The Shooting Gallery: Police Violence MEGATHREAD

[garbon]

As I was walking home through the protesters and cops (they must be making loops around the Bryant Park area as they passed by my building several times), I've decided that I'm really angry about all of this - that which this thread is about. Speaking with both my sisters, they've mostly been sad about the various events but I've decided I'm angry. Of course, I'm trying to calm down as there really isn't much sense in sitting all pissy in my apt.  

[Sheilbh]

[mono]Join the mob of hate-filled rioters?[/mono]

[Berkut]

http://www.policemisconduct.net/is-there-a-connection-between-police-unions-and-abusive-cops/




Public sector unions == win

[garbon]

[mono]Join the mob of hate-filled rioters?[/mono]

Well that probably would just make me angrier.

Besides, I don't think it would help much to join in on the insanity that is happening.

[Capetan Mihali]

Any idea if those were "had 25 kg of cocaine" or "was smoking a joint on his porch" convictions?

A joint on your porch doesn't get you a felony.

But a tiny bit of cocaine or LSD or heroin in your living room does -- in many states, if not most, possession of any quantity of a "hard" drug is a felony.  Vermont -- along with Mass., N.Y., Penna., D.C. and as of two weeks ago, the good people of California by ballot prop (customarily leading the way in good and bad ideas alike) -- is lucky to even have a misdemeanor poss. of heroin charge.

And you don't need to possess all that much pot to get up to felony range, just a half-ounce in some places (Tenn. for sure, many other states too; I'm sure NORML has a map), or if you've been caught with a joint a couple times over the course of your life prior to the current hypothetical one being smoked on the porch, you're a three-time-loser recidivist (check out Louisiana's MJ laws; a third MJ possession offense, however small, gets you like a 10 or 15 year min in prison.)

The main thing, though, is that almost *any* sale or delivery of drugs is a felony in most every state, even if it is just selling a gram of weed.  So slanging a little bit of rock as a teenager can make you a "narcotics felon" even if you were just a bit player with no violent history, and even if you never got a prison sentence at all but just plead out to the felony so you could get probation and get out of jail right then.

Here in Vt., the cut-off for felony heroin possession is set unrealistically low at 200mg, which is basically the real low end of the daily-use range for addicts (i.e 5-6 light bags).  A bundle of 10 bags is the main unit that people purchase, and ordinary addicts can frequently develop habits of two or three buns a day. But possession of a single bundle is a felony charge, since they calculate dope at ~30mg/bag

Vermont is quite good in not having a law against paraphernalia; not having a charge of "possession with intent to distribute" (except for trafficking which has more complex elements); not having any crack cocaine/powder cocaine disparity or even crack charge -- cocaine is just cocaine. 

[Not having any restrictions on carrying a gun either, the important exception being the absolute ban on keeping loaded guns in the passenger compartment of a vehicle.  This is a Fish and Wildlife offense, as the law was intended to crack down on unsporting poachers who'll take a shot at a deer on the shoulder from their seat in the cab, those who'll get to "spotting" or "jacking" the deer with headlights on the roadside, so as to stun the deer in its tracks and blow it away. )

[EDIT:  Not having a law against paying for handjobs either, recently confirmed by the Vt.SCt.  It was quite funny.  The Burlington police  and the big-shot SA did a big raid on some Asian massage places last year, hyping it up as the moral fight against human trafficking, etc.  But they only caught guys getting HJs.  And sex acts are defined really clearly in the statute, if you bother to take a look at it.  Some kind of concave-convex penetration, whichever orifice and however slight, must take place.  So the Court agreed -- no constitutional way to read this law to include handjobs, all the johns and madams were within their rights to do business about HJs.  Got a good chuckle that they didn't even check the law before staging this operation.  I think the movement to ban them in the Legislature kind of died out since, well, it's prostitution for handjobs...]

Yet the felony/misdemeanor cut-off for cocaine is set at the much more reasonable personal use amount of 2.5g -- a bit under the classic eightball.  I won't hazard any guesses about the reasons behind the heroin/cocaine disparity.  Pills also get treated much better.  You could have 99 of Oxy 80s or Dilaudid 8s and that's still only a misdemeanor, even though it's probably as strong as 30 or 40 bags of dope.

The MJ law in this state is wacky, too.  Last year,  <1 oz of the wacky tabacky was reduced to a civil ticket to great fanfare.  To the Legislature's credit, they explicitly blocked the loopholes that are used to screw you regardless.  Like in Mass., which decriminalized pot, but anyone caught smoking it outside their home can get busted.  Or in N.C., where the baggie holding the pot or the rolling papers holding a joint can constitute "paraphernalia," and completely override the softening of the pot laws they've done

But with troubling oversight, the Vt Legislature didn't bump down the other MJ possession amounts when they bumped down the one amount  to "decriminalized" status.  So from 1 joint to 1 ounce, the penalty is equivalent to a traffic ticket.  From 1 ounce to 2 ounces, it's a misdemeanor criminal charge with a maximum 6 months in jail.  And over 2 oz is still a felony carrying up to 3 years!  

The quantity spectrum from a $200 fine max and no record to 3 years and a felony record seems awfully tight to me. Newsworthy pot busts these days tend to be in the 3-4 pound or 50-100 plant range.  Truly, two ounces isn't more than a reasonable Costco purchase for a devoted toker; at an eighth or so a day, it would last a single person person a bit over two weeks, less so if he shared as he'd be expected to.

[Admiral Yi]

And eighth a day?? 

[Capetan Mihali]

You gotta get out more, homes.  There are some legitimate pot addicts out there these days, way more than in the past, given how potent average weed has become, let alone the trendy stuff I don't get, like "dabs" and "wax."  But yeah, most eighth-a-day'ers would be sharing significantly -- rolling blunts throughout the day will use up a ton of weed, but obviously they are a social thing to be shared with your homeboys, not smoked alone watching Qoyanasqaatsi.

[CountDeMoney]

But, like, dude...pot isn't, like...wait...oh, yeah...like, addicting at all, man.  *bubble bubble bubble*

[Ed Anger]

I suddenly want some Funyuns.

[DontSayBanana]

I suddenly want some Funyuns.

I had a bag with lunch today.

[CountDeMoney]

All fucking stoners must fucking hang.

[Ed Anger]

I just took half a Narco. 

[Valmy]

So, was the cop guilty or not?
I mean your opinion,  of course.

Which cop?  The Fergusen one?  It seems he was not guilty.  But an investigation needed to be done and I was glad it happened.  Maybe if they had used as much care at the beginning of this crisis a lot of nonsense could have been avoided.

[Admiral Yi]

You gotta get out more, homes.  There are some legitimate pot addicts out there these days, way more than in the past, given how potent average weed has become, let alone the trendy stuff I don't get, like "dabs" and "wax."  But yeah, most eighth-a-day'ers would be sharing significantly -- rolling blunts throughout the day will use up a ton of weed, but obviously they are a social thing to be shared with your homeboys, not smoked alone watching Qoyanasqaatsi.

An eighth a day is a full time job.

[Capetan Mihali]

An eighth a day is a full time job.

A full-time job, perhaps, but one you can do from home or on top of another full-time job if it's mindless enough.  And a job where you can basically afford it without having to deal or commit other crimes... assuming you bought bulk, and an ounce of regular grade pot goes for $70-120, it's only $9-12 a day or so.  I see people spend more than that on scratchies every time I go to the gas station.