Domestic Terrorism


Thieves and Kidnappers Terrorize Phish Concert

Thugs stole over $1.2 million of good and cash from people attending the Phish concerts in Hampton, Virginia. In addition 194 concertgoers were kidnapped.
It is unfortunate that the band was forced (or agreed) to pay for the 200 supposed peace officers who turned into domestic terrorists.
Is it time for us to create our own protective organizations?

It certainly appears clear that current local, state and federal police organizations not only can not protect us from real criminals but are, themselves, going to continue to use inappropriate force against against those they are supposed to protect.


Nullify the Drug War

In an essay in Time magazine 4 of the writers of The Wire commit:

If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.

One of the writers, Dennis Lehane, was interviewed today on NPR by Scott Simon. It is well worth the 4 minutes.
Here is one of the exchanges:

SS: Some of the most articulate and passionate proponents of drugs laws and, in fact, fierce and aggressive police action to enforce the drug laws are people who live in inner city communities…who say drugs have ravaged our neighborhood. They’ve taken almost half of an entire generation from us. We have to stamp this out.
DL: There is absolutely no way I can argue against that argument. I am not argueing for mass legalization of drugs. I’m argueing for a different, more common sense approach to the drug war, if you will. And, saying, I don’t believe that the drug war as it is being fought now is working is working.

Since Dennis won’t argue let me, in radio sound bite form, do it for him.
The drug war is the monster that has ravaged your neighborhoods. End it and you will be able to reclaim your neighborhoods. To end it you must hold accountable the stakeholders in the drug war: the politicians, the DEA, the police departments and prison industry whose livelihoods depend on ravaging your neighborhood. The blood is on their hands.
If the drugs had been available in the corner drug store like beer or the liquor store like Jack Daniels you would not have lost half of an entire generation. Yes, prohibition must end; there must be mass legalization.
Would folks still use and abuse drugs? Sure. Just like folks, including most of the drug war stakeholders, use and abuse alcohol.
What you would not have is drug war related brutality in your neighborhoods, 1 in 15 of your young men in penal institutions, or drug gang related mayhem throughout much of the world.

Take one small step to End it now! Vote to acquit when there is no violence involved.

On a related note see these posts on jury nullification by Radley Balko.

I’d certainly do this. If only I’d get called to jury duty. I’ve been around long enough that you’d think it would happen, but no. In the meantime Mrs Modulator has been called many times.


Just Say No!

It is time for congress to just say no to the misadministration’s request:

The Bush administration has earlier this year said it would need $147.5 billion for fiscal 2008, but the estimates have been raised by another $47 billion. This request is in addition to the Pentagon’s nearly half-trillion annual budget, which omits war spending but covers routine costs, including training, payrolls and weapons procurement.

If congress doesn’t do its job then, as we fire the congress critters, we should petition the bushies Chinese financiers to put an end to the waste.


Why Expand A Failed War?

Some of the folks who make their living off the immoral and failed war on drugs want to add yet another to the list of illegal substances:

The DEA is monitoring salvia to decide whether it should be regulated or banned outright, and a California assemblyman introduced legislation to outlaw it after law enforcement agencies in Southern California reported increased use. The legislation was voted down in committee in March, but Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia (San Bernardino County), has pledged to bring it up again next year.
“It’s kind of terrifying that we are actively allowing commerce of a drug that has LSD-like qualities,” Adams said. “Use of it is only going to get worse. There is no way this drug is going to get less popular.”

What is terrifying is that this guy wants to expand the government’s terroristic war against its own citizens, the people it is supposed to serve.