed than blacks (58.4 percent) or whites (56.5 percent).

–Blacks (2.7 percent) and Hispanics (2.4 percent) were far more likely than whites (0.8 percent) to report that police used force or the threat of it. Force was defined as when an officer pushed, grabbed, kicked or hit a driver with a hand or object. Also included were police dog bites, chemical or pepper spray or a firearm pointed at the driver, or the threat of any of these.

–Handcuffs were used on greater percentages of black motorists (6.4 percent) and Hispanics (5.6 percent) than whites (2 percent).

–Black and Hispanic drivers and their vehicles were much more likely to be searched than whites and their vehicles. Black motorists were searched 8.1 percent of the time; Hispanics, 8.3 percent; whites, 2.5 percent. Vehicles driven by blacks were searched 7.1 percent of the time; by Hispanics, 10.1 percent; by whites, 2.9 percent.

Via Libby at Last One Speaks, I discover that there is a new blog with the title:
Notes on the MAPS/Craker/DEA hearing
concerning the establishment of a pilot medical marijuana production facility at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst
Rick Doblin is one of the bloggers, posting directly from the hearings.