Drug WarRant

Coverage of the attacked rave continues, and media sources in very conservative Utah are trying to figure out how to deal with it. The most confused appears to be the Daily Herald.
The first half of the opinion piece is paragraph after paragraph of law-and-order mantra, supporting the police activity and opining that the young people were wrong in their complaints about force, culminating in:

Clearly, some enforcement was needed in Diamond Fork on Saturday night.

Let’s state some basic facts, just for the record. Officers of the law carry guns. It is part of what they do. They often carry nonlethal weapons, too, such as bean-bag launchers or tear gas. They make plans for dealing with potentially difficult situations. Why? Because it’s their job to enforce the laws that have been duly enacted by elected authorities.

It’s called enforcement for a reason. Police don’t need to ask politely.

The best way to stay out of range of the police is to obey the law. It’s a lesson too many people have not learned.

But then, they veer off…

Having said that, however, we are concerned about the process that led to this raid, starting with Utah County permits. Commissioner Steve White was strangely evasive on this question. When asked point-blank whether a mass-gathering permit had been issued, he said he would not answer. He referred the Herald to law enforcement sources and the county attorney’s office.

Childs, the property owner, said all the permits were in order and that officers seized them at the gate. It was a legal gathering, she said.

To be sure, there were a number of drug- and alcohol-related arrests and citations arising from the rave. These are fair game by any measure. Once a crime is committed, a permit may be considered null and void. But of the 43 citations reported by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, about half appear directly related to the raid itself — disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and related acts. Most of the others could have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis, without shutting down a concert at which the majority were not breaking the law.

A massive police assault on virtually any public gathering (a BYU football game, for example) would uncover similar illegalities, from drugs to weapons to expired driver’s licenses. But if a crime is committed during a BYU football game, the game is not stopped. Offenders are trundled off individually. A general suspicion that something illegal might happen at a public gathering, even a rave, may not be the best basis from which to launch a major law enforcement action.

What a shift in tone! Almost like they couldn’t possibly state the second half to their readers without first affirming their law-and-order credentials in the first half.
And it’s a very important statement that they make. Read it again…

But if a crime is committed during a BYU football game, the game is not stopped.

Exactly.
The Salt Lake City weekly had less concern about establishing their bonafides in their article: Iraq in Utah.
Just a slight nod…

Law-enforcement officers — so often overworked, underpaid and underappreciated — deserve the respect of citizenry. But based on personal accounts and digital-camera footage of that evening that have flooded the Internet since, even the most die-hard supporter of the local constabulary would feel remiss not asking questions.

And then go for the jugular:

There’s something telling, too, about the fact that the Sheriff’s Office learned at noon that day where the rave would commence, but waited more than two hours into the music — until 11:30 p.m. — to make 60 arrests and demand the area be cleared. Much was made of one young raver who “overdosed on ecstasy,” and then was released to her parents. If disaster was so imminent, and warranted 90 men in uniform, why wasn’t the rave politely stopped before it started? Perhaps because the spectacle of an outdoor event, like a rave itself, is a lot more fun than sitting at home.

Ouch.

What the press didn’t learn from the last drug panic
An interesting read from Jack Shafer.

Link
Good stuff — also includes transcripts from the hearings this week.

Among the DEA’s many faults is the extensive use of questionable or downright dishonest informants. (See my report on Bad Girl Michele Leonhart and the use of informant Andrew Chambers, who regularly lied on the witness stand.)
Here’s the latest.

The DEA first recruited [Essam] Magid as an informant in 1999 after an arrest on drug conspiracy charges. It has since paid him more than $77,000 and worked to get his drug charges dismissed, according to testimony.

The problem is that the FBI also used Magid, but dismissed him in 2002 for “revealing his undercover status and identifying two agents” (possibly endangering their lives).
That didn’t bother the DEA, so they continued to use Magid as an informant and, in testimony last week, his handler admitted that Magid may have intimidated a witness in a drug conspiracy case.
Magid seems perfect for the DEA. Maybe they can make him an agent next.

After only reporting the press release put out by the Sheriff yesterday (and getting some heat for it), Utah papers are starting to explore the other side:
In the Salt Lake Tribune:

Partygoers at a rave in Spanish Fork Canyon that was busted by police Saturday night say officers used brutal and excessive force to clear the crowd.

As many as 90 police officers from several agencies, including SWAT members and major crimes investigators, stormed the DJ-driven dance party around 11:30 p.m. dressed in full SWAT gear and holding automatic weapons.

A helicopter announced the police presence as it crested a nearby hill and began shining a spotlight on the outdoor dance area, said 19-year-old Scott Benton of Logan.

“The cops just came in wearing full Army [camouflage]. It was basically brute force,” Benton said. “I had a gun put in my face and was told to get out of there.”

Standing in a crowd of people near the main stage, Alisha Matagi says she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time when she was thrown to the ground, punched, kicked and handcuffed by police.

And it is so clear that the police really wanted to get these ravers. They weren’t interested in safety. And they certainly weren’t interested in helping promoters follow the legal complexities.

Saturday’s party, named Versus II, had been tracked by police for several weeks, Gilbert said. Police planned the bust when they discovered that the rave’s promoters had not filed for a mass gathering permit through the County Commission office. To have more than 250 at an event without that permit is a violation of the law, Gilbert said.

Party promotor Brandon Fullmer said he purchased a mass gathering permit through the Utah County Health Department about three weeks ago. The purchase of that permit, which ensures water, sanitation and medical services, was confirmed by County Health employee Jay Stone.

Fullmer did not know that a similar permit, which requires a security plan and event details, needed to be acquired.

The sheriff had little sympathy for the promoters or those at the rave. “They did nothing more than ensure this was a venue for illegal drug use and consumption,” Tracy said.

So the police knew for three weeks. They planned their assault, chortling to themselves that the promoter didn’t have all the paperwork. Now look at this picture. Instead of getting 90 officers, a helicopter, dogs and guns, paying overtime, etc., couldn’t somebody have called up Brandon Fullmer (his phone number was probably on the health permit that he got) and say “Oh, by the way, you also need this other permit.” No, they hate the culture and the people who are involved in raves so much that they wanted the event to happen so that Utah County Sheriff James Tracy could storm in like Lt. Colonel Kilgore in Apocolypse Now (“I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”)
And now we learn that even the permit issue is still in question. In the Provo Daily Herald

Brandon Fullmer, manager of the Uprock Records company that promoted the event, argues that he also obtained the mass gathering permit. He said authorities were denying him a copy of it for proof, but a county official agreed to write a letter verifying it.

“We were not there to start any problems,” Fullmer said. “What the cops did was wrong.”
Regardless, Utah County authorities defended the raid.

“That’s all smoke and mirrors,” said County Commissioner Steve White. “They were selling drugs. They were committing illegal acts, and as soon as that happened it doesn’t matter what kind of permit they had.”

Oh, so now it didn’t matter what kind of permit they had? (sounds like an admission to me that Fullmer did have the right permits) I thought the lack of permit was the justification. But now they’re saying that the promoters were “selling drugs.”
But no, that wasn’t the case. And of course, even attempts by the promoters to limit drug use at the event were turned against them:

Among those arrested for drug possession were several security guards hired by Fullmer to patrol the event. Guards at security check points confiscated alcohol and drugs as ravers filed into the party, Fullmer said.

“[Security guards] have no legal statutory authority to take and hold controlled substances. It’s against the law for them to have them,” Tracy said.

Yep. No interest in safety. No interest in actually dealing with drug use. They just hate those young people and their music and their glow sticks and they want to arrest them and beat them and make them go away.
Sheriff Tracy — that’s not how this country works. And some day, you’ll be made to pay for your crimes (unfortunately, it’s the citizens in Utah who will probably have to pay — and the attorneys in the lawsuits who will benefit). But maybe that will make the citizens set up and say “Sheriff Tracy has to go.”)

So after Chavez kicked out the DEA from Venezuela (accusing them of spying and running drugs), the U.S. government retaliated by revoking Visas and threatening their “rating” with the U.S.
Now so-called religious leader Pat Robertson has weighed in to give the “Christian” solution:

“We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability,” Robertson said.

“We don’t need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator,” he continued. “It’s a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with.”

He must have an unusual Bible.

Link
I’ll talk about this more later. Details still need to be sorted out. But even if all you read is the Sherrif’s report, it’s incredibly clear that the intent of law enforcement was to attack, not to protect and serve. Not only was no effort made by law enforcement to correct known permit deficiencies (assuming there were any), but they actually went out of their way to encourage a violent confrontation.
Update: Video available here
Thanks to jackl for the tips and updates and particularly to Ben Masel for his efforts to geet the media to really cover this story. Expect some more balanced reporting in tomorrow’s papers.

It’s just not worth the risk.

Via Cannabis News

Washington — Hearings opened today in the American Civil Liberties Union’s challenge to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s policy of obstructing privately funded, FDA-approved scientific research that could lead to marijuana being approved as a prescription medicine.

“Despite the DEA’s contentions, the public deserves and, increasingly, demands a full and fair scientific evaluation of the possible health benefits of medical marijuana,” said University of Massachusetts Professor Lyle Craker, Ph.D. “As a scientist, it is my job to make plant material available for research. The DEA’s refusal to permit me to grow marijuana for research necessarily prevents an accurate assessment of this plant’s potential medicinal properties.”

The proceedings, which are scheduled to last through the week, mark the culmination of more than four years of Professor Craker’s efforts to obtain permission to produce marijuana for use in studies on the plant’s medical benefits. Professor Craker, who filed his initial petition in June 2001, seeks a DEA license to grow research-grade marijuana for use in privately funded, FDA-approved studies that aim to develop marijuana into a legal, prescription medicine — an undertaking the DEA has maintained would run counter to public interest.

Kudos to Professor Craker, who has been tireless in these efforts, and to the ACLU.
However, before you get too excited, consider the scope of these hearings:

The hearing is taking place before a Department of Justice-appointed Administrative Law Judge, who will issue recommendations to the DEA Administrator based on the hearing’s findings. Such recommendations, while non-binding, nonetheless influence the DEA and are the sole administrative avenue for appealing the DEA’s regulatory decisions.

Baby steps. Baby steps. Follow every avenue. Every legal procedure. Eventually, the accumulated efforts may cause the empty lies to collapse in on themselves.
What’s frustrating is that all it would take is one President with integrity who, with a single stroke of his or her pen, could re-schedule marijuana.

As I was reading this New York Times article and, in particular, the various quotes from supposedly learned people and political leaders, I coudn’t help but be reminded of this old story:

There are four blind men who discover an elephant. Since the men have never encountered an elephant, they grope about, seeking to understand and describe this phenomenon. One grasps the trunk and concludes it is a snake. Another explores one of the elephant’s legs and describes it as a tree. A third finds the elephant’s tail and announces that it is a rope. And the fourth blind man, after discovering the elephant’s side, concludes that it is, after all, a wall.

It’s not really that specifically apt an analogy, but it is instructive of the degree of the disconnect to the reality of the drug war, and the inability or unwillingness to see or admit to the whole picture.
Gonzales is deluded if he things that some shallow shifts in administration “policy” are going to do anything useful (or even reduce the criticism), or if he thinks that seeking “the harshest penalties possible” against meth cooks will do anything positive. Walters is deluded if he really thinks he can walk and chew gum at the same time. Kleiman is deluded if he thinks that a shift in stated government policy is actually going to make drug prohibition work. Califano is deluded if he belives himself to be a sentient being. Michael O. Leavitt is deluded if he thinks a new media campaign against meth use is going to provoke anything more than laughter (or fear of dentists, given the approach they’ll likely use). Jim Talent is deluded if he thinks that cold-sufferers suffer is going to stop meth.
Blind men all.