Community Fears Police, Not Marijuana

[jamieuke]

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/10/11/opinion/doc4cae3e1b3919e795262091.txt

[greenbuddha]

http://theoaklandpre...9e795262091.txt

 

Don't know who 'Charmie Gholson' is, but she certainly knows what she is talking about and IS NOT afraid to say it.

 

May all good things come to Charmie.

 

We need more people like her that aren't afraid to 'peacefully' and 'intelligently' stand up for what they believe is right.

 

Thanks for the post and thanks to 'Charmie'.

[highhope]

Beware of the military/industrial State..this was a warning from President Eisenhower. We have now allowed through the Supreme Court ruling this year, Big Corporations to finance, without limit, political canidates. This is bringing a 7 to 1 money spending ratio to Republicans vs. Democrats. Our alliances are for the most part with Democrats like David Layton..now running for Attorney General for the State of Michigan, pleeese get out the vote. Our votes are our base protection, Corporations finance mercenaries, be they SWAT or something else.

[MORE COWBELL]

NEOCONS want to put a bible in everyone's hand-the approved get the nod up the social economic ladder while the masses become wage slave labor consumers-everyone in their place/box and monitored/controlled from the cradle to the grave... WORLDWIDE

we have become Oceania in George Orwell's 1984

[+RevThad]

NEOCONS want to put a bible in everyone's hand-the approved get the nod up the social economic ladder while the masses become wage slave labor consumers-everyone in their place/box and monitored/controlled from the cradle to the grave... WORLDWIDE

we have become Oceania in George Orwell's 1984

My friend, I have seen just as many Libs with the same goals. It is time to unite us as a people again, not follow down the divide and conquer path those in power wish us to take.

 

They have made a science out of using class, race, religion, and party affiliations against "We the people". Time to ignore the window dressing and get back to "to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,"

 

[greenbuddha]

Beware of the military/industrial State..this was a warning from President Eisenhower. We have now allowed through the Supreme Court ruling this year, Big Corporations to finance, without limit, political canidates. This is bringing a 7 to 1 money spending ratio to Republicans vs. Democrats. Our alliances are for the most part with Democrats like David Layton..now running for Attorney General for the State of Michigan, pleeese get out the vote. Our votes are our base protection, Corporations finance mercenaries, be they SWAT or something else.

 

 

Help get as many 'liked minded' people as you can to the polls on November 2nd !

 

I am already set up to drive 6 of my friends that would not be able to vote otherwise.

 

We don't have the 'money' that 'they' are able to come up with.

 

All we have is our vote and our voices.

 

Help people get to the polls if you can.

[Full melt]

People in the 48th District! Don't Re-elect Judge Marc Barron he refuses to uphold the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, denying patients their right to use medicine while awaiting trial!

[KathywithaK]

http://theoaklandpress.com/articles/2010/10/11/opinion/doc4cae3e1b3919e795262091.txt

Great article Charmie,looking forward to the next midwest cultivator,great papre to.

[Willy]

we have the power in votes, there are more than enough pro medical mmj.. vote folks, let them know we have the potential to push 50000 votes. as was said before, vote tell them we have the votes, the candidates will suck that up..

[Charmie]

Don't know who 'Charmie Goulson' is, but she certainly knows what she talking about and IS NOT afraid to say it.

 

May all good things come to Charmie.

 

We need more people like her that aren't afraid to 'peacefully' and 'intelligently' stand up for what they believe is right.

 

Thanks for the post and thanks to 'Charmie'.

 

 

THANK YOU FOR THIS--

she certainly knows what she talking about and IS NOT afraid to say it

as you can imagine, it's gotten me into my fair share of trouble through the years, thankfully I now prefer the peaceful and intelligent route, which allows for actual debate and to help change the minds of the people.

And thanks for the blessings, right back atcha!

Peace, Charmie

 

Oh, and they misspelled my name, in addition to editing my piece. It was really good before they chopped it up.

[Charmie]

Here's the original piece, unedited by anyone other than myself.

 

Community fears police, not product

 

In a September 27 Oakland Press opinion, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard asserts to clarify facts regarding the August 25 drug raids carried out by the Oakland County Narcotics Enforcement Team. “The pro-marijuana legalization faction seeking total legalization has gone into PR overdrive.” Bouchard says, “SWAT was not used, patients were not thrown around.”

 

I have interviewed patients who were thrown around. One woman was handcuffed, hands behind her back, thrown to the floor by masked screaming officers carrying automatic weapons, who “placed,” theirs boots on her back and neck. One family, including an eight-year-old child, was told by yelling officers “anyone move and we’ll shoot the dog.”

 

The public outcry over those paramilitary raids is not a PR stunt, but an outpouring of fear and anger from the community Sheriff Bouchard calls “real patients that the voters intended to help that have no basic safeguards to protect them. ” The folks protesting outside Oakland County Courthouse believe they’re in danger, not from an unregulated product but from police who look and behave like soldiers. The violence and terror created by those raids generates danger where none previously existed.

 

For chronically ill, state-sanctioned medical marijuana patients and their caregivers, collective fear is very high.

 

I urge readers to consider why as a society we have come to accept these actions carried out on American citizens.

 

Prior to Nixon declaring the drug war raids like this were unheard of. The original purpose of SWAT was to respond to domestic violence attacks, snipers, or hostage situations. As the drug war progressed under the Military Cooperation with Law Enforcement Officials Act, Congress directed the military to make equipment and facilities available to civilian police in the anti-drug effort and the Pentagon began equipping local police with M-16s and armored personnel carriers such as the “Colonel” tank owned by the Oakland County Sheriff’s department.

 

As the military was drawn further into those efforts, state and local police departments increasingly accepted the military as a model for their behavior and outlook. The problem is that the mindset of a soldier is simply not appropriate for a civilian police officer. Police officers confront not an “enemy” but individuals who are protected by the Bill of Rights.

 

But in order to make war you must have an enemy. In January 2008, a Lima, Ohio SWAT team shot and killed 26-year-old Tarika Wilson. They were there to arrest her boyfriend, who was visiting but did not live there.

 

When Tarika heard the SWAT team bust down her door, ignite a flash grenade and shoot her dog, she ran into her children’s bedroom carrying her 13-month-old son. An officer fired three shots into the dark room where she gathered with her six children. The bullets that killed Tarika also blew off part of her baby’s hand.

 

Posters in the Lima and Toledo newspapers said Tarika “deserved it because she allowed drugs in her house.” “She probably was hiding a gun behind her baby.” “She was living in a drug den, knew it, and paid the price.”

 

This was when I understood the power the drug war holds over people’s lives, beliefs and communities.

 

Today there are more than 1700 SWAT teams across America. With little to do, they’re unleashed on American citizens in situations foreign in years past, executing up to 40 raids across the country each day, primarily to serve drug warrants.

 

Such a team executed the raids in Oakland County on August 25th. The issue is not what we call them, but if we are going to continue to sanctify these assaults on our neighbors.

 

Charmie Gholson is a journalist, mother, and drug policy reform advocate.

 

Resources

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=6476

[+RevThad]

THANK YOU FOR THIS-- as you can imagine, it's gotten me into my fair share of trouble through the years, thankfully I now prefer the peaceful and intelligent route, which allows for actual debate and to help change the minds of the people.

And thanks for the blessings, right back atcha!

Peace, Charmie

 

Oh, and they misspelled my name, in addition to editing my piece. It was really good before they chopped it up.

Just thought I would chime in while you were around. Great piece. Keep up the great work. Hehe, sometimes I wish I had an editor to chop up some of my writing.

 

I learned the hard way about going the other route.

 

May all of our travels be met with open hearts and open minds.

 

I wish you well,

Rev. Thadius