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COURTS, EFFICIENCY, AND THE DEMISE OF HUMANITY

Dennis comments ♦ June 20, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

   Opinion by Dennis L. Blewitt, J. D,

Her husband called.  He was in jail for armed robbery.  He was an addict and desperate.  His wife, an addict, had been kidnapped by a group of sex traffickers and rescued by the FBI.  However, there was a failure to appear warrant from Ft Collins.  The initial felony was for introducing contraband into the jail, not intentionally, but because she couldn’t toss it before her arrest, when arrested for a disturbance at a motel.   She too was an addict.  While incarcerated in Ft. Collins, she tried to enter a rehab program, but she was homeless, with a jailed husband, and was held as a material witness for the FBI with a cartel bounty con her.   She had been sold as a teenager, had no High School diploma, suffered from Hepatitis C, Epilepsy, Delayed Stress Syndrome, The District Attorney was tough on crime and prosecuted, not just merely for possession.  Rehab programs, a private, wanted payment, which was impossible.  After 6 weeks’ confinement, a judge put her on probation.  He also added about $2000 in fees.  He knew or should have known this was impossible, but, like a good marionette, followed orders.  This relieved the judge of any responsibility.  Also, as an ex-prosecutor, he believed that addicts were scum.

            She tried to stay clean, but, since she was homeless and at the mercy of strangers she met on the street, she relapsed.  These same judges are the first to lecture the peasantry about taking responsibility for themselves.  This, even though it has been almost 100 years before scientists discovered that environment was a large factor in creating a criminal.  Again, shifting blame away from a corrupt and anonymous system is a good way for the simple mind to ignore humanity.  It is easy to apply “the spirit of Capitalism” described by Max Weber in this instance.  It goes like this: “God has rewarded me with a fairly good life.  You are poor and homeless.  God is punishing you because you are not worthy or bad.  If God can punish, so can I.  Therefore, I don’t have to consider how privatization, and specialization has affected you.  God has already decided. Go prostitute yourself for money, drugs, and, most importantly your court costs.  You can always find a dumpster to sleep in.”  We are a competitive Christian nation, not a civilized society.  Societies stifle individual efforts and accomplishments.  God protects the good from my boundless greed and punishes the bad by allowing me to exploit them.  The Christian nation has no obligation to its residents, who are entirely responsible for any and all circumstances.  The nation has no responsibility other than promote business, profit, and individuals fit enough to survive.

            How can this happen?  It has been 60 years since I took my first graduate course in criminology.  At that time, there were courses in corrections, counseling, budgeting, support group building, etc.  The curricula ended in a master’s degree in correction.  That degree is no longer offered because there are no jobs for such trained people.  Since privatization, skilled, trained empathetic people have no place in the Court Supervision system.  The probation officer’s job is not to help people and cut recidivism, but to increase the bottom line of corporate profits.  Correcting isn’t profitable, is costly and labor intensive.  Ignoring problems and applying policy is cheap and easy and has the effect of built-in obsolescence, guaranteeing future profits, explaining why a rate that was constant for 40 decades, exponential growth in prison rates from 100, to 450 prisoners per 100,000 persons, since the election of Richard Nixon. The largest private prison system had $1.65 Billion in revenue  last year.  Essentially, the District Attorneys and Judges have become shills for greedy, profiteering business enterprise.  Since officials market fear, this is sold as the cost of a safe society.  Complete and utter horseshit!

            So, we must ask ourselves.  Do we want to continue putting judicial robes on Prosecutors?  Is the purpose of the third branch of Government to punish and benefit corporations or to benefit society?  Should we continue to allow judges to cop out and blame everything on the legislatures, rather than use their inherent supervisory powers?  Should we tolerate officials that promote a police state or rid ourselves of them.  Do we want to continue to train police to murder us or to help us?  Do we ignore research, common sense, and justice or demand that justice and betterment of society take priority over profits?  Do we hold the corporations liable for the damage they cause by not insisting that they hire trained staff instead of goons?  Do we make the Attorney Generals of the country personally liable for the murders by police that result from their police training?  Do we want efficiency, or do we demand justice?  Please let me know.

            The police state propaganda machine excuses police misconduct and murder with the Nazi war crimes Nuremberg defense of “just following orders,” to the American excuse of “following procedures” or “training.”

            Every “subhuman” shipped off to a camp to obtain “freedom through work” was lawfully placed there by judicial order pursuant to a Reich Stadt law, for which the defendants would refuse to obey or take responsibility.

            Fellow citizens aren’t commodities.  Citizens don’t exist for the benefit of business.  Profit motive supremacy has no  place in a caring society.  We must leave the state of nature and become a society again.  This must change.  Reinstitute Corrections as a career and valid area of study.  Re-emphasize fairness instead of efficiency.  Make judges seek fairness, not expediency. Do not allow government entities become profit centers.  Make all fines, fees, and revenues go to the general fund, controlled by legislatures and the people.  Don’t go gently into oblivion.  Do as Dylan Thomas mandates and “Rage, Rage against the dying of the light.”

            Demand justice, fairness and putting the people first.  Re-establish common law, not Roman law of conquest.  Take profit motive from government.  Make government work for the people, not commerce.  Stand up to those who prize profit and efficiency over humanity.  Demand justice,  Demand fairness, demand equity, Demand corporation be subordinate to people.  Demand a government of people and for people, not soulless, lifeless, ghosts called corporations.

Why Marijuana Won’t be Legalized.

Dennis comments ♦ June 20, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

It is essential to the Police shakedowndlblewitt,JDIt has been over four decades since I took my first graduate course in criminology. Not much has changed since then, except that facts accepted by social scientists have been denied by people in power who find the science inconvenient.. The biggest change is the increase the in ignorance of the general population, followed by the corruption of the government. No one but a village idiot could have studied the drug situation and still believed in the gateway drug theory as expounded by BNDD director, Henry J. Anslinger, propagandist extraordinary. He maintained that because most heroin addicts stated they smoked marijuana first, it was a gateway drug to addiction. He persisted in his fictitious version of reefer madness into the sixties, pushing his toxic bull shit to the newly formed Drug Enforcement Agency, who for political rather than logical or factual reasons bought it lock, stock and barrel. Restated, the public is conned into believing that heroin can be controlled by arresting pot offenders.The theory goes something like this, and I recall from four decades ago. 95% of all heroin addicts stated that they tried marijuana before becoming addicted. Therefore, marijuana is the gateway drug to heroin addiction, which causes your daughters to enter prostitution to support their habit. One could also state that 100% of all heroin addicts breathed before taking heroin. Or, one could say that every biker gang member started out on bicycles. The logic is about the same. There is no assertion of causality, but it plays well to the PTA, Lions, Legionnaires, MADD and other cheerleaders for the lies and fear-mongering of the power structure to subjugate the people and keep them policed.The gateway theory has been cited by “experts” who obviously failed logic but passed rhetoric and are intellectually challenged. Additionally, the demonization of the gateway product is in full force, blaming marijuana on auto accidents, pregnancies, sterility, stupidity and all other kinds of ailments. It has become a key ingredient in the Theocrats’ attack on science. Image and message trumps science. Superstition, prejudice and ignorance trumps science. Science is demonic, ungodly, heathen and bad for the country (at least the 1 per-centers). Over the decades, theory and study of crime causality has taken a back seat to punitive measures and mass incarceration. The country has become statistically challenged.When I first studied criminology many decades ago, the concerns were organized crime, price fixing by the big electrical companies of hydroelectric generators, extortion, robbery, murder, predatory behavior of the con-artists and the like. I spent hours pouring over the records of the McClellan and Keafauver committees. Causality of crime was studied, not paranoid dreamt up scenarios from someone’s imagination. Greedy corporate executives had slightly higher status than garbage collectors and lawyers. There was a movement to stop predatory practices of the corporations and have truth in lending for consumers. The new Uniform Commercial Code was being adapted and there was change in the winds. The people were not fair game for the rich and powerful. The common person had some recourse and were protected by the law against exploitation. Black people had a trial before they were lynched and some even got to vote and lived to tell about it. There was a sense of community and cohesion. Taverns and bars were looked at as community centers where consensus and opinion were created, not dens of evil. The corporations answered this cohesion with well funded diversions focusing union corruption and patriotism.Then came the civil unrest of the Nixon years and things changed. The saying “give them an inch and they will take a mile” was the favorite saying of the radical whites in the country. Civil rights were here, but the blacks weren’t satisfied. They wanted more than rights. They wanted equality. When it didn’t come fast enough, the blacks got restless and rioted in some cities. Of course, the disoriented nervous whites got anxious and even scared. The Viet Nam war gearing up, which was not too popular. The rulers were fearful of a public they could not control or manipulate. TV showed Buddhists monks engaging in self-emoliation and Black Panthers brandishing assault rifles and bandoliers at the Reagan Capital in Sacramento. Reagan walked around with a load in his pants that day. Law and order became the mantra of the fearful and confused., This was code for “stop the blacks.” And both races knew it. So, after a spectacular convention in Chicago which decimated the Democrats, the Republicans elected Richard Nixon.The marijuana war intensified rather than gearing down. The country became preoccupied with drugs, causing the US to have the highest incarceration rate in the world. Although crime rates listed by the FBI remained somewhat static, incarcerations increased. Law enforcement was becoming the “rogue elephant.” When Denver passed an ordinance making enforcement of Marijuana law the lowest of police priorities, marijuana arrests almost doubled the next year. This isn’t the result of a few rogue elephants, it is a stampede, the result of institutionalized behavior. The same phenomenon has been reported in New York. President Obama promised drug law reform, yet the justice department is loudly protesting and waging fear campaigns on the marijuana users. To the uninitiated, this seems confusing.Why all the enforcement activity? Doesn’t the government realize how much money in taxes the marijuana industry generates? Why are they killing the goose laying the golden egg? The Denver Post’s John Ingold reported $2.2 million in sales tax for marijuana tax revenue in November 2010. This was only for part of the year. The Attorney General of Colorado responded that “…the new revenue stream doesn’t change his opinion of dispensaries.” (said through a spokesman) The revenue stream from medicinal marijuana comes from fees charged dispensaries, caregivers and patients and sales tax on the substance sold in dispensaries. The tax revenues go mainly to cities and the state to fund their projects. The fees go to the Department of Revenue. So, with that kind of revenue, “why are the cops whining”, ask the naive and innocent?I ask in return, “Didn’t you see the videos of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, Las Angeles, Oakland, and Berkeley? If not go look at them. Look at the police. Look at their equipment. They are all dressed in expensive riot gear.” That shit costs money. Compare this with the dress of the Chicago Police at the 1968 Democratic convention. The difference in equipment is due to the drug war. The money comes from the drug war budget, which is bloated by confiscations and forfeitures. With legalization, the cops are left out, and the gravy train grinds to a halt. Instead, the proceeds are going to such things as roads, schools, health care, assistance to the poor and disabled, and infrastructure, things that used to be a priority before the advent of the police state. Additionally, the corruption J. Edgar Hoover referred to when he forbade FBI agents to engage in drug enforcement, would cease. Cops would afford fewer donuts, planes and condominiums.For years, I believed that the police were ignorant dunderheads. They followed orders like good martinets and did not question things. They were true believers, not confused by facts or evidence. Concepts such as fairness, justice, due process and the Constitution were for bleeding hearts. They would not let ideology or justice interfere with their duty. These simple people believed they were just doing their jobs. They would blindly follow because they were brainwashed. Then, I conquered my prejudice and ignorance. Cops actually were not stupid. Most detectives had attended college. How then, could they then ignore all the reports and recommendations of experts since the Eisenhower report in the ‘50’s? Some were unaware of the existence of reports. Some didn’t care, because they believed in what they were doing. And, some were just sadistic bastards, drunk with power fueled by their bigotry and ignorance. And, some were in it for the money. So, I started examining the curriculum of the courses offered by police. I didn’t expect them to have the same education as I for many reasons. However, most colleges or universities teach the same facts, discuss the same research and theories. Then, a friend in the political science department provided me with some government publications regarding grants and research proposals. None dealt with causality. They dealt with mechanics of arrest, trial, and confinement. Some dealt with procedures that streamlined the assembly line to incarcerate more persons efficiently. Management by objective ruled and political policies were geared toward punishment and revenge. Police action was calculated to make the public feel good or secure, not to be effective. The image was everything. There was always enough fear from the police to insure generous budgets. This worked like the mafia protection racket. Theoretical criminology was ignored. It was inconvenient and contradicted what the politicians wanted. The criminal justice area was almost void of any intellectual content. If the students aren’t taught anything, they can’t be expected to act intelligently. They also don’t rock the boat and agitate for change. Causality didn’t matter, only public perception of protection counted. Image was all.There is also a more insidious side to the drug war policy. Several would be cops joined vice and narcotics to get rich. The opportunity for bribes and extra money is almost boundless. Additionally, oversight is sloppy or negligible. I was involved in several cases where the evidence confiscated from the defendants ended back into the market place, placed there by police or Government. Courts and prosecutors turned a blind eye to the evidence. If that weren’t enough, the police state became self funding through fines and forfeitures, perpetuating corruption on a massive scale. Crime enforcement has become the new aphrodisiac for the perverts and bullies. Several abuse cases have been reported such as the broom handle rape in New York, the killing of arrestees, and other atrocities that may or may not have made the papers. Instead of constraints, sanctions and oversight, things are concealed or covered up. Judges, coming from the police establishment conspire with the officers and prosecutors to encourage perjury, sadism and other misconduct, imbued with a belief that the ends justifies the means. They identify with the imaginary problems of the police in following the rules, which might result in a less than desired result. Judges don’t view their purpose as protecting the citizenry. They believe they should expedite convictions to help fill the jails, and reward their police constituency. The Constitution is no longer the law of the land, but an impediment to efficient enforcement of assembly line justice, where any judge can rationalize ignoring the citizens for the sake of exigency. Get the guilty has replaced the idea of protecting the innocent. We have a post-legal society.Presently, close to 75 % of drug arrests are for marijuana1. It is an easily identifiable commodity with a distinct smell, look, and fan base. As long as the police and public buy in to the gateway fiction, the police can justify their budgets by claiming they are preventing heroin addiction by enforcing the draconian marijuana laws. They are protecting the public with the crusade against marijuana. Not so. They are perpetuating a bureaucracy. They are protecting their status and budgets.Drug enforcement policy has nothing to do with protecting the public, preventing harm to the youth, and other bullshit reasons given for the drug war by the cynical enforcement cabal. Instead, it has everything to do with money. Look how the additional funding for police enforcement is utilized. It is used for surveillance and riot equipment and other means of repression, not to solve crime. Marijuana arrests justify the drug budget. Heroin and cocaine are hard to detect and therefore the case numbers won’t justify the budget. But as long as we have a fearful population and lying, corrupt police and officials, we will have marijuana prohibition to perpetuate the fiction of good policing. The officials know better. They aren’t stupid (no matter how hard they try to look that way). They want to control us in order to be able to exploit us. That is why they now are proposing domestic surveillance drones. Fear equates to greater budgets and more toys.It is time for the citizenry to wake up and smell the weeds. They are in the police agencies and greedy politicians, fed by greedy corporate predators. They are perpetuating a fearful society. They are destroying the societal fabric with suspicion and jealousy and no end is in sight. They are relying on ignorance and lack of interest. They count on a docile population, just as a King of France and his wife Marie once did. It is time for the people to be heard. It is time for dialogue and discussion. It is time for action. You can’t fool all the people all the time! (Hopefully). We have to make officials and politicians know that we want safe roads, bridges, water, hospitals, sanitation, and the rest of the infrastructure. Show them we value education over-incarceration. We want to lead the world in freedom, not in repression and incarceration. We were a democratic republic, not a totalitarian police state. Show them we no longer tremble in fear of your imaginary bogey man. It is time they fear us–the people, not the press and public relations consultants. Start writing your council, legislature, commissioner, governor, congress, senate, and president. Let them hear people rather than money. If they don’t listen, shun them. Embarrass them, berate them and expose their greed and ignorance to others. Stand up and be counted. Destroy a prison, build a bridge. Be courageous. Be free.1 Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent (758,593 Americans) was charged with possession only. The remaining 99,815 individuals were charged with “sale/manufacture,” a category that includes virtually all cultivation offenses. Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2008 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, 2008),Incarceration in the United States is one of the main forms of punishment and/or rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009 it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 populationAccording to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2010 — about .7% of adults in the U.S. resident population. [5] Additionally, 4,933,667 adults at year-end 2009 were on probation or on parole.[4] In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 — about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.In addition, there were 86,927 juveniles in juvenile detention in 2007Perhaps the single greatest force behind the growth of the prison population has been the national “war on drugs.” The number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980. In 2000, 22 percent of those in federal and state prisons were convicted on drug charges.Incarceration in America, Human Rights Watch (April 2003)

 Fifty Years as a Drug Warrior

Dennis comments ♦ June 14, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Dennis L. Blewitt, J. D.    (Spring, 2014)

            I got drafted for the drug war 50 years ago.  Most warriors in most armies can retire after 3 or 3 decades, but those of us in the guerilla movement don’t have that luxury.  I will comment on common issues, policies and activities in the drug war and try to put them in historical perspective.  I will try to be factual, when convenient, but remember, this is commentary and my perspective only.  My hope is that the modern drug war freedom fighter can be more effective and better serve as a result of this.  I will write from point of view of 50 years of NLG participation and activity.  I welcome feedback, criticism and hate mail.  I view the day a total loss if I don’t piss off at least one person.  But it does no good if it doesn’t result in action.  So, enjoy.

            I first was introduced to the NLG in the 60’s through its “Fair Play for Cuba” activities centered on the activities of Bay of Pigs.  The lawyer for them was Harry Nier, veteran of the Army McCarthy hearings..  The guild activities concerning Cuba ceased with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  His alleged assassin was publicly connected with Fair Play, which was later discredited as a false flag.   However, there were new playgrounds in which to play.  I chose the Civil Rights movement.  Getting stung with cattle prods and beaten by cops seemed like a good way to meet people.  As outside agitators, we all ran the risk of having weed planted on us as a roust and to discredit the movement.  Weed wasn’t recognized as a societal threat then and was not illegal per se.  The offense was tax evasion, so one could say that I started out as a tax lawyer.  Intelligence divissions of the police soon learned that planting marijuana was good press and could justify an occasional swing by the billie club.

            By the mid 60’s, the draft was breathing down the necks of my cohorts and it seemed like fertile ground for an activist.  This is where encountered “Red Squads.”  The anti-Communist spies started looking at draft protesters and civil rights activists.These people would infiltrate and report back to the FBI’s cointel program or to local police.  One favorite trick of the squad was to plant marijuana on marchers.  It was an fun and was totally effective in destroying the legitimacy of a movement.  So, one could say that the great value of marijuana prohibition was to disturb the public and discredit activists by branding them as drug crazed lunatics.  This soon became associated with long hair, draft resistance, and protest.  Protesters started wearing masks in defense to avoid being identified.

            However, associating marijuana with hippies, war protesters, civil rights activists and the like backfired.  The emerging police state relied upon the propaganda espressed by “Reefer Madness” and other bad press.  This fear mongering was only effective with conservatives, WWII veterend, bikers, unions and other conservative or patriotic groups.  However, the yound knew better.  Soldiers were returning from Viet Nam, totally immersed in cannabis knowledge, learned from their officers and CIA agents among them.  They were in a good position to compare the effects of weed to that of napalm, mines and agent orange, the more accepted toys of their masters.  The weed kept them from “fragging” their officers and was actually relied upon as a safety device by the commanders.  It could also be used for barter at the brothels and trinkets.         

            When I started my law practice in Boulder, I thought I was ready.  Most people would have thought I was on acid, but it wasn’t around then.  I went with a tax firm and started doing tax cases, possessing marijuana without paying $100 per oz. tax.   I did marijuana cases and my clientele were mostly hippies and draft resisters. I had no idea where it would lead, but it has been a real adventure, exposing me to Black Tunas, Fuchs, the Company, CIA, Mafia and lots of other groups and interesting people.  I had clients who smuggled for Ruby, supplying Castro and Batista involved in the drug and gun trade, smugglers working for intelligence agencies and assorted clients fed to the fodder mill of “justice” to divert attention to the real issues and dangers.  The whole area is political.

            Consequently, I view the drug war totally in a political context along the lines of Weber and C. Wright Mills, not in a partisan sense.  It is a war against the people and an instrument of oppression.  It is the subject of much propaganda and very little knowledge.  The drug war and the media induced propaganda has been the implement of destruction to the Constitution.  It has encouraged, funded and established a police state, turning our country into an oligarchy, albeit not as crude as Russia’s.  Government inspired or induced fear dictates our policy making us the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.  It has been used to destroy cohesiveness between the people and turn everyone into an enemy, justifying turning the police into an occupation army.  Unlike Europe, we do not have evidence based policy.  Ours is propaganda based policy.  This is what I will address my future articles.  I will try not to be provincial, but since I grew up in a small town rural environment and went to college 40 miles away.  I attended a public school that had grades 7 through 12 in the same building.  I practice in Boulder Colorado and will refer to that city occasionally because it is all I know.  I ask your indulgence.

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dlb

 Fifty Years as a Drug Warrior

Dennis comments ♦ June 14, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Dennis L. Blewitt, J. D.    (Spring, 2014)

            I got drafted for the drug war 50 years ago.  Most warriors in most armies can retire after 3 or 3 decades, but those of us in the guerilla movement don’t have that luxury.  I will comment on common issues, policies and activities in the drug war and try to put them in historical perspective.  I will try to be factual, when convenient, but remember, this is commentary and my perspective only.  My hope is that the modern drug war freedom fighter can be more effective and better serve as a result of this.  I will write from point of view of 50 years of NLG participation and activity.  I welcome feedback, criticism and hate mail.  I view the day a total loss if I don’t piss off at least one person.  But it does no good if it doesn’t result in action.  So, enjoy.

            I first was introduced to the NLG in the 60’s through its “Fair Play for Cuba” activities centered on the activities of Bay of Pigs.  The lawyer for them was Harry Nier, veteran of the Army McCarthy hearings..  The guild activities concerning Cuba ceased with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.  His alleged assassin was publicly connected with Fair Play, which was later discredited as a false flag.   However, there were new playgrounds in which to play.  I chose the Civil Rights movement.  Getting stung with cattle prods and beaten by cops seemed like a good way to meet people.  As outside agitators, we all ran the risk of having weed planted on us as a roust and to discredit the movement.  Weed wasn’t recognized as a societal threat then and was not illegal per se.  The offense was tax evasion, so one could say that I started out as a tax lawyer.  Intelligence divissions of the police soon learned that planting marijuana was good press and could justify an occasional swing by the billie club.

            By the mid 60’s, the draft was breathing down the necks of my cohorts and it seemed like fertile ground for an activist.  This is where encountered “Red Squads.”  The anti-Communist spies started looking at draft protesters and civil rights activists.These people would infiltrate and report back to the FBI’s cointel program or to local police.  One favorite trick of the squad was to plant marijuana on marchers.  It was an fun and was totally effective in destroying the legitimacy of a movement.  So, one could say that the great value of marijuana prohibition was to disturb the public and discredit activists by branding them as drug crazed lunatics.  This soon became associated with long hair, draft resistance, and protest.  Protesters started wearing masks in defense to avoid being identified.

            However, associating marijuana with hippies, war protesters, civil rights activists and the like backfired.  The emerging police state relied upon the propaganda espressed by “Reefer Madness” and other bad press.  This fear mongering was only effective with conservatives, WWII veterend, bikers, unions and other conservative or patriotic groups.  However, the yound knew better.  Soldiers were returning from Viet Nam, totally immersed in cannabis knowledge, learned from their officers and CIA agents among them.  They were in a good position to compare the effects of weed to that of napalm, mines and agent orange, the more accepted toys of their masters.  The weed kept them from “fragging” their officers and was actually relied upon as a safety device by the commanders.  It could also be used for barter at the brothels and trinkets.         

            When I started my law practice in Boulder, I thought I was ready.  Most people would have thought I was on acid, but it wasn’t around then.  I went with a tax firm and started doing tax cases, possessing marijuana without paying $100 per oz. tax.   I did marijuana cases and my clientele were mostly hippies and draft resisters. I had no idea where it would lead, but it has been a real adventure, exposing me to Black Tunas, Fuchs, the Company, CIA, Mafia and lots of other groups and interesting people.  I had clients who smuggled for Ruby, supplying Castro and Batista involved in the drug and gun trade, smugglers working for intelligence agencies and assorted clients fed to the fodder mill of “justice” to divert attention to the real issues and dangers.  The whole area is political.

            Consequently, I view the drug war totally in a political context along the lines of Weber and C. Wright Mills, not in a partisan sense.  It is a war against the people and an instrument of oppression.  It is the subject of much propaganda and very little knowledge.  The drug war and the media induced propaganda has been the implement of destruction to the Constitution.  It has encouraged, funded and established a police state, turning our country into an oligarchy, albeit not as crude as Russia’s.  Government inspired or induced fear dictates our policy making us the country with the highest incarceration rate in the world.  It has been used to destroy cohesiveness between the people and turn everyone into an enemy, justifying turning the police into an occupation army.  Unlike Europe, we do not have evidence based policy.  Ours is propaganda based policy.  This is what I will address my future articles.  I will try not to be provincial, but since I grew up in a small town rural environment and went to college 40 miles away.  I attended a public school that had grades 7 through 12 in the same building.  I practice in Boulder Colorado and will refer to that city occasionally because it is all I know.  I ask your indulgence.

                        #                      #                      #                      #                      #

dlb

BRING IN THE CLOWNS (GREEDY, SELFISH, IGNORANT, AND CLUELESS POLITICIANS) HOW IT HAPPENED

Dennis comments ♦ June 6, 2021 ♦ 2 Comments

Springtime—Roundup, Time for Making Steers
Police and Press Castrate Lawyer-Politicians
Dennis L. Blewitt, Esq

I have been a criminal defense lawyer for over 4 decades and am proud of that fact. I have battled my whole career to defend the Constitution and the rights of the citizenry. I am also a teacher and proud of that fact. What I am not proud of is the way in which some lawyers abandon principles and integrity to gain public office, or have absolute no courage to stand up for what’s right, going along with the herd, rather than leading it and still claiming to be a lawyer.
When I grew up, we had cattle. We had no bulls, just steers. Steers were docile and intended for slaughter. Bulls were for breeding and maintaining the species and were anything but docile. Every spring, cattle were rounded up and males were made steers by a simple procedure called castration. When I was young, I played with the steers. They were gentle and some followed me like a puppy. My father would admonish me not to play with the food, but I generally ignored him. However, I didn’t ignore his warnings about getting into a bull pen. That was dangerous, because bulls could not be led around like puppies and led to the slaughter.
I conjured up these images after reading about the utter lack of principles in the US Senate when voting down lawyer Debo Adegbile, the nominee for the appointment of the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. The attorney worked on a case involving activist Abu-Jamal, a long time prisoner who recently moved from death row. Jamal was convicted of shooting and killing a police officer in Philadelphia. The case was controversial and an example of either police and prosecutorial incompetence or worse. Amnesty International, an organization dedicated to maintain fairness in judicial proceedings said the following,
Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer in 1982 after a trial that failed to meet international standards. In this report Amnesty International conducts a full analysis of the trial of Mumia Abu-Jamal including the background and atmosphere prevailing in the city of Philadelphia in 1982 and the possible political influences that may have prevented him from receiving an impartial and fair hearing.
However, the actors don’t seem to care. Jamal became a symbol. The police took any challenge as a direct affront to their conspiratorial brotherhood. The shameless opposition to the nomination put the widow of the murdered cop on display exhibiting ignorant prejudice to the max. Police claimed that to vote for the attorney who was involved in the case was bad. It was a slap in the face to all the jack-booted thugs in uniform. The press didn’t mention that the case of Abu-Jamal came after the repression of ex Philadelphia police commissioner turned mayor, Frank Rizzo.
Ironically, the candidate wasn’t the trial lawyer in the case. He just worked on it. But no matter. He didn’t participate in the lynching of the Black Panther reporter. Therefore, he is undeserving of any appointment to the “Justice Department.” Does that sound crazy to anyone other than me? Apparently not. I haven’t seen outrage from the citizenry, who also seems to be cowed by the cops. Maybe, to be head of the Civil Rights Division, a lawyer has to be anti-civil-rights like Jerris Leonard, administrator of the Law Enforcement Assistance Agency, famed for finding (some say planting) evidence and took a dive in the Grand Jury investigation of District Attorney of Chicago Hanrahan and the Black Panthers so that the FBI could keep Cointel Pro shenanigans a secret.
What infuriates me is that most of these Senators were trained as lawyers, steeped in the traditions of our Anglo-American court system. Law trained members are almost 60% of the body. One Senator claimed that Adegbile’s nomination was a “thumb in the eye of our law enforcement officers” (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Well, what about the insult to those of us who work hard for the Constitution and human rights, actively resisting the police state. We remember the antics of the Philadelphia police under mayor Rizzo. We all have seen u-tube examples of police running roughshod over the citizens. The only group standing in the way of the police state is lawyers. And the Senate thinks they can slap us in the face without any consequences. They believe that they have been so successful selling fear that the public hates lawyers and still worships corrupt cops. Bullshit!!
Lawyers have a noble tradition of helping the poor, downtrodden and oppressed. Some of our predecessors held an English king at sword point in 1215, 800 years ago, and had him sign a civil rights guaranteeing, among other things, that the king would appoint judges “learned in the law” Clause 45 said that the King should only appoint as “justices, constables, sheriffs, or bailiffs” those who knew the law and would keep it well. So what was so special about someone trained in the law 800years ago? Why is that relevant now? Tradition!
Lawyers have taken oaths since Charlemagne. There were serious penalties for violating the oaths, including ex-communication. The custom came to the United States from England before the revolution. Lawyers owed an obligation to the law and to their clients. They don’t owe any obligation to whiney cops, especially those sanctioned by international watchdog organizations. It is not that the Senators are ignorant. They just don’t feel that the oaths taken mean anything, especially to them. Oaths are a means to power and can be discarded when power is attained. At least, that is what they appear to believe.
Now I can hear the cattle lowing, ignorant of the slaughter that awaits them. Had they kept the anatomical part that made them a steer, they probably would not be in a herd on the way to the market. They would be free on the range, not worrying about the next meal (or election). The real tragedy is that these congressional steers are too damned stupid to tell that they are cowards. They pay lip service to the Constitution. What a laugh. The only lip service they know is performed on the perturbing part above the subject matter of castration attached to the rich and powerful that promise them they won’t soil them. Well, I got to figure that the above arrangement is the only way they can get sperm since they are incapable of producing any.
Curiously, I noticed a change public attitude during the Reagan years. Until then, I was never challenged as a defense attorney. Most people knew that defense attorneys were an integral part of the American way of government. We were admired for taking unpopular stands against the powerful. We stood up for the little guy and we were respected. We worked with police and prosecutors and were not considered an enemy. That is, until the non-practicing lawyers of the Nixon Administration. These people had law degrees, but weren’t practicing lawyers. Lawyer jokes ran rampant and stereotyping was the rule of the day.
Ignorance prevailed and very few cared about the Constitution or other theoretical niceties. The public was fearful and the power structure nurtured that fear to feeding frenzy. There was a push toward law and order. The government sold protection just like the mafia. The powerful lied, cheated and swindled, robbing the people of their money, future and pride. The wolves gathered and the citizens were the prey. Scapegoating was the norm. Zero tolerance became the mantra of the fearful and ignorant. Zero tolerance precludes any debate and allows those with power to exercise it without restraint. The checks and balances were gone. Business minds and management by objective took over. If you weren’t with them, you were against them. The social and political world became dichotomized, with the rich setting the narrative. They controlled the propaganda machine and was able to terrorize the people into giving up; rights for protection.
Those who knew better were curiously absent. They were dead, exhausted or indifferent. A machine of corruption was constructed where science, logic, justice and fairness were all abolished. The press said that the people wanted protection and sold the people on that idea. The rulers manufactured enemies and threats to keep the people afraid. The powerful then took away any tools of resistance by wrecking the economy and limiting discretionary income. The average citizen was nervous and the middle class was decimated. This was done by the gutless politicians and officials who hadn’t the courage or intelligence to resist.
When I go to Severance Colorado to an oyster fry, I will think of all the people in Washington whose testicles wouldn’t even make a decent meal. The rich and powerful have castrated any who might be a threat and the public has been dumb-downed to not understand. They are concerned about non-issues involving different life-styles rather than concerned about whether or not we will even have a life. They would rather judge than think.
I lament the profession of which I used to be a proud member. I can no longer be proud. I can no longer believe that our Country is the best or its people the finest. I have watched something noble and admirable destroyed by bad public relations and divisiveness. I believe that if we lawyers, as a group, were to speak out, there would be some change. But, we can’t blame congress for everything. Lawyers are trained to lead and to give advice.
We have abdicated that role to the uneducated police and simple minded reporter who will say anything to sell copy. We can no longer stand up for our clients, how can we stand for anything else. We should collectively file grievances against the Senators who were trained as lawyers and took an oath to support the constitution and the law. It is about time that we made officials accountable and responsible to the citizenry, not the power elite and their minions. We should shun those that ignore the cannons of their profession for the sake of largess. We should embarrass and humiliate those in Government who are too embarrassed to do right. These people all deserve to be made into food and fed to the people upon whom they prey. I suggest that the citizens call the conduct of their law licensed Senators to the local bar qualifications authority. Let the Senators know that we want real civil rights in the Justice Department, not the police version the same. Do something. Show outrage. Show you care.
As I eat in Severance, I hope you ingest and like this food for thought.

REMEMBERANCES

Dennis comments ♦ June 6, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Of Defense Attorneys And Dinosaurs

Dennis L. Blewitt, JD
There was a time when defense attorneys were considered an integral part of the criminal justice system. They were viewed as a resource for the Courts, Distract Attorneys, and people. We were essential to a fair system of justice and protection of the poor, downtrodden, disabled, feeble, infirmed and stupid. Now, defense attorneys are viewed as an impediment to the orderly administration of “justice,” or the assembly line processing of cases through the system.
We were never asked inane questions like “how in good conscious can you represent a guilty person?” or “how can you live with yourself?” We became the butt of lawyer jokes and were equated with the segment of the public which we represent. Nothing was mentioned of the corrupt business executive that looted their companies, stockholders and public, robbed pension plans, and destroyed little old ladies. The Watergate characters were lawyers, as was Nixon. Therefore, all lawyers must be bad. Today, this has carried over and is combined with the military training of police. Defense attorneys challenge the assertions of police that a murder by a police officer is justified by self-defense. In one case, a man reported his pickup as stolen when his son took it to buy cigarettes. No more problems. The 18 year old is dead. Similarly, knife wielding man shot 60 times by police was called into question by lawyers.
District Attorneys whitewash the military response of the police to youthfulness, mental illness and misbehavior as justifiable because the officer was in fear of his life or was following protocols or training. DA’s don’t question the necessity of death, defense attorneys do. So it is better to rid the Courts of defense attorneys than to de-militarize the police. Since we generally oppose this form of martial law, we have to be silenced. That is much easier to do than a decade or two ago. We no longer are view as one problem solving resource. We are viewed as obstructionist, impeding police action, and not affording the police the proper amount of respect.
There used to be three separate and equal branches of government which acted as checks and balances of power. That no longer is the case. It used to be that legislators and attorneys were exempt from service of process while in court or in transit. No longer. We are now third wheels. Judges, prosecutors, police and public defenders, all state paid, are not searched and humiliated by armed guards and metal detectors while going to work. Scumbag defense attorneys are. The courts were once our place of employment, where we could talk to clerks, court recorders an judges regarding court business. Now the presence of an attorney in the court chambers is arrested for obstructing the business of the court and trespass like a common criminal. Of course, this adds to the poor image of lawyers perceived by the public, when they see lawyers treated as criminals by the court personnel. We no longer meet with prosecutors regarding cases to discuss a case. Instead, people are herded into a hallway, see a deputy district attorney in a broom closet sized room, where we are given an ultimatum by an under 30 prosecutor who has determined a fair resolution based upon the written reports of the officer. In such a case a defense attorney is superfluous. Having to perform a charade of fairness takes time which could be more effectively used to fill the corporate programs with the mass of defendants in the building.
In England, the lawyers went on strike because of injustices in the system. In the U.S., lawyers go along and do not make waves in their scramble to make money. I guess that’s justice.

Why Marijuana Legalization is Difficult.

Dennis comments ♦ June 6, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

It is essential to the Police shakedown, part of the radical racket.

D l blewitt,JD

                It has been over four decades since I took my first graduate course in criminology.  Not much has changed since then, except that facts accepted by social scientists have been denied by people in power who find the science inconvenient.  The biggest change is the increase the in ignorance of the general population, followed by the corruption of the government.  No one but a village idiot could have studied the drug situation and still believed in the gateway drug theory as expounded by BNDD director, Henry J. Anslinger, propagandist extraordinary.  He maintained that because most heroin addicts stated they smoked marijuana first, it was a gateway drug to addiction.  He persisted in his fictitious version of reefer madness into the sixties, pushing his toxic bull shit to the newly formed Drug Enforcement Agency, who for political rather than logical or factual reasons bought it lock, stock and barrel.  Restated, the public is conned into believing that heroin can be controlled by arresting pot offenders.

                The theory goes something like this, and I recall from four decades ago.  95% of all heroin addicts stated that they tried marijuana before becoming addicted.  Therefore, marijuana is the gateway drug to heroin addiction, which causes your daughters to enter prostitution to support their habit.   One could also state that 100% of all heroin addicts breathed before taking heroin.  Or, one could say that every biker gang member started out on bicycles.  The logic is about the same.  There is no assertion of causality, but it plays well to the PTA, Lions, Legionnaires, MADD, and other cheerleaders for the lies and fear-mongering of the power structure to subjugate the people and keep them policed. 

                The gateway theory has been cited by “experts” who obviously failed logic but passed rhetoric and are intellectually challenged.  Additionally, the demonization of the gateway product is in full force, blaming marijuana on auto accidents, pregnancies, sterility, stupidity, and all other kinds of ailments.  It has become a key ingredient in the Theocrats’ attack on science.  Image and message trumps science.  Superstition, prejudice, and ignorance trumps science.  Science is demonic, ungodly, heathen, and bad for the country (at least the 1 per-centers).  Over the decades, theory and study of crime causality has taken a back seat to punitive measures and mass incarceration.  The country has become statistically challenged.

                When I first studied criminology many decades ago, the concerns were organized crime, price fixing by the big electrical companies of hydroelectric generators, extortion, robbery, murder, predatory behavior of the con-artists and the like.  I spent hours poring over the records of the McClellan and Kefauver committees. Causality of crime was studied, not paranoid dreamt up scenarios from someone’s imagination.  Greedy corporate executives had slightly higher status than garbage collectors and lawyers.  There was a movement to stop predatory practices of the corporations and have truth in lending for consumers.  The new Uniform Commercial Code was being adapted and there was change in the winds.  The people were not fair game for the rich and powerful.  The common person had some recourse and were protected by the law against exploitation.  Black people had a trial before they were lynched and some even got to vote and lived to tell about it.  There was a sense of community and cohesion.  Taverns and bars were looked at as community centers where consensus and opinion were created, not dens of evil.  The corporations answered this cohesion with well-funded diversions focusing union corruption and patriotism.

                Then came the civil unrest of the Nixon years and things changed.  The saying “give them an inch and they will take a mile” was the favorite saying of the radical whites in the country.  Civil rights were here, but the blacks weren’t satisfied.  They wanted more than rights.  They wanted equality.  When it didn’t come fast enough, the blacks got restless and rioted in some cities.  Of course, the disoriented nervous whites got anxious and even scared.  The Viet Nam war gearing up, which was not too popular.  The rulers were fearful of a public they could not control or manipulate.  TV showed Buddhist’s monks engaging in self-immolation and Black Panthers brandishing assault rifles and bandoliers at the Reagan Capital in Sacramento.  Reagan walked around with a load in his pants that day.  Law and order became the mantra of the fearful and confused., This was code for “stop the blacks.”  And both races knew it.  So, after a spectacular convention in Chicago which decimated the Democrats, the Republicans elected Richard Nixon.

                The marijuana war intensified rather than gearing down.  The country became preoccupied with drugs, causing the US to have the highest incarceration rate in the world.  Although crime rates listed by the FBI remained somewhat static, incarcerations increased.  Law enforcement was becoming the “rogue elephant.” When Denver passed an ordinance making enforcement of Marijuana law the lowest of police priorities, marijuana arrests almost doubled the next year.  This isn’t the result of a few rogue elephants, it is a stampede, the result of institutionalized behavior.  The same phenomenon has been reported in New York.  President Obama promised drug law reform, yet the justice department is loudly protesting and waging fear campaigns on the marijuana users.  To the uninitiated, this seems confusing. 

                Why all the enforcement activity?  Doesn’t the government realize how much money in taxes the marijuana industry generates?  Why are they killing the goose laying the golden egg?  The Denver Post’s John Ingold reported $2.2 million in sales tax for marijuana tax revenue in November 2010.  This was only for part of the year.  The Attorney General of Colorado responded that “…the new revenue stream doesn’t change his opinion of dispensaries.”  (Said through a spokesman)   The revenue stream from medicinal marijuana comes from fees charged dispensaries, caregivers and patients and sales tax on the substance sold in dispensaries.  The tax revenues go mainly to cities and the state to fund their projects.  The fees go to the Department of Revenue.  So, with that kind of revenue, “why are the cops whining”, ask the naive and innocent?

                I ask in return, “Didn’t you see the videos of the Occupy Wall Street protests in New York, Las Angeles, Oakland, and Berkeley?  If not go look at them.  Look at the police.  Look at their equipment.  They are all dressed in expensive riot gear.”  That shit costs money.  Compare this with the dress of the Chicago Police at the 1968 Democratic convention.  The difference in equipment is due to the drug war. The money comes from the drug war budget, which is bloated by confiscations and forfeitures.  With legalization, the cops are left out, and the gravy train grinds to a halt.  Instead, the proceeds are going to such things as roads, schools, health care, assistance to the poor and disabled, and infrastructure, things that used to be a priority before the advent of the police state.  Additionally, the corruption J. Edgar Hoover referred to when he forbade FBI agents to engage in drug enforcement, would cease.  Cops would afford fewer donuts, planes, and condominiums.

                For years, I believed that the police were ignorant dunderheads.  They followed orders like good martinets and did not question things.  They were true believers, not confused by facts or evidence.  Concepts such as fairness, justice, due process, and the Constitution were for bleeding hearts.  They would not let ideology or justice interfere with their duty.  These simple people believed they were just doing their jobs.  They would blindly follow because they were brainwashed.  Then, I conquered my prejudice and ignorance.  Cops actually were not stupid.  Most detectives had attended college.  How then,  could they then ignore all the reports and recommendations of experts since the Eisenhower report in the ‘50’s?  Some were unaware of the existence of reports. Some didn’t care because they believed in what they were doing.  And, some were just sadistic bastards, drunk with power fueled by their bigotry and ignorance.  And some were in it for the money.         So, I started examining the curriculum of the courses offered by police.  I didn’t expect them to have the same education as I for many reasons.  However, most colleges or universities teach the same facts, discuss the same research and theories.  Then, a friend in the political science department provided me with some government publications regarding grants and research proposals.  None dealt with causality.  They dealt with mechanics of arrest, trial, and confinement.  Some dealt with procedures that streamlined the assembly line to incarcerate more persons efficiently.  Management by objective ruled and political policies were geared toward punishment and revenge.  Police action was calculated to make the public feel good or secure, not to be effective.  The image was everything.  There was always enough fear from the police to insure generous budgets.  This worked like the mafia protection racket.  Theoretical criminology was ignored.  It was inconvenient and contradicted what the politicians wanted.  The criminal justice area was almost void of any intellectual content.  If the students aren’t taught anything, they can’t be expected to act intelligently.  They also don’t rock the boat and agitate for change.  Causality didn’t matter, only public perception of protection counted.   Image was all.

                There is also a more insidious side to the drug war policy.   Several would be cops joined vice and narcotics to get rich.  The opportunity for bribes and extra money is almost boundless.  Additionally, oversight is sloppy or negligible.  I was involved in several cases where the evidence confiscated from the defendants ended back into the marketplace, placed there by police or Government.  Courts and prosecutors turned a blind eye to the evidence.  If that weren’t enough, the police state became self-funding through fines and forfeitures, perpetuating corruption on a massive scale.  Crime enforcement has become the new aphrodisiac for the perverts and bullies.  Several abuse cases have been reported such as the broom handle rape in New York, the killing of arrestees, and other atrocities that may or may not have made the papers.  Instead of constraints, sanctions and oversight, things are concealed or covered up.  Judges, coming from the police establishment conspire with the officers and prosecutors to encourage perjury, sadism, and other misconduct, imbued with a belief that the ends justify the means.  They identify with the imaginary problems of the police in following the rules, which might result in a less than desired result.  Judges don’t view their purpose as protecting the citizenry.  They believe they should expedite convictions to help fill the jails and reward their police constituency.  The Constitution is no longer the law of the land, but an impediment to efficient enforcement of assembly line justice, where any judge can rationalize ignoring the citizens for the sake of exigency.  Get the guilty has replaced the idea of protecting the innocent.  We have a post-legal society.

                Presently, close to 75 % of drug arrests are for marijuana1.  It is an easily identifiable commodity with a distinct smell, look, and fan base.  As long as the police and public buy in to the gateway fiction, the police can justify their budgets by claiming they are preventing heroin addiction by enforcing the draconian marijuana laws.  They are protecting the public with the crusade against marijuana.  Not so.  They are perpetuating a bureaucracy.  They are protecting their status and budgets. 

                Drug enforcement policy has nothing to do with protecting the public, preventing harm to the youth, and other bullshit reasons given for the drug war by the cynical enforcement cabal.  Instead, it has everything to do with money.  Look how the additional funding for police enforcement is utilized.  It is used for surveillance and riot equipment and other means of repression,  not to solve crime.  Marijuana arrests justify the drug budget.  Heroin and cocaine are hard to detect and therefore the case numbers won’t justify the budget.  But as long as we have a fearful population and lying, corrupt police and officials, we will have marijuana prohibition to perpetuate the fiction of good policing.  The officials know better.  They aren’t stupid (no matter how hard they try to look that way).  They want to control us in order to be able to exploit us.  That is why they now are proposing domestic surveillance drones.  Fear equates to greater budgets and more toys.

                It is time for the citizenry to wake up and smell the weeds.  They are in the police agencies and greedy politicians, fed by greedy corporate predators.  They are perpetuating a fearful society.  They are destroying the societal fabric with suspicion and jealousy and no end is in sight.  They are relying on ignorance and lack of interest.  They count on a docile population, just as a King of France and his wife Marie once did.  It is time for the people to be heard.  It is time for dialogue and discussion.  It is time for action.  You can’t fool all the people all the time!  (Hopefully).  We have to make officials and politicians know that we want safe roads, bridges, water, hospitals, sanitation, and the rest of the infrastructure.  Show them we value education over-incarceration.  We want to lead the world in freedom, not in repression and incarceration.  We were a democratic republic, not a totalitarian police state.  Show them we no longer tremble in fear of your imaginary bogey man.  It is time they fear us–the people, not the press and public relations consultants.  Start writing your council, legislature, commissioner, governor, congress, senate, and president.  Let them hear people rather than money.  If they don’t listen, shun them.  Embarrass them, berate them, and expose their greed and ignorance to others.  Stand up and be counted.  Destroy a prison, build a bridge.  Be courageous.  Be free.

1 Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 88 percent (758,593 Americans) was charged with possession only. The remaining 99,815 individuals were charged with “sale/manufacture,” a category that includes virtually all cultivation offenses. Crime in America: FBI Uniform Crime Reports 2008 (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, 2008),

Incarceration in the United States is one of the main forms of punishment and/or rehabilitation for the commission of felony and other offenses. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. At year-end 2009 it was 743 adults incarcerated per 100,000 population

According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 2,266,800 adults were incarcerated in U.S. federal and state prisons, and county jails at year-end 2010 — about .7% of adults in the U.S. resident population. [5] Additionally, 4,933,667 adults at year-end 2009 were on probation or on parole.[4] In total, 7,225,800 adults were under correctional supervision (probation, parole, jail, or prison) in 2009 — about 3.1% of adults in the U.S. resident population.

In addition, there were 86,927 juveniles in juvenile detention in 2007

Perhaps the single greatest force behind the growth of the prison population has been the national “war on drugs.” The number of incarcerated drug offenders has increased twelvefold since 1980. In 2000, 22 percent of those in federal and state prisons were convicted on drug charges.

Incarceration in America, Human Rights Watch (April 2003)

DON’T TAKE ANY SHIT FROM ANYONE

Dennis comments ♦ June 3, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

A recent you tube video reminded me of one time I was searched.  If you are squeamish or lack sugar coat or not use my usual vocabulary in this piece.  It will not be politically correct, fit for innocent minds, have a modicum of sensitivity or any special consideration for the reader.  A story like this can’t be censored or edited. The story is true.  Only the vocabulary has been changed to amuse the reader.  This is your last chance.

DANGERS OF A SEARCH,  If offensive language bothers you then GO NO FURTHER

            This memory was the result of watching a cavity search of a motorist in Texas after a citizen had been stopped.  The officer stated he stopped the car because the driver tossed a cigarette but out the window.  After the lecture, he inquired about drugs.  When the two women in the car expressed ignorance about marijuana, he informed them that his old infallible trooper nose smelled marijuana and they would have to be searched.  The video then showed a front and back cavity search of the two women in the car, resulting in nothing being found.  I just had to relate my tale of my trip to Canada.

The trip to Vancouver Island started out inauspiciously.  I had just acquired another car and was set for a road trip.  However, although the car performed marvelously, I can’t say the same for myself.  I was in need of massive doses of Kaopectate.  Between Sinclair, Wyoming and Little America, I changed shorts 2 times.  The afternoon of the second day, the situation abated and the shorts were tightly packaged in triple plastic shopping bags and packed in a trash bag in the trunk, to be dealt with at our destination where there was there were laundry facilities.  Because I felt better and the underwear was well packaged, I forgot about it in the trunk.

            We proceeded to Annacortes, Washington and spent the night after parking our car in the ferry line, ensuring our passage first thing the next morning to Victoria.  It was a great trip, whales in sight, no clouds or wind.  We stopped at Orca Island and two other small towns before approaching Victoria.

            There was a customs inspection point and most cars were waived on through after showing identification.  However, I had to toy with the customs agent.

            “You’re an American?

            “Yes, that’s what it says on the passport.”

            “Have you ever been in Court on a Driving Under the Influence charge?”

            “Yes, several times.”

            “Were you convicted?”

            “No but many of my clients were.  I’m a defense attorney.”

            For some reason the Mounty wasn’t amused.  “Over there, smartass” he commanded.

He informed his comrades in red

“We have a smart-ass defense attorney here.  Be thorough with him.  You know how tricky they are.”

So, I was going to be subjected to summary punishment by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for being a smart-ass attorney.  I watched while the 7 or so officers climbed all over my car, taking out suitcases and rummaging through them.  They were thorough indeed.  The Mounties were having fun joking with each other as they rummaged through the car.

“Open the trunk!”

I complied and watched as more suitcases were taken and opened.  Nothing.  Then he came to a plastic garbage bag.  Inside were some white plastic bags from grocery stores.  He lifted the bag out of the trunk. And the Mounties gathered around.

“What’s in there,” he demanded.

“That’s our laundry.” 

He started taking clothes out and examining our dirty laundry.  He then came to the white grocery plastic bag. 

“What’s in this one,”

“You really don’t want to know, I wouldn’t open that if I were you,” I emphasized, shaking my head no.  However, curiosity got the best of him.  They gathered around the garbage bag as the Mounty reached down into the bag, bringing out my excrement saturated underwear.

“Shit!!!” shouted the Mounty, while his comrades laughed hysterically.  His face matched the crimson of his uniform and his fury was hard to conceal.  He wielded his authority in a retaliatory way and had paid the price.  I suppose it was a shitty thing to do, but what the hell. The delay was annoying and his retaliatory show of authority was over the top.  But his surprise and humiliation in front of his crew was well worth it.  I didn’t plan to return to Victoria in the near future