Good question! And it’s answered by Ted Hesson in his good article in Fusion.net.
Spoiler alert: No.
Second spoiler: I’m quoted.
Third spoiler: I curse (yet again).
Tag: war on drugs
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We Got Another Kingpin! (14)
It’s been a few months, and actually “we” didn’t get him. But he was gotten all the same.
From the BBC: “Mexican police have found the body of Aquiles Gomez, who was thought to be one of the main leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel.”
We win! (for the fourteenth time and counting…)
As I wrote back in 2011:
Ah, the illusive search for “Mr. Kingpin.” If only we could nab him, the whole criminal enterprise would tumble. Witness how we’re all safe from terrorism after the killing of Osama bin Laden. And notice how the drug war in Mexico has been won…
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The sound of the drug war slowly crumbling…
…now includes police chiefs saying we should decriminalize small amounts of marijuana. It’s not that bold of a statement, but it is coming from an active chief of police!
From Mlive:
[Petersburg, Virginia, Police Chief John] Dixon said drug use and addiction ought to be addressed by public health officials, not police. He said that police often view drug arrests as signs of success, and as a way to help the user.
“Why do I have to lock you up for that? What benefit am I giving you, then? We have to get out of the business. That should be the focus of the medical field.”
The war on drugs has affected minority communities the most, he said.
“It’s insanity. We know. The results haven’t changed.”
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Still of the Day
Direct predecessor to DEA agents proudly displaying their prohibition victory. After another decade of trying to make alcohol go away, Americans would wise up and regulate alcohol. Guys like these would then continue the prohibition fight against other drugs. It’s 92 years later and more than two million Americans are behind bars. Keep on keeping on!
[Enlarged version here. Taken from Shorpy.com]
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“Just the world we live in”
A stun grenade exploded in a baby’s face. According to the BBC:
The Swat officers had used a stun grenade, called a flash bang, as they entered the residence. The device, which creates bright bursts of light and noise to temporarily disorient its targets, landed in 19-month-old Bounkham “Bou Bou” Phonesavanh’s playpen, where it burned the child’s face and created a gash on his chest deep enough to expose his ribs.
OK. I mean it may be standard to use SWAT teams and flash grenades, but that isn’t supposed to happen. But mistakes do happen. So I bet the chief is pretty apologetic.
But not in Habersham County, Georgia. According to Sheriff Joey Terrell:
Our team went by the book. Given the same scenario, we’ll do the same thing again. I stand behind what our team did…. Bad things can happen. That’s just the world we live in. Bad things happen to good people…. The baby didn’t deserve this.
I’m sorry, but that’s not good enough.
I mean look, I know this is just another example of our idiotic war on ourselves, I mean drugs. That’s nothing new. And bad things do happen to good people. But that doesn’t mean bad things should happen to good people at the hands of police. And when they do, as they inevitably will sometimes, you say you’re sorry, figure out what you did wrong so it doesn’t happen again, and probably shell out some dough to the victim.
When “the book” results in innocent babies being maimed by police, then rewrite the fucking book, you brainless fool! What you don’t do is say no mistakes were made, and you would do the same thing again. See, if you did the same thing again in the same situation, then the same thing would happen again. And if you’re OK with that, then you’re a dick.
From the BBC:
Meanwhile, Bou Bou Phonesavanh is no longer in a coma, but he is still undergoing hospital-based rehabilitation. His long-term prognosis has yet to be determined.
Wanis Thonetheva, the original target of the raid, was eventually located and arrested for drug possession. As the Guardian’s Pilkington notes, police officers knocked on his door, and he went with them without resistance.
That’s worth repeating: “Police officers knocked on his door, and he went with them without resistance.” Wow, so you mean the whole SWAT team / flash-grenade thing was unnecessary? Why… yes.
Anyhow… with Thonetheva off the streets, I’m sure it must now be impossible to get meth in Habersham County.
Update: It’s worth noting, and it’s taken me a while to realize this, that this is the same jurisdiction and sheriff that were involved with the killing of innocent Rev. Jonathan Ayers in 2009. It’s amazing to me that such multiple instances of gross incompetence in law enforcement could come out of the same small place.
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This guy might be brilliant…
Mark Oslermay I’m talking about. Don’t know him from Adam: “We Need Al Capone Drug Laws“
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(Former) Narc in Vice
Neill Franklin, once my commanding officer and now my friend (and coauthor) featured in Vice Magazine. I love Vice Magazine. And just because I’ve also been featured in it.
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“The true lives of low-level drug dealers”
Erin Rose wrote a great piece in Salon about your average run-of-the drug dealer. It’s not like Breaking Bad (though it is in Albuquerque). It’s not like Baltimore’s Eastern District. Most drug dealers are not violent. Most drug dealers are not black.
Some highlights (but it’s worth reading in its entirety):
Rico works a full-time job and only deals as much as he can reasonably use or hide. He lives in the the same small house he’s lived in for 12 years, in a down-and-out part of Albuquerque that recently began to “yuppify,” as he puts it.
“I’m not trying to be some rich guy. I’m just trying to get money to enjoy myself. Real-world jobs don’t allow people to do that. I think that’s why a lot of people sell drugs,” Rico says.
His “real-world job” pays a few bucks more than minimum wage.
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These men don’t belong to cartels or gangs. They’ve never murdered or physically hurt anyone while selling drugs. They don’t keep guns. With the exception of Shorts, they’ve never been arrested. Each of the dealers I spoke with said that they began selling drugs when they realized that there was no way their jobs would allow them to do what they wanted to do.
Selander sees it as a larger societal problem. “Try to raise a family working at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart. Try to buy a house.”
While dealing is not significantly more lucrative — economic researchers report that independent drug dealers make, on average, $20,000-to-$30,000 a year – being self-employed offers these men a freedom unavailable to them at a normal job. Working at McDonald’s or Wal-Mart puts them at the mercy of a system that will ruthlessly replace them should they break any of its rules. Drug dealing, they say, allows them to set their own priorities and schedules.
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“I’m not lazy,” he continues. “They call it hustling for a reason!” He cackles. “But I ain’t dumb enough to wear myself out making someone else money.”
Shorts sold meth for a short time, he told me, but complains that the people he sold to were unable to wait, and liable to do something crazy. He prefers to deal only with professionals — and, he says, the professionals do cocaine.
“I like to sell to the lawyers, the doctors, you know, people who have something to lose.”
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“Everybody does drugs, but it’s the poor who go to jail for it, ” another dealer, named Cruz, told me.
Cruz had grown up broke. At one point, he, his mom and his brother were living on $9,800 a year. “We tried to go through the bank. No financial institutions would lend to us, because we didn’t have repossess-able assets.”
Without the money Cruz made selling drugs, he never could have opened his legal, and so far successful, business. Once he had the money he needed, he stopped selling blow. When I asked him why, he told me, “If you don’t get addicted to the drugs, you get addicted to the money.”
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We Got Another Kingpin! (13)
“El Chapo, Most-Wanted Drug Lord, Is Captured in Mexico.”
“This is an absolutely huge get.”
“Big strike.”
“A landmark achievement, and a victory for the citizens of both Mexico and the United States.”
So don’t believe the headline, “Drug kingpin’s bust may have no effect.” Or the nay-sayers: “It’s bad news for Mazatlán. “He was keeping the peace.”
We win! (for the thirteenth time and counting…)