cannabisnews.com: S.C. Probes High School Drug Sweep S.C. Probes High School Drug Sweep Posted by CN Staff on November 08, 2003 at 14:18:50 PT By The Associated Press Source: Associated Press Goose Creek, S.C. -- State police are investigating a drug sweep in which more than a dozen local officers charged into a crowded high school hallway with their guns drawn and handcuffed students. No drugs or weapons were found during the sweep, and there were no drug-related arrests. Videotape from Stratford High School surveillance cameras Wednesday morning shows dozens of students, some of them handcuffed, sitting on a hallway floor against the walls as police officers watch them with guns drawn and police dogs sniff backpacks and bags strewn across the hall. ``I'm absolutely outraged,'' said Danny Partin, whose stepson attends Stratford. ``This is supposed to be a free country, not a police state.'' Prosecutor Ralph Hoisington told the Charleston Post & Courier in Saturday editions that he asked the State Law Enforcement Division on Friday to look into possible police misconduct. ``I don't think there's anything wrong at all with law enforcement addressing a problem in a high school, but I have serious concerns about the need for restraining students and drawing weapons,'' Hoisington said. ``I don't want to send my child to a school and find out guns are drawn on them.'' Investigators should have called suspected students to the principal's office to check their bags for drugs if they believed there was drug-dealing going on, said Graham Boyd, director of the drug policy project for the American Civil Liberties Union. ``You absolutely cannot bring police with guns drawn into a school,'' Boyd said. He called the search illegal. Stratford Principal George McCrackin said that he had talked with police about what he called a growing drug problem at the school and that the police responded. The students didn't know what was happening when the officers rushed in, student Maurice Harris Jr. told NBC's ``Today'' show Saturday. ``I was frightened because they had guns in their hands,'' Harris said. ``I thought one of the guns was going to go off and shoot or kill somebody, so I just got down to my knees and covered my head for protection.'' Goose Creek police Lt. Dave Aarons said the guns were drawn as ``a matter of officer safety.'' ``I don't think it was an overreaction,'' he said. ``Anytime you have qualified information regarding drugs and large amounts of money, there's a reasonable assumption weapons are involved.'' The officers handcuffed students who failed to ``respond to repeated police instruction,'' Aarons said. The only charge stemming from the raid involved a ninth-grader who was cited for allegedly filing a false police report, saying an officer shoved her to the ground during the search, Aarons said. McCrackin said he, other school officials and the girl's parent reviewed video surveillance tapes and determined the girl wasn't in that hall at the time. Source: Associated Press Published: November 08, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/SLED Investigating Stratford Drug Sweep http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17758.shtmlPolice Fail To Find Drugs in Stratford High Raid http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17751.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #21 posted by Jose Melendez on November 12, 2003 at 09:10:43 PT Children Learn What They Live Children Learn What They LiveChildren Learn What They Live By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn. If children live with hostility, they learn to fight. If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive. If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves. If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy. If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy. If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty. If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence. If children live with tolerance, they learn patience. If children live with praise, they learn appreciation. If children live with acceptance, they learn to love. If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves. If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal. If children live with sharing, they learn generosity. If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness. If children live with fairness, they learn justice. If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect. If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them. If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte Children Learn What They Live [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by kaptinemo on November 12, 2003 at 08:57:26 PT: "Teach up a child in the way they are to go... ...and when they are old, they will not stray from it." : Proverbs 22:6How many times have we all heard this?Now, tack this on: "...and when they are old, they will bust down their parent's doors, terrorize them by waving guns in *their* faces, drag *them* to the floor, and possibly *kill them* in the process of a search for illegal items.Teach children that fascism is acceptable, and then be prepared to accept fascism being applied to you...BY THEM!Good God, America, will you please WAKE UP before the occasional nightmare becomes the daily norm? [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Jose Melendez on November 12, 2003 at 07:02:20 PT the money comes from US! They know where the money comes from. So do we.http://dvdeland.com/gotTerror.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by ron on November 10, 2003 at 15:43:20 PT My thoughts exactly kapt. Love reading the site for the insights into the minds of these persecutors. They seem wilfully ignorant of reason when it comes to drug war morality, but display the cunning of predators when it comes to keeping it going. They know where the money comes from.From the same site last week:02 Nov 2003, 18:02 PST, 5th Edition"Why is that woman smiling???":The problem isn't Bush, we all knew all along Bush is a cowardly punk, drunk, and rich kid weasel.The problem isn't the IG. The IG office is only doing their job.Likewise with OMB. That office is a political tool of the WH. They do what they are told to do.The problem is us. We are our own worst enemy.Tandy was right when she told Congress if we want to end the drug war we need to take the war to the people at the top, the cartels. We all know Tandy was right.But the sad fact is, none of us wants to take the war to the top. We are afraid that if we take-out the top guys and end the drug war we will all have to get new jobs and actually work for our living.Every year we do the same old job... we bust nickel and dime dealers, intermixed with an occasional mob. But we always find ways to avoid finding out who the ringleaders are in our country. We don't want that info because we know that if we had that info we would be forced to arrest the top guys who are bringing drugs into the U.S...* * *The writer is just developing a case in the eternal DEA intra/interagency turf battles, but he reveals the hollow core/corps/corpse at it's centre. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by kaptinemo on November 10, 2003 at 11:58:53 PT: Another poster at DEAWatch Now, look very carefully:*08 Nov 2003, 12:01 PST, 1st EditionOut of sight, out of mind, con't:"The police action involving a drug raid at a school with drawn weapons if flat out insane. (Look right here--->)This is the type of activity that the legalizers have been drawing attention to for years..."Note the almost certainly unconscious admission that not only have incidents like this taken place before, but abject fear, not for the children's safety, but the bad PR opportunity (for them) this provides for us 'legalizers'. This DEA poster is scared more for his job than he is for those kids."...I can't imagine any such scenario being planned by a rational police unit. I would bet that there will be some lawsuits following this. Can there really be a justification for this???But there are always two sides to a story. Does anyone have any information that would partially justify such an operation?*Reach, reach reach...way out on a limb. Begging for anything, anything at all to put a fig leaf on this travesty.But...not a single thought for the safety of those kids. Just like when they shot a 14 year old girl and said, in essence, because she was a Mex kid, she was perforce a criminal mixed up in the trade. Judge, jury and executioner, all rlled into one; how efficacious of them.'Save the children', huh? This how you 'save children', you government bloodsucker? By pointing guns in their faces? By shooting and killing them?Our taxes pay for this? For YOU!? [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by Virgil on November 10, 2003 at 08:21:03 PT DEAwatch survey question on this A comment today said the DEA could provide leadership that would prevent things like this. It is obvious to anyone that outrages like this hurt the WOD and it is even more obvious to people in the DEA.http://members.aol.com/deawatch/daily.htm dated Nov 9, 2003 at 15:23 is one of the 24-hour surveys that the DEAwatch often has. It askedQUESTION #1: What should be Administrator Tandy's response to this raid?Send a letter of strong support to the Police Chief... 1.3%Issue a statement that takes a middle position... 0%Avoid this entire issue like the plague... 98.7% [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by BigDawg on November 10, 2003 at 06:39:39 PT Oh my Oh my...Ohhhhh Myyyyyy............Does anyone anywhere really believe this was a good thing? [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by Ferre on November 09, 2003 at 10:19:26 PT: "FEAR" is the keyword. This is another prove the U.S. government is ruling by fear.Now they scare the hell out of children, showing them "some muscle" for "in case they ever want to get involved with drugs". In any other country in the world this could NOT have happened, not even in China or the old USSR. These are symptoms from a very sick system.I'm glad my daughter goes to school in a civilised country.Reverend Ferre van Beveren, Amsterdam, Netherlands THC Ministry Amsterdam [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Sam Adams on November 09, 2003 at 06:36:38 PT Too late! ``I'm absolutely outraged,'' said Danny Partin, whose stepson attends Stratford. ``This is supposed to be a free country, not a police state.''You haven't been paying attention pal! Wake up! We've got 2 or 3 millions in our gulags, overfunded police depts., 15,000 arrested each week for choosing a plant. It's over! Police state is here, and they'll do ANYTHING to avoid giving up power. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by John Tyler on November 09, 2003 at 06:32:31 PT Free or drug free? Stratford Principal George McCrackin said that he had talked with police about what he called a growing drug problem at the school and that the police responded. This brings home the point that you can have a free country or a drug free country, but not both. The "Barney Fife Nazi wanna bes" have chosen drug free at the point of a gun.The people will have to decide if they like armed police raids on children or not. I hope common sense will prevail and the folks who came up with this stupid idea will soon be unemployed for their extreme bad judgement and apparent law breaking. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by jose melendez on November 09, 2003 at 05:49:31 PT oops "Show me one pothead who ever ran into a school with a gun and caused children to fear for their lives."There's a very high chance that one of the cops in this raid used to smoke pot or has done so recently. Got terror? Join! [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by jose melendez on November 09, 2003 at 05:48:12 PT high "Show me one pothead who ever ran into a school with a gun and caused children to fear for their lives."There's a very high chance that one of the cops in this raid used to smoke pot or has done so recently. Got terror? Join! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by gloovins on November 09, 2003 at 05:17:07 PT This Anti-drug anamation slide-toon takes the cake 2003 is getting scarier but more so, desperate... http://www.freevibe.com/News/yugioh_pop.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by gloovins on November 09, 2003 at 04:48:53 PT everyone acts surprised by this But as you know that approx 30% of the people that approved of this raid in that poll is who are running the country. And in SOUTH CAROLINA?? C'mon you don't get more testosterone, guns, trigger-happer cops with very possibly inbred minds then there I'm sure. I mean I know there are some good people/LEO's in S Carolina but my question to you FoM and anyone reading this is:Between Asscroft, Johnny Pee, Bush (I & II), the "Patroit" Act, the incredible $90 billion DEAth, and local narcotics squads GIANT BLOATED assest forfiture liquidized cash accounts (plus actual $ seized), in 2003 does this really surprise anyone today? We all rememeber the polls of well over 50 % polled said they would give up some civil liberties for a little (or alot) more "security" or for extra "safety". This is the sadest part for me, a lover of the USA. We are wasting our tax dollars on this be it s carolina or s dakota or s ohio, no? Yet we have money to build up a new Iraq but fear not future HS students they will be very Iraqi in nature, yeah, just like in the OLD Iraqi schools, that is. Our resourses/tax dollars are so mis-allocated it makes me sick. What ever happened to the phrase by the US Supreme Court: "Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the school gate.."????????????????It seems tragically disgusting but, those bastards who jacked those planes on 9/11 are winning a little more and more each day in a perverse sort of way. America needs to wake up.By the way, has the US government find that Bin Laden or Saddam dude, yet?So, I'm still urging to: write-in: Fmr. Gov. Gary Johnson (R-NM) (just like that) for President on your 2004 presidential ballot, just a friendly reminder! :) http://lp.org [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by billos on November 09, 2003 at 02:45:03 PT: All the cops that participate in D.A.R.E. ...programs around the country can now take with them into the schools this video. After giving their speech to the students about the dangers of drugs and how cannabis leads to heroin, they can end with a showing of this video and commenting, "And this is what we will do if you don't stay away from cannabis!" I'm sure the Nazi principal of this school surely had to get home and have a martini or two after such a trauma. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on November 08, 2003 at 21:42:40 PT The child welfare department should go after them Holding kids hostage with guns is usually considered child abuse. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by The GCW on November 08, 2003 at 19:50:22 PT Peace everywhere; peace for a new century. DC: I see that the use of violence to resolve conflict is becoming to be looked at as a most obscene act in society.Butterflies in the chaos An intimate conversation with Deepak Chopra http://www.boulderweekly.com/hygeia.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by E_Johnson on November 08, 2003 at 17:52:24 PT Here's the next step in the drama A student panics during a raid and starts to have an asthma attack, reaches for her inhaler and BLAM her head gets blown off in front of the other students. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on November 08, 2003 at 17:31:46 PT The myth of the growing drug problem If the drug problem has been growing since people started saying it was growing, then everyone in the country should now be on drugs, even the police. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Petard on November 08, 2003 at 16:44:56 PT Cops are creating terror The cops also violated civil rights in an absolutely blatant way. Seems to me, some years ago, the Supreme's ruled that for a cop to order someone out of their vehicle at gunpoint for a minor traffic violation was unconstitutional. How much more so then is it to force the innocent students, not even observed to have committed a minor infraction, to lie face down at gunpoint and submit to arrest? I also know for a fact that the situation could, and possibly should, have gotten completely out of hand in that both of the Carolina's permit the use of force to resist unlawful restraint and/or arrest. In other words, those kids had every right to use force to defend their freedoms and liberties. Those kids could have fought the cops and been lawful in so doing. Isn't it the Carolina's that are applying the state's version of the un-Patriot Act to meth cookers? Seems to me if meth labs are WMD's then illegal police raids consisting of multiple police HIJACKERS is an overt act of terrorism prosecutorial under the same laws. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by delariand on November 08, 2003 at 16:34:47 PT Under the PATRIOT act Can't these policeman be prosecuted as terrorists? They caused these students to fear for their lives! There's a direct quote from a student who sincerely believed there was a risk of being shot by these officers. What's some of that silly propaganda speak they use? Wouldn't you say this school was 'plunged into a climate of fear' by this search?On one hand, they tell me that smoking cannabis supports terror, on the other they send the police after me with guns? Who's supporting what now?Why is everyone so eager to classify cannabis users as terrorists? Show me one pothead who ever ran into a school with a gun and caused children to fear for their lives. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment