TheAgitator.com
We Have Lost Faith in This Officer To Enforce Our Failed Policy
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011Great story in the New York Times about LEAP, and the risk active-duty law enforcement officers take if they express support for the organization.
Stationed in Deming, N.M., Mr. Gonzalez was in his green-and-white Border Patrol vehicle just a few feet from the international boundary when he pulled up next to a fellow agent to chat about the frustrations of the job. If marijuana were legalized, Mr. Gonzalez acknowledges saying, the drug-related violence across the border in Mexico would cease. He then brought up an organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition that favors ending the war on drugs.
Those remarks, along with others expressing sympathy for illegal immigrants from Mexico, were passed along to the Border Patrol headquarters in Washington. After an investigation, a termination letter arrived that said Mr. Gonzalez held “personal views that were contrary to core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps.”
After his dismissal, Mr. Gonzalez joined a group even more exclusive than the Border Patrol: law enforcement officials who have lost their jobs for questioning the war on drugs and are fighting back in the courts . . .
Mr. Gonzalez . . . had not joined LEAP but had expressed sympathy with the group’s cause. “It didn’t make sense to me why marijuana is illegal,” he said. “To see that thousands of people are dying, some of whom I know, makes you want to look for a change.”…
Of course, you can count on the Obama administration to be on the wrong side of this.
The Justice Department, which is defending the Border Patrol, has sought to have the case thrown out. Mr. Gonzalez lost a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which sided with his supervisors’ view that they had lost trust that he would uphold the law…
The Border Patrol is a federal agency, right? Surely we can track down the employment agreement this guy signed to see if he gave up his 1A rights.
How the fuck is it legal to fire a person for their politics? Or do those rules only apply to the private sector?
Joe-sixpack is never going to get onboard for sweeping drug policy reforms if he can’t first be assured by a badge that society will not descend into complete and utter anarchy. We need more ACTIVE DUTY LEOs speaking out against these bullshit policies.
LEAP is great and all but there are a lot of people that don’t take them seriously. When asked why, most people will say LEAP members criticize policy from “a position of comfortable retirement, they didn’t have much to say on the topic when they were riding the gravy train to their pensions”. Maybe this is a cheap, chickenshit criticism of the organization but it does exist and has gone largely unadressed..
..and by anarchy I meant it the way Joe-sixpack would use the word (chaos, bedlam, etc.), not the way our own CyniCAl would have used it.
paranoia: from reading the article, it appears LEOs are painted into a corner. Criticizing the corner itself doesn’t help.
#2,
Your criticism is valid, and this article explains why it exists. Of course the only vocal LEAP members will be former LEOs if becoming a vocal LEAP member automatically makes you a former LEO.
That was one quick double-take I did there, Paranoia. Thank you for the clarification. May I suggest in the future, please just write “chaos” instead of “anarchy.”
The status quo is chaos. Anarchy is the opposite, which is order.
As for the poor Border Patrol agent, boo frickin hoo. You lie down with dogs, you get fleas. But at least he’s got religion now.
Is marijuana legal in Mexico? Will ending the war on drugs mean legalizing meth, coke, and H? Was this agent on duty when he was shooting off his mouth? In 1933 when booze was legalized did the mafia violence stop? Is coke, meth, and heroine legal in Mexico or any other country? The 50′s and 60′s were the golden age of mob violence in the USA, long after the lifting of prohibition. Legalizing ALL drugs would probably help to stop drug violence in northern Mexico, but would have a terrible effect on the USA. The border region of the US and Mexico has been one of the most violent places on earth since there was a border, before there were laws on drugs, read Blood Meridian. This border is violent because of the bringing together of the most advanced and forward culture, the USA, and a primitive culture with few advanced institutions. It’s that way in every part of the world where new world meets 3rd world. If drugs were legalized what would the 40,000 or so Mexicans and Americans involved in the drug trade do for work? Will they open up gift shops? They are in business because of the mark-up, take away the mark-up for drugs and they’ll find another.
Ahh, Tim P, so we need to keep drugs illegal so the cartels have work, lest they move on to more violent endeavors. I always suspected the drug war was just a public works program, didn’t realize it went both ways. Good to know all those tax dollars and incarcerations are worth it after all.
Do you actually read the shit you type?
“This border is violent because of the bringing together of the most advanced and forward culture, the USA, and a primitive culture with few advanced institutions”
Also, go fuck yourself.
Signed, someone who has kin from said “primitive culture”. The USA has advanced TECHNOLOGY, I would hardly say our culture is “advanced and forward” unless you count truck nuts and American Idol as the pinnacle of human achievements in the humanities.
Tim P, I was going to reply, but I think you broke my brain with the number of half-truths, exaggerations and just plain falsehoods in your post. Not to mention the abject racism.
Tim P, that was brutal to watch. What did all those straw men ever do to you?
#6 – you beat me to it, bro. Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas – or, to put it in a way that is not abhorrent to people who know that dogs are infinitely preferable to LEOs… run with the Guinea Worms (fuck… I don’t know how to end that).
Also, we need to stop using ‘anarchy’ as a word – for a start it has been debased by improper usage and now basically means chaos. Under a post-State system, arché (order) will still exist, but power relationships will be arrived at through voluntary exchange: there won’t be ANarchy, there will, if anything, be polyarchy.
What we actually want to get rid of is kratos/kraté (political power, the State).
Sadly, ‘Akratist’ is sort of taken already (and has more negative connotations than the common view of ‘anarchy’), so I invented ‘kratoclast’ – “one who seeks to break political power structures” (Gr. klastes – ‘breaker’).
Our opponents are kratodules (State-worshippers: Gr. ‘odoulos’ – worship). They’re also ponerodules (evil-worshippers: Gr. ‘poneros’ – evil) whether they realise it or not.
And I’m not even Greek.
Which bridge do you live under, Tim? I assume your day job is as a bridge troll, you are just keeping in practice here. Probably posting from a public library.
@8 What racism? Take a look around the world. The USA is the only English speaking country that shares a common border, a very large common border with a 3rd world nation. (Please don’t site small English speaking nations that are themselves 3rd world countries.) Obviously there is thousands of years of hatred involved with Israel and it’s Arab neighbors, but I think much of the violence in the middle-east has to do with Israel being an advanced, civilized nation and it’s neighbors still living in the stone age. Israel being another example of an advanced culture sharing a large border with 3rd world countries. Legalizing marijuana is not going to do anything to stop the violence in northern Mexico. In fact it may make it worse.
a termination letter arrived that said Mr. Gonzalez held “personal views that were contrary to core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps.”
Yeah how unpatriotic to go around exercising your 1st Amendment rights and thinking independently. /sarc
Didn’t these people take an oath to support and defend the Constitution?
The terminated border control agent could win a wrongful termination claim, but it is not a slam dunk.
I’ve done some research in the past on the law that applies when a governmental agency terminates an employee for his/her speech. Two leading Supreme Court cases are Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 US 563 (1968), and Rankin v. McPherson, 483 US 378 (1987). The Pickering court gave a balancing test for such statements, requiring courts to balance “the interests of the [employee], as a citizen, in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.” Essentially, the Pickering test directs courts to consider whether the statement could or would impede the functioning of the governmental agency.
Here, the G would argue that because the duties of a border control agent (or other LEO) include the interdiction of marijuana, it is reasonable for the agency to assume that an agent who personally believes pot should be legal would be unable or at least unlikely to enforce existing law effectively. In addition, they would argue that advocating for legalization to other officers in the workplace environment could impede the efficient functioning of the agency, perhaps on the grounds that fellow officers would feel unable to rely on the dissenting officer for cooperation in cases involving the interdiction of marijuana.
Against the first argument, the agent would counter that there was no evidence his personal opinion had affected his ability or willingness to enforce the law, and point out it is common for government officials to be expected to enforce laws that the official may personally believe are misguided. For example, an IRS agent may think a particular section of the tax code should be rewritten, but is still expected to enforce it as part of the whole. If the IRS agent publicly advocates for non-compliance with the law, especially if the advocacy is not clearly identified as a personal opinion, the case for justifiable termination gets stronger.
The argument that the border agent’s statements could impede the efficient operation of the agency is a little harder for the agent. Courts tend to be deferential when an agency says X or Y is necessary for the agency to function efficiently, because the judges are mindful that the agency understands its own operations better than the court does. Here the fact that the comments were not published, only made in conversation with another agent, would weigh in favor of the terminated agent; but the fact that the comments directly related to one of the agent’s official duties would weigh in favor of the G.
Almost no one but the most obtuse would come to the conclusion that the drug war is a waste of time and resources and lives, once exposed to the day to day reality of it.
I don’t think people should smoke marijuana and I think it’s a harmful drug. But I also accept that there are exceptions, as any rational person would. Beyond that, the problem is that the criminal law and its processes frequently come to resemble using a shotgun to kill flies: you do more damage than you’re trying to prevent.
This elementary truth is all that the officer was voicing.
Although I would obviously agree that drugs like meth, and cocaine and heroin are even more harmful, I oppose criminalizing them as well. For much of the nation’s history they were not criminalized. Some people used them, the vast majority did not. Some who did use them were able to manage their use and lead productive lives. Others were not. Criminalizing them hasn’t changed that; but it has visited vast amounts of destruction and human misery on countless people in a vain attempt to deter conduct that for whatever reason many people engage in.
Without the ridiculous war, I think drug use would basically moderate on its own. People are neither stupid nor naturally self-destructive. When they commit of their own free will it sticks a lot better than when they feel they are forced to under threat of punishment.
We need to pick and choose our battles with a lot more thought and introspection.
@10, but Kratos is a bad ass mofo from the God of War series on Playstation!
He even took out all of the gods of Mt. Olympus, including Zeus. I want him on my team!
Tim P also does not mention that most of the destruction caused by the War on Drugs is to people minding their own business, Joe Blow wanting to smoke an occasional joint, maybe even sell a few. I don’t know the percentage, but I would guess that >=70% fit the “nobody is harmed” profile yet have their lives DESTROYED as collateral damage in the name of “civilized society” and “the greater good” and “the children”.
At what age does one not become important enough to lose their rights as an individual, and are some sub-standard person? 7? 8? 10?
Quite frankly, this guy was done a favor by being kicked out before the ATF/FBI got him shot, fast n’ furiously.
Somewhat related threadjack:
“There is little doubt that (prescription drugs) significantly contributed to the deaths of these two young people,” Sheriff Al Nienhuis said in a statement. “This is a perfect example that prescription drug abuse is not a victimless or a non-violent crime.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501363_162-57336250/fla-man-charged-with-killing-couple-with-bat/
I think the sheriff misses the mark here. It is clearly obvious that what caused this murder was the ready availability of baseball bats in the hands of previously convicted felons. Baseball bat possession is clearly not a victimless crime.
Tim P,
As defined by the UN these are the least developed nations in the World:
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/least_developed_countries.htm
These are countries where English is the Official Language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_speaking_countries
Bangladesh shares a large common border with English speaking India
Somalia’s whole Southern border is English speaking Kenya
Lesotho is fully encircled by English speaking South Africa
Tim P,
Jordan a bordering nation of Israel:
“Modern Jordan is predominantly urbanized. Jordan is classified as a country of “high human development” by the 2010 Human Development Report.[7] Furthermore, The Kingdom has been classified as an emerging market with a free market economy by the CIA World Fact Book. Jordan is also considered to be an “upper middle income” economy.[8] ”
Lebanon a bordering nation of Israel:
“Lebanon is known for its unique efforts in the Middle East to guarantee civil rights and freedom to its citizens, ranking first in the Middle East and 26th worldwide (out of 66 countries) in the The World Justice Project’s Rule of Law Index 2011.[14]“
CSD – I will grant you there are bigger shit holes than Jordan, like Syria and Egypt, but I stick to my argument that Israel is an advanced country and it’s neighbors are in comparison stuck in the stone age and it is a bitter source of contention. Also would any of the experts on the violence in northern Mexico care to comment on the Mexican tax system? If you think the “progressive” tax structure of the USA is bad, it’s much worse in Mexico. The lure of doing something illegal and off the books in Mexico to get ahead is a far bigger problem than the American demand for drugs.
“I don’t want to work at a place that says I can’t think,” said Mr. Gonzalez
Who would? It’s better for your conscience if you get out now, Mr. Gonzalez. I will say that the officer who tattled on Gonzalez is probably a self-serving piece of shit. That same motherfucker would have probably let Gonzalez get away with corruption and brutality, but not questioning law enforcement’s sacred cash cow. That is going too far.
This is why, within the last year or so, I decided once and for all to stop investigating careers in (public) law enforcement. I won’t give up my right to think or to act as an individual. I will not be used by the state as a bludgeon against fellow citizens. I will not put people in a cage for smoking a relatively benign plant. I will not write seatbelt citations. I will not spray oleoresin capscium products on passive protesters. I will not look the other way while colleagues who are “sworn to serve and protect” abuse the people who finance their agencies. Fuck it, they can have that fucking job. I’ll make my own way in the private sector, even though this can be more complicated than testing for cop and firefighter jobs. So be it.
“…they had lost trust that he would uphold the law…”
That is, he can’t be relied upon to mindlessly load his fellow humans onto cattle cars.
If your employer is required to have faith in you to remain employed then the majority of America’s public servants,elected,appointed or general hire will from this point forward be unemployed. Most real Americans have little if any faith that their government at ALL levels cares about what the PEOPLE want.
Tim P, If any of the people living in the places you consider “shit holes” were to meet you I would bet their bitter source of contention with you wouldn’t involve jealousy.
#11 | GT
Very interesting word study. I am going to try “kratoclast” on for size, take it for a spin around the block.
#16 | John Regan — “I don’t think people should smoke marijuana and I think it’s a harmful drug.”
You’re entitled to your opinion no matter how wrong it may be.
There are not “thousands of years of hatred involved with Israel and its Arab neighbors”, most supposed age-old ethnic hatreds have their roots in living memory. And nobody in the middle east is living in the stone age (even the Taliban uses rifles and electronics and stuff). A few very isolated hunter-gatherer tribes can be (stupidly, but understandably) said to live in the stone age.