"front lines"?

"front lines"?

While I'm perfectly aware of the possibility of an LEO being injured or killed while in the performance of his duty, it seems somewhat of a leap to compare the danger an LEO faces when executing a warrant on a the residence of some crack-wh**re pimp with the attempt to capture/kill Mullah Omar or patrol the streets of Fallujah. When I look at the number of LEOs killed since alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone and the like, then compare it to the total deaths from any single war, including the current death toll in Iraq, there's simply no comparison.

As  a man now about to turn 50 yrs old, I rember when LEO's didn't have...or even want....armored personnel carriers and all the other military hardware now available to police departments. I mean....i realize crime in England doesn't compare to here, but over there, about the only people that do carry guns really are only the criminals! But it was only a couple decades ago that British LEOs did their job without so much as a simple side-arm! That's simply inconcievable to most N. American LEOs, especially the new guysd who have been fed nothing but a steady diet of of the kind of comparisons FOP is making with the actual military. The result is that nowadays LEOs wouldn't even consider stepping out of their vehicle armed with nothing more than a baton. Why is that?

Why are all drug-warrants served by SWAT teams using "quick-knock" or no-knock warrants ?

I can't help but think it's laregely a result of a pissing match between county sherrifs to see who can assemble the most fearsome collection of military hardware the Pentagon started giving away back in the 80s when Cheney and pals saw to it that the Posse Comitatus laws that had always banned the use of the military to solve domestic problems....short very extreme circumstances like an armed insurrection. 

As well, the WCs and other CO's are under constant pressure to buy the latest product that companies like Taser International or the makers of personal body armor carry because the rank and file have been bombarded with slick advertising campaigns convincing them  that they absolutely must have their particular product because their very lives depend on it starting the very moment they leave the station, no matter where or what they are doing.

Whatever the reason, there's a huge change in the way LEOs see their job compared to just a couple decades ago.

So what's gojng on? Why the fear? Why the military hardware?

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis
(PAIDOC)

thepotlawhasfallen.ca

When race groups, religious groups, gay rights groups, or disabled groups see articles or comments in the media that they find offensive or damaging to their groups' way of life, they complain. When they hear government or law-enforcement officials using inflammatory or derisive language, they complain.

Anytime someone incites hate, violence, discrimination, or alienation of an identifiable group, it is often referred to as “Hate Speech”.

As a result, many insulting and insensitive words and turns of phrase that were once commonplace in media and in print, are no longer acceptable. This, we applaud.

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis intends to do the same thing, as it relates to Cannabis users.

Cultural Baggage: Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)

BBC interview with Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) + New Zealand interview with Judge Jerry Paradis also of LEAP + Poppygate Report with Glenn Greenway, Terry Nelson of LEAP, Doug McVay with Drug War Facts & CB premiere of "Eternal War" by Adult Users. MP3 LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=audio/download/2045/FDBCB_091008.mp3

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

Everyone has a stake in ending the war on drugs. Whether you’re a parent concerned about protecting children from drug-related harm, a social justice advocate worried about racially disproportionate incarceration rates, an environmentalist seeking to protect the Amazon rainforest or a fiscally conservative taxpayer you have a stake in ending the drug war. U.S. federal, state and local governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make America “drug-free.” Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before. Nearly half a million people are behind bars on drug charges - more than all of western Europe (with a bigger population) incarcerates for all offenses. The war on drugs has become a war on families, a war on public health and a war on our constitutional rights.

Many of the problems the drug war purports to resolve are in fact caused by the drug war itself. So-called “drug-related” crime is a direct result of drug prohibition's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand. Public health problems like HIV and Hepatitis C are all exacerbated by zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean needles. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Few public policies have compromised public health and undermined our fundamental civil liberties for so long and to such a degree as the war on drugs. The United States is now the world's largest jailer, imprisoning nearly half a million people for drug offenses alone. That's more people than Western Europe, with a bigger population, incarcerates for all offenses. Roughly 1.5 million people are arrested each year for drug law violations - 40% of them just for marijuana possession. People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating illnesses are regularly denied access to their medicine or even arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana. We can do better. Join us.

Visit these pages to see how the drug war affects all aspects of our lives:

Drug War Funding
Pain Underprescribing
Terrorism
Informants
Environmental Consequences
Economics
Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Voter Disenfranchisement
Public Health Crisis
Access to Treatment
Higher Education Act
Public Benefits
Forced Evictions
Alternatives to Prohibition