In a Salon essay published today, Alecia Phonesavanh recalls the night her 19-month-old son, Bounkham (a.k.a. Bou Bou), was horribly injured by a flash-bang grenade tossed into his crib during a fruitless drug raid in Habersham County, Georgia. “It’s been three weeks since the flashbang exploded next to my sleeping baby,” she writes, “and he’s still covered in burns. There’s still a hole in his chest that exposes his ribs. At least that’s what I’ve been told; I’m afraid to look.”
. . .
The ACLU mentions declining public support for the War on Drugs as one reason to reconsider the ferocity with which it is waged. But while de-escalation would be welcome, it does not address the fundamental immorality of responding to peaceful transactions with guns and handcuffs. Even if reforms like those recommended by the ACLU encourage police to be more judicious in their use of force, unjustifiable violence will always be a defining feature of drug prohibition.
Burned Babies and the Militarization of American Policing
The “War on Drugs” is immoral and has turned the DEA and many police departments into armed gangs of thugs.
Prohibition didn’t work in the 1920s and 30s and it isn’t working today.
Continue reading ‘Your Tax Dollars At Work’ »
Tags: drug prohibition, drug war, GbveB5AYpQ0, Ozymandias, prohibition, war on drugs, WiyvNIn6Zbc
Five rules I learned from 7 years of coaching Launch Festival & TechCrunch50
Dormi Turns Old Android Phones into Internet-Connected Baby Monitors
Rand Paul’s Republican revolution
Faster daddy! Faster!
Oh yeah, this will work out well….
The “War on Drugs” has attracted numerous rent seekers, including the DEA, police, prosecutors, brewers, distillers, prison guards, and more. Prohibition didn’t work in the 1920s and 30s, and it isn’t working today.
Federalism appears to be on the rise. About time.
But in the meantime, we just don’t have enough no-knock raids.
You will respect John O’Donnell’s authoritah!
Continue reading ‘Misc Stuff’ »
Tags: Albany Airport, baby monitor, Dormi, drug prohibition, drug war, Federalism, Jh3d_Qo3jTI, John O’Donnell, libertarian, police misconduct, police state, prison guards, prohibition, Rand Paul, TSA, war on drugs, ZTpn30Pms8I
Newspapers are filled with stories (example) about how Russia’s Sochi Olympics construction has cost a lot of money due to “corruption.” I asked my in-apartment Russian experts what this might mean. It turns out that cronies of the government are getting paid more-than-standard-commercial rates to build stuff. So taxpayer funds are being transferred to the politically connected.
I’m wondering how this is different than the U.S. military, which is ridiculously expensive but not typically labeled “corrupt.” TIME reports that the cost of a USAF Boeing 757 (C-32A) is about $43,000 per hour to the taxpayers; Conklin & De Decker says that $12,000 per hour is about what an airline would spend to fly one extra hour in the same airplane. In December, I wrote about how the U.S. Army is planning to do primary helicopter training in $6 million Eurocopters (foreign militaries and private flight schools get this done in aircraft that cost about 1/20th as much)
Is Russia’s Sochi project more corrupt than the U.S. military?
Sochi cf. military industrial complex
‘What Eisenhower Said About the Military-Industrial Complex Is True’
“Politics itself is nothing but an attempt to achieve power and prestige without merit.”
P.J. O’Rourke
The War on Drugs, another disaster. A half century, billions of dollars, countless stupid laws, Mexico a war zone. Result? Every drug known to man, woman, or hermaphrodite is for sale at great prices in every high school in America. Another triumph of private enterprise over governmental regulation. If Washington tried to provide free drugs, it couldn’t come close. No one would be able to get so much as an aspirin.
Infinite Arrogance, Infinite Incompetence
Downsizing Government
Yeah! Studebaker!
Yeah! War on Drugs!
Yeah! Big government coalition!
Continue reading ‘We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.’ »
Tags: Big Government, corrupt government, downsizing government, drug prohibition, drug war, KJw-BgMH5EU, LF2n1oPhSoE, military industrial complex, NnRdk0btBGc, Ozymandias, P.J. O'Rourke, RDT, revolving door tax, Sochi, Studebaker, war on drugs, xhYJS80MgYA
Posted 2014/02/04, 7:17 am
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Category:
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Government,
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You Can't Fix Stupid ·
Comments Off on We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.
The problems purportedly addressed by stop-and-frisk and mandatory minimums are of the government’s own making. Thus, if we got to the root, the “need” for these bad policies would disappear.
Stop-and-frisk is largely aimed at finding youths who are carrying guns and drugs. Mandatory minimums are directed at drug sellers. It’s not hard to see what is at the root: drug prohibition. When government declares (certain) drugs illegal, those drugs don’t disappear; instead they move to the black market, which tends to be dominated by people skilled in the use of violence. Because the trade is illegal and the courts are off-limits for dispute resolution, contracts and turf will be protected by force. Those who operate on the street will find it wise to be armed.
So, as a result of prohibition and its attendant violence-prone black market, in some parts of town a percentage of young men will likely be walking around with guns and drugs. Seeing this, politicians and law-enforcement bureaucrats turn to stop-and-frisk and mandatory minimum sentences. But the only real solution is to repeal prohibition. There’s no need for intrusive police tactics or prison terms.
In a free society, government has no business telling us what we can and can’t ingest or inject. Before drug prohibition, America had no drug problem. It’s prohibition that created the problem, just as alcohol prohibition gave America organized crime on a large scale. As we’ve seen, when government tries to ban drugs, it creates bigger problems by putting drugs in the streets and gangs in control.
Stop-and-Frisk: How Government Creates Problems, Then Makes Them Worse
Continue reading ‘Stop and Frisk – End the Fantasy “War” on Drugs’ »
Tags: drug prohibition, drug war, H92ygafZvYY, kSXKHLkK4jI, nGc505WuxpE, prohibition, stop and frisk, W4pQg_80u3s, war on drugs
