Warning – drugs without a tax stamp can lead the Gestapo to your door. I’m proof.

Radley, you poor deluded soul. Don’t you realize that without consensual crimes, there would be a lot of unemployed cops? Besides, it’s a lot more fun to raid houses and throw your authority around than it is to deal with vandals.

“War is the health of the state.” -Randolph Bourne

Again, I suspect the answer would be somewhat less than a unanimous “Of course.”

The evidence against Frederick being a pot-smoker is hardly hearsay. He admitted to having a small amount of pot. In no way does this justify the raid. Nor did I ever claim that just because someone had been seen “smoking a doob” in the past does that mean they are guilty of whatever the cops say they are.

I think cops planting evidence is wrong, even if they’re framing a guilty man (which could be what happened in this case), and cops that do so should be fired and prosecuted.

Yeah, the guy should wait until his brains are actually flying out the back of his head before concluding that his life might be in danger.

“He was drunk, had just got home from a nightclub, had lost his keys, and tried to get in to what he thought was his house. He had nil prior criminal record and was utterly harmless. Good thing he didn’t do it in Chesapeake or he’d be dead.”

Good thing he didn’t do it in Clearwater or he’d be dead, too. And there would be no charges against the guy who shot him.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/02/03/TampaBay/Man_killed_as_he_ente.shtml

If I were Fredrick’s defense attorney, I’d also be more than a little worried about the prospect of what might be called reverse jury nullification. That is, that regardless of Fredrick’s intent or the other circumstances, the jurors will simply be unable to bring themselves to acquit, because doing so would be tantamount to saying the slain officer somehow deserved his fate.

During jury selection the first question I would ask each and every jury candidate is this: “Can you conceive of any circumstance in which a law enforcement officer is shot to death in the course of performing his duties in good faith, yet that killing would not be a crime?” Unfortunately, in Virginia, and indeed across vast swaths of the U.S., I strongly suspect the majority of folks asked that question would answer simply, “No.”

I guess the next story will be about the plumber who slips fixing the drain and accidentally rapes the housewife who lives in the house.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_P._Scott_(Malibu,_CA)

Ventura County D. A. Report of the case:

http://www.outpost-of-freedom.com/scott.htm

I wouldn’t think flushing a Japanese maple-sized marijuana plant down the toilet would be a particularly easy operation.

My apologies. I mistakenly thought only the first paragraph was a quote.

It is also unfortunate for the dead police officer and his family. What was Ryan “defending” himself from, I wonder?

Plz email me if you can answer this question, because I likely wont be coming back to this thread. =\

boooth@gmail.com

What else do you call laws that send armed gov’t agents into citizens’ homes to arrest them for possessing dried flowers from a plant, or some pills, or powders?

Condolences to friends and family of the dead officer.

Conversely, I hope Mr. Frederick is acquitted.

Any time contraband is planted by a state agent to rationalize a “dry” raid (one where no unlawful substance or behavior was observed by authorities), according to Matt’s thinking, the “smack-plant” should not be considered a crime…

…if the State’ll only present (plant?) some hear-say testimony of prior (not immediate) drug-usage by the raided home-owner. This, in Matt’s view, is enough to spring the “smack-planters,” and convict the home-owner.

Worrisome. Very worrisome. My skin’s crawling in fact.

Matt’s approach would, in light of the “Asset-Seizure” laws that run through local “Anti-Drug” statutes, enable the State in its own worst addiction, that to the plunder of private property.

In Matt’s world, anyone who has ever been seen “blowing a doob” in High School, or “doin’ a line” years before on a company ski trip, could, with a single deft “plant” by authorities, find himself serving time in a State penitentiary…and his private property sold at auction – even if the home-owner was purposefully incriminated to cover for state incompetence, and the state’s rationale for its warrant
was gossip, as in, “I [someone] saw him/her do [fill in naughty item] once!”

What has happened to my America?

I bookmarked your site today, and I’ll be checking to see how the “Chesapeake Mess” turns out.