Your Tax Dollars at Work...

[JayB]

"The Stranger has obtained a copy of the search warrant Seattle police used to conduct an armed raid on Monday—replete with submachine guns, full tactical gear, and a battering ram—on a man who was legally cultivating two marijuana plants for medical reasons. Records filed in King County Superior Court show that police had every indication the grow was small, no evidence that were sales involved, no electricity records that would show a large operation, and no suggestion of any other potentially illegal activity."

 

http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2010/10/27/search-warrant-shows-police-raided-apartment-based-only-on-smell-of-pot-fan-in-window

 

 

[olyclimber]

Maybe he was giving abortions on the side?

[ZimZam]

He should move to Ned. It's legal.

[JayB]

I already voted no on the tax increase to insulate law enforcement from scheduled raise, pension, and benefit expense driven manpower cuts - but if I hadn't - this'd be more than enough to put me over the edge.

 

Convert everyone to 401(K)'s, raise the retirement age to 65, bring out of pocket expenses up to the private sector average, and...end the idiotic arrest, prosecution, and detention of non-violent drug offenders and if there's still a shortfall then we can talk.

 

Until then- cut away.

 

 

[j_b]

So you are planning on having 64 y.o. cops patrolling the streets?

[whirlwind]

yeah and the best part is, if he was growing legally he has to be registered right, you would think that all they would have to do is knock on the door and ask to see whats hes got. and make sure he has his medical card.

[Hugh Conway]

so your plan is for them to raid in gap chinos carrying water pistols? 64 year old cops?

[JayB]

So you are planning on having 64 y.o. cops patrolling the streets?

 

Plenty of paperwork to process. Or they can wax the floors at the station, wash the patrol cars, sit in a chair and dispatch the younger folks, investigate crime scenes, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

Farmers, commercial fishermen, loggers, etc all work in fields that are vastly more dangerous and physically demanding, and none of them feel entitled to force others to subsidize their early retirement

 

Life is hard, money is tight, and it's time to think about what's an essential use of public money and what isn't. Paying police and fire folks to hit the links at 55 or sooner isn't one of them.

[JayB]

so your plan is for them to raid in gap chinos carrying water pistols? 64 year old cops?

 

Eliminating paramillitary raids as a law enforcement tactic of first resort for non-violent drug offenders would be a start.

 

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc

 

I'll take 64 year-olds waxing the floors at the HQ in chinos over using paramilitary tactics to subdue a family in a private home and slaughtering the family pets over some pot resin any day.

 

"Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence." -- Milton Friedman

[Hugh Conway]

So you are planning on having 64 y.o. cops patrolling the streets?

 

Plenty of paperwork to process. Or they can wax the floors at the station, wash the patrol cars, sit in a chair and dispatch the younger folks, investigate crime scenes, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

instead of outsourcing them to people who could do those tasks more efficiently - like janitorial companies - you use them as a pension plan? no situation that a cliche can't solve! no need to know what police do! cut! cut! cut! keep your government hands off my research grants and subsidies!

 

I applaud your use of j_b hyperbole with paramilitary and jackboot though. that's a nice touch. You forgot to mention union though. ooga booga!

[Hugh Conway]

clearly there's no difference in workplace supervision for health and safety between police and logging fishing or farming either..... anyways, back to the rant, this shits funny

[JayB]

So you are planning on having 64 y.o. cops patrolling the streets?

 

Plenty of paperwork to process. Or they can wax the floors at the station, wash the patrol cars, sit in a chair and dispatch the younger folks, investigate crime scenes, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

instead of outsourcing them to people who could do those tasks more efficiently - like janitorial companies - you use them as a pension plan? no situation that a cliche can't solve! no need to know what police do! cut! cut! cut! keep your government hands off my research grants and subsidies!

 

I applaud your use of j_b hyperbole with paramilitary and jackboot though. that's a nice touch. You forgot to mention union though. ooga booga!

 

The point is that there's plenty of non-physical police work that can be done by officers who are too old to go out on patrol.

 

I'm pretty sure that one OT-vacation-and-unused-sick-day spiked pension plus the cost of employing another person full-time to perform the non-patrol work is greater than keeping one 55+ guy on the force.

 

There are any number of situations where conducting a night-time raid with a bunch of officers armed with serious weaponry break into a structure and use overwhelming force. A 50 year old dude with chronic migraines and a medical marijuana card growing a couple of pot plants in his apartment isn't one of them. Doing some basic *police work* would have established that.

 

 

[prole]

Is this the hot new narrative strategy for capturing the 18-24 vote? Creating some hot-forged, inextricable link between the decriminalization of marijuana and the ongoing neoliberal assault on working people under the rubric of "we've all got to tighten our belts" while leaving the underlying questions of how we got here and where we're going unexamined?

[Jim]

I think that folks are expecting, and not seeing, some systematic change in how government operates and events like this do little to build their confidence that their money is being spent wisely. Particularly in this economic environment.

[Hugh Conway]

I think that folks are expecting, and not seeing, some systematic change in how government operates and events like this do little to build their confidence that their money is being spent wisely. Particularly in this economic environment.

 

Yes, Jay_B's are expecting reactionary change and window dressing because damnit they deserve low taxes!

 

You're spending assumption is wrong Jay_B; really you knew this though.

[prole]

I'm all for legalization, but coming from you Jay, one has to wonder if high grade legal herb doesn't look an awful lot like the 21st century opium for the new coolie class.

[j_b]

Is this the hot new narrative strategy for capturing the 18-24 vote? Creating some hot-forged, inextricable link between the decriminalization of marijuana and the ongoing neoliberal assault on working people under the rubric of "we've all got to tighten our belts" while leaving the underlying questions of how we got here and where we're going unexamined?

 

Right, lie about the health of social security and the cause of budget shortfall to divide and conquer (old versus young), and claim the weed will taste sweeter.

 

Youth should be well advised that pushing back retirement age is NOT going to have a positive effect on their employment prospect. If neoliberals have their way we are looking at chronic high unemployment especially among youth for a long time. Beware of snake oil.

[j_b]

I applaud your use of j_b hyperbole with paramilitary and jackboot though.

 

I don't do hyperbole or are you telling me that the spawn of McCarthysm and the JBirch society, the constant race and red-baiting, voter suppression shenanigans, judicial coups, social darwinism, etc.. isn't jackbooted?

[JayB]

I'm all for legalization, but coming from you Jay, one has to wonder if high grade legal herb doesn't look an awful lot like the 21st century opium for the new coolie class.

 

Not sure what demographic this applies to, but it certainly doesn't fit in Seattle - unless by "coolie" you mean aging-hippie environmental laywer, vintage-frame and hipster-hat wearing software engineer, avid-hiker-accountant-guy, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

 

[Hugh Conway]

I'm all for legalization, but coming from you Jay, one has to wonder if high grade legal herb doesn't look an awful lot like the 21st century opium for the new coolie class.

 

Not sure what demographic this applies to, but it certainly doesn't fit in Seattle - unless by "coolie" you mean aging-hippie environmental laywer, vintage-frame and hipster-hat wearing software engineer, avid-hiker-accountant-guy, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

true, it's unfair to coolies, there was always a demand for manual labor. Most of the "modern service economy" is unemployable

[j_b]

So you are planning on having 64 y.o. cops patrolling the streets?

 

Plenty of paperwork to process. Or they can wax the floors at the station, wash the patrol cars, sit in a chair and dispatch the younger folks, investigate crime scenes, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.

 

right, let's have joe do the paperwork. 30 years on a motorcycle should have prepped him just great for that task. or perhaps he could mop the floor. LOL

 

Farmers, commercial fishermen, loggers, etc all work in fields that are vastly more dangerous and physically demanding, and none of them feel entitled to force others to subsidize their early retirement

 

Did it strike you that instead of delaying retirement for cops, all taxing jobs should have early retirement? I'd like to see you being a commercial fisherman at 64.

[prole]

If neoliberals have their way we are looking at chronic high unemployment especially among youth for a long time.

 

"But hey, the chronic will make them more docile."

 

When I need to give my pets medicine, I'll put the pill in something they really like. In this case (more of the same policies) though, the pill is poison.

[j_b]

Awww shucks, more hyperbole for Hugh:

 

Abortion Docs Decry "Wanted" Posters as Bait

Providers in North Carolina Worry They are Being Marked for Murder by Operation Save America

 

They look like wanted posters from the Wild West. But they're not photos of criminals, CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports -- they depict doctors in North Carolina who perform abortions. They asked us to block their faces.

 

"It doesn't say 'Wanted Dead or Alive' but the implications are clearly there," said a doctor, who, fearing for his life, asked to remain anonymous.

 

"I am always looking over my shoulder," the doctor said. "I know they know my car. They know my face. They've been to my house. They've put these posters in my neighborhood. So yeah, I look over my shoulder."

 

Those responsible for the fliers, Operation Save America, repeatedly protest abortions at women's health clinics in the Charlotte area. Claiming the doctors "harm women and kill babies," they list specific addresses and urge people to contact doctors there. One poster even cites a home address.

 

"These 'Wanted' posters are a call for my murder," a doctor said.

 

In the 1990s similar fliers were distributed in other cities. Then came the murders. Pensacola, Fla., doctor David Gunn and Dr. George Patterson of Alabama were shot and killed in 1993. Dr. John Britton was murdered a year later in Florida. All were targets on Wanted posters.

 

Dr. George Tiller survived an assassination attempt in Wichita in 1993. He was killed in his church last year.

 

Click to learn more about jackboot

[Jim]

What the hell has this to do with the topic at hand?

[j_b]

which topic is at hand? how stopping police raids on potheads means that we have to delay retirement for public employees?

Edited October 28, 2010 by j_b