Radley Balko spends much of his time monitoring drug war abuses, the ongoing militarization of the police, and legal cases involving extreme abuses of governmental power. He’s been following and documenting the career of Steven Hayne, the so-called forensics expert in Mississippi. In short, whatever you do, don’t get convicted of a crime in Mississippi. Seriously, if you’re driving cross country to, say, Florida, go around the state.
This post at his blog led to his article at Reason. The whole thing just really pisses me off. The extreme arrogance of the police in their casual disregard for common decency is appalling. I’ve been against the so-called Drug War since Reagan was president, and I find it sad that it takes an article about dogs being casually shot to, hopefully, get people to sit up and notice. The idea that people will casually surrender their civil liberties but get pissed off when a dog is killed is, frankly idiotic.
I guess the P.R. lesson here for drug war opponents and civil libertarians is to emphasize the plight of the pooch. America’s law-and-order populace may not be ready to condemn the practice of busting up recreational pot smokers with ostentatiously armed paramilitary police squads, even when the SWAT team periodically breaks into the wrong house or accidentally shoots a kid. I mean, somebody was probably breaking the law, right?
But the dog? That loyal, slobbery, lovable, wide-eyed, fur-lined bag of unconditional love?
Dammit, he deserves better.
Please don’t get me wrong. Killing a dog just because the animal is in your way is a hanging offense in my book. But then so is raiding the wrong house when serving a drug warrant, destroying a family’s home and personal possessions, and leaving the family with, arguably, a case of post traumatic stress disorder.
There are many things right about this country. The drug war is not one of them.