cannabisnews.com: Why Did Police Arrest 734,498 Pot-Smokers?





Why Did Police Arrest 734,498 Pot-Smokers?
Posted by FoM on November 30, 2001 at 19:50:26 PT
Libertarian Party Press Releases 
Source: Libertarian Party
American law enforcement is guilty of something close to "criminal neglect" for arresting 734,498 people for marijuana violations last year -- instead of investigating and stopping murderous terrorists, the Libertarian Party said today. "Thousands of innocent Americans may be dead because law enforcement considered it more important to raid college frat parties and arrest people for smoking marijuana than to find and stop the deadly terrorist 'sleeper' cells that were plotting the greatest mass murder in American history," said Steve Dasbach, the party's national director. 
"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities -- could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?" That question has become especially crucial now that the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has released new figures showing that marijuana arrests in 2000 hit an all-time record. According to figures collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report, police arrested an estimated 734,498 people for marijuana violations last year. That's up from the 704,812 Americans who were arrested in 1999 on marijuana-related charges. Of the almost three-quarters of a million people arrested in 2000, approximately 88% -- or about 646,042 individuals -- were charged only with possession of marijuana. The most chilling thing about those numbers, said Dasbach, is that every arrest for marijuana represents a "missed opportunity" for law enforcement. "Local and state police, the FBI, and federal law enforcement agencies have only a finite amount of people, time, and money to investigate and stop crimes," he noted. "By directing so many of those resources to the War on Marijuana, law enforcement made the ill-advised decision that detecting murderous, fanatical terrorists was less important than arresting non-violent Americans who choose to use marijuana. "The nearly 4,000 Americans who were killed in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, and aboard Flight 93 may have paid the price for that tragically misguided decision." Of course, what law enforcement did last year can't be altered now, admitted Dasbach. However, such policies can be changed for the future. "We can't bring back the thousands of Americans who were killed on September 11," he said. "And we can't bring back all the law enforcement resources that were squandered in the past. But we can learn from our mistakes -- and we can learn from the actions of other nations." For example, noted Dasbach, Great Britain reclassified marijuana in October so it is no longer an arrestable offense. "For the safety and security of our nation, it's time for the United States to follow the lead of Great Britain," he said. "Then, we could redirect law enforcement -- at the local, state, and federal levels -- to focus on preventing future barbarous acts of terrorism, instead of arresting marijuana-smokers who are no threat to anyone."Why Did Police Arrest 734,498 Pot-Smokers, Instead of Tracking Murderous Terrorists?Source: Libertarian PartyPublished: November 30, 2001Copyright: 1994-2001, the Libertarian Party Website: http://www.lp.org/Contact: http://www.lp.org/contact.htmlNORMLhttp://www.norml.org/CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by Lehder on December 03, 2001 at 11:13:50 PT
Bush's Texas Gubernatorial Records Buried
In January, while the eyes of the world were on recounts in Florida and the never-ending U.S. presidential election, a convoy of trucks left the state Capitol complex in Austin. The trucks were on a 110-mile trip to the southeast, to College Station and Texas A&M University -- specifically, to the George Bush Presidential Library on the A&M campus.
Carrying 60 shrink-wrapped pallets of documents, the convoy was removing Gov. George W. Bush's gubernatorial records from direct state control and passing them into the hands of federal archivists, already working to catalog the papers of the elder Bush's government service.http://www.shelbycountyliberalpress.org/shame1.htmSo now Bush's record as governor can be sealed under his recent executive order applying to presidential records.
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Comment #12 posted by Lehder on December 03, 2001 at 09:18:18 PT
Carlyle Group
Bush gives speeches for the company and is paid with stakes in the firm's investments, believed to be worth at least $80,000 per appearancehttp://www.hereinreality.com/carlyle.html
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Comment #11 posted by qqqq on December 03, 2001 at 01:31:51 PT
The Mind Police...
...I believe that it is highly likely,that the Book of Revelations will turn out to be correct,,in it's own Mystical way,,,,,,,,,like,,"the mark of the Beast"  http://www.raptureme.com/rr-666.html  
...this link may seem a bit radical to some,,,but I got this spooky feeling,,,,that the "War on Terror",,is going to reach its' apex,,when all "non-terrorists",("You are for us,,or against us")will consent to having some kinda Lo-Jack/GPS device implanted in their asses,or faces....That will be as close as they can get,to policing the minds of people........It's like the question,,"Well,,if your not guilty of anything,,why would you object to allowing us to know everything about you and your life?,,,,It's necessary for us all to remain free"
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Comment #10 posted by dddd on December 03, 2001 at 00:38:42 PT
yet another take on the quotation
"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of
      dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent
      marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities -- could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?" First off,,,I dont think any amount of law enforcement could have prevented 9/11.Even the strictest of police state,totalitarian enforcement of draconian laws,could not have prevented it,,,,and that is the reason why this absurd,illegitimate "war",will not prevent future terrorism,,,in fact,it will more likely encourage it......If you think of it in levels of "policing",the masses,,then,,after you have taken away everyones privacy,,financially,socially,physically,,,,then the only thing left,is to try to be "mind police".......and that's what they are foolishly suggesting they could do.........Uncle Sam the Sham,and the Pharohs.I pretty much agree with Dan Bs take,,,but I think maybe he could have worded it in a bit more of a suggestive,and indirect manner,,,,,,although,,I must admit,,I do like seeing the "cut the crap",,"clear the bullshit" approach of indelicateness,,,especially from Dr.D............dddd
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Comment #9 posted by 7777 on December 03, 2001 at 00:14:13 PT
Jack? RE:comments 1 & 2
Jack's probably with the new office of homeland cyber security.Jack was probably just testing and verifying that the new mega-Carnivore,Overlord 2002 Trace-n-Bust software is functioning properly.
What elses?Who are you jack?What are you testing?
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Comment #8 posted by Lehder on December 02, 2001 at 20:18:01 PT
addenda
spelling - it's Dave SchippersWoolsey - former head of CIA, but now a big shot at the American Enterprise Institute, a "think tank" whose proposals are derived from the mad philosophy of a New American Century of Global Domination, and which closely advises the White house.
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Comment #7 posted by Lehder on December 02, 2001 at 20:05:13 PT
quasi modo geniti infantes
Dan B, I respect your guts in taking an extreme position. It's one that I come close to fully agreeing with, but frankly I think the Bushes are too stupid to plan such an attack, or even to manage such planning. While evil, the plan was brilliant, and Bushes are not capable of brilliance, only extreme arrogance and selfishness.A story more credible to me is that the Bushes knowingly failed to prevent the attack and impeded FBI investigations that could have foiled it. Dave Shippers, Clinton impeachment prosecutor, comes close to taking this position in an article he authored and that appeared on Indymedia some weeks ago. Also, the former Deputy Director of the FBI, John O'Neill, resigned his post in July over frustrations of investigating terrorism. (Ironically, he then took the post of head of security at WTC and was killed on 9/11.) And I have read, though without finding original sources translated to English, that some French reporters claim that the Bushes provoked the attack with repeated taunts and threats to the Taliban beginning early this year. This is a really credible story considering the face to face threats made to the Taliban in a White House meeting in February. 
( These have been reported in some of the articles we've both been reading. )I think that the Bushes may not have known what the targets were to be, at least not all of them, and the Pentagon attack, at least, may have been a surprise. This is weakly evidenced by Bush's paranoid and aimless flying about in AF1 immediately after the attacks.But I do not wish to belabor this hair splitting: I see a criminal culpability on the Bushes' parts in 9/11, and I am baffled that it is not plain to all, and that circumstances of the attacks have not incited suspicion and demands for investigation. A more innocuous investigation into the causes of FBI and CIA failures would certainly seem in order. This would satisfy me, for starters, and would reveal if our suspicions are substantial.So what will come of it all? Probably nothing. Same as Oklahoma City, same as Vince Foster, or, for that matter, the "addictive" quality of marijuana. So long as the media are controlled by traitors, nothing. No discussion, no investigation, not even a playing of black box tapes made on flight 93 (PA crash). It seems our entire system has been halted in a suicidal gridlock.Eventually, the break with reality will become so great that only disaster can result, and we are headed for that disater quite soon. For example, I've read some articles that say our "victory" in Afghanistan is a hollow one, and that the Russians have actually usurped Afghanistan - the pipilines to be built will be controlled by Russians! If the Bushes do not yet realize that they've lost control they soon will and they'll go right out of their minds! And, more serious, the economy is not responding to Fed rate cuts - we're approaching the same fate as the Japanese. And if massive unemployment on a global scale and economic stagnation are not enough, then, with incompetents like the Bushes and madmen like Wolfowitz and Woolsey at the rudder, well, a really big war is a real possibility.My point is only the usual one that Reality cannot be evaded forever, and that Americans' manipulated and contrived conception of Reality must eventually adjust. And the longer that adjustment is delayed the more cataclysmic it will be. As dddd would say, 'it ain't gonna be pretty.' If the US in any recognizable form survives the Bush administration, which may well end in less than four years, then I hope whoever remains will realize that real debates and real news are essential to the health of a society, and that it is insufficient for leaders to arrogantly dismiss with expressions of personal contempt those who disagree with them and to then bullheadedly proceed in acting on their own bigotries. But so far, for the last few decades, such has been our history. Be ye like unto new-born babes.
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Comment #6 posted by Dan B on December 02, 2001 at 14:29:39 PT
A different take on the quotation
"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities -- could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?" In a word, no. In fact, nothing short of an insider whistleblower who has some clout with the mainstream media could have stopped the "terrorist attacks" on the WTC. That is because those attacks were planned and orchestrated by President George W. Bush, his father and former president George H. W. Bush, others in the Bush administration, CIA operatives loyal to the Bush family, certain high ranking members of the FBI, and high ranking officials in Saudi Arabia (including the bin Ladens) and Pakistan. They used Osama bin Laden as their scapegoat--which is why they have not yet "caught" him, and they won't for some time to come. Don't believe it? Check out the following:http://www.copvcia.com/stories/nov_2001/lucy.htmlhttp://makethemaccountable.com/whatwhen/index.htmFew of the aforementioned parties knew of the entire plan, but each played a crucial role in orchestrating these attacks. A conspiracy does not require that everyone knows the final outcome, only that all parties are willing to cooperate.And what is the purpose? Oil is part of it, but it runs deeper than that. I believe the ultimate goal of those attacks was to bring about the current so-called "war on terrorism"--the catalyst for bringing about a unified worldwide government--something the Bush family in particular has been working on for at least three generations.Dan B
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Comment #5 posted by goneposthole on December 01, 2001 at 16:20:01 PT
Why?
Because it was an easy job.
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Comment #4 posted by Patrick on December 01, 2001 at 10:37:25 PT
You just have to wonder…
"You just have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring, investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist activities - could the September 11 atrocity have been prevented?"Actually you don't have to wonder! It's blatantly obvious.
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on December 01, 2001 at 05:36:59 PT
Jack
Your test worked. We need your help. Don't give up. Help America end this barbaric evil threat to all citizens.
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Comment #2 posted by jack on December 01, 2001 at 03:27:46 PT
test 2
TEST
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Comment #1 posted by jack on December 01, 2001 at 03:26:27 PT
test
TEST
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