Weedpipe
Active Member
WARNING: some may consider this video disturbing
[video=youtube;RbwSwvUaRqc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc&feature=player_embedded[/video]
A Columbia, Missouri SWAT team breaks into the house of Jonathan Whitworth, shoots and kills a dog in the presence of a small child and the mans wife, shoots and wounds a second dog, all over a grinder, a pipe and a small amount of marijuana.
And then they haul the guy off in handcuffs and charge him with child endangerment.
Killing dogs is a pattern in drug raids, but its rarely caught on video. One of the most disturbing was the handiwork of Joe Arpaios squad:
In 2004 one of Arpaios SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custodyfor outstanding traffic violations.
But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.
Radley Balko at Reason has been documenting for years. Fremont police raided the home of medical marijuana patient Roberg Filgo and shot his Akita nine times but never charged him. A Maryland SWAT team raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo during a marijuana bust and killed his two black labs.
Ill spare everyone my own personal rant about the dog shootings, which are pretty much what youd imagine (I had Jon Walker watch the video first to make sure I wouldnt be upset for the rest of the day). But count me with Scott Morgan: You have to see it with you own eyes to fully absorb the brutal callousness of the people who carry out these violent attacks on peaceful families. Even knowing as I do how often events like this take place, I still shuddered while witnessing the suspects grief at discovering his dogs had been shot.
As Peter Geither says, the really disturbing things are what happened before the video the truly warped thinking that created the laws and the procedures that made people think this was a good idea.
Welcome to the war on drugs. According to FBI testimony before the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control this week, marijuana continues to drive it:
[M]arijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican DTOsa cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year. The profits derived from marijuana traffickingan industry with minimal overhead costs, controlled entirely by the traffickersare used not only to finance other drug enterprises by Mexicos poly-drug cartels, but also to pay recurring business expenses, purchase weapons, and bribe corrupt officials.
Making marijuana illegal drives up the price and the profits. Those profits get channeled through criminal networks, financing the purchase of weapons and escalating violence that endanger the lives of law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement responds in kind, and everyone across the Mexican border gets caught in the crossfire. Illegal immigrants are blamed for a drug shooting and Arizona reacts by passing a crazy law. The impact ripples out to some guy in Missouri who has storm troopers descend on his house and threaten to take his kid away because hes got some weed. And on and on.
The wish-list for the border in the new immigration bill includes: sport utility vehicles, helicopters, power boats, river boats, portable computers to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers while inside of a border patrol vehicle, night vision equipment, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), scope trucks, and Mobile Surveillance Systems (MSS). But with marijuana one of the largest cash crops in the United States, its an endless game of whack-a-mole.
As horrific as the video from Missouri is, its at the low end of the violence meter in the drug war. Is this really a wise deployment of national resources right now?
News Forum: rollitup.org
Source: Boxden.com
Author: Jane Hamsher
Contact: Boxden.com
Copyright: Boxden.com
Website:[video]http://slumz.boxden.com/f5/may-6-swat-team-kills-dog-child-present-arrest-father-misdemeanor-marijuana-bust-video-1369073/[/video]
[video=youtube;RbwSwvUaRqc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbwSwvUaRqc&feature=player_embedded[/video]
A Columbia, Missouri SWAT team breaks into the house of Jonathan Whitworth, shoots and kills a dog in the presence of a small child and the mans wife, shoots and wounds a second dog, all over a grinder, a pipe and a small amount of marijuana.
And then they haul the guy off in handcuffs and charge him with child endangerment.
Killing dogs is a pattern in drug raids, but its rarely caught on video. One of the most disturbing was the handiwork of Joe Arpaios squad:
In 2004 one of Arpaios SWAT teams conducted a bumbling raid in a Phoenix suburb. Among other weapons, it used tear gas and an armored personnel carrier that later rolled down the street and smashed into a car. The operation ended with the targeted home in flames and exactly one suspect in custodyfor outstanding traffic violations.
But for all that, the image that sticks in your head, as described by John Dougherty in the alternative weekly Phoenix New Times, is that of a puppy trying to escape the fire and a SWAT officer chasing him back into the burning building with puffs from a fire extinguisher. The dog burned to death.
Radley Balko at Reason has been documenting for years. Fremont police raided the home of medical marijuana patient Roberg Filgo and shot his Akita nine times but never charged him. A Maryland SWAT team raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo during a marijuana bust and killed his two black labs.
Ill spare everyone my own personal rant about the dog shootings, which are pretty much what youd imagine (I had Jon Walker watch the video first to make sure I wouldnt be upset for the rest of the day). But count me with Scott Morgan: You have to see it with you own eyes to fully absorb the brutal callousness of the people who carry out these violent attacks on peaceful families. Even knowing as I do how often events like this take place, I still shuddered while witnessing the suspects grief at discovering his dogs had been shot.
As Peter Geither says, the really disturbing things are what happened before the video the truly warped thinking that created the laws and the procedures that made people think this was a good idea.
Welcome to the war on drugs. According to FBI testimony before the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control this week, marijuana continues to drive it:
[M]arijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican DTOsa cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year. The profits derived from marijuana traffickingan industry with minimal overhead costs, controlled entirely by the traffickersare used not only to finance other drug enterprises by Mexicos poly-drug cartels, but also to pay recurring business expenses, purchase weapons, and bribe corrupt officials.
Making marijuana illegal drives up the price and the profits. Those profits get channeled through criminal networks, financing the purchase of weapons and escalating violence that endanger the lives of law enforcement personnel. Law enforcement responds in kind, and everyone across the Mexican border gets caught in the crossfire. Illegal immigrants are blamed for a drug shooting and Arizona reacts by passing a crazy law. The impact ripples out to some guy in Missouri who has storm troopers descend on his house and threaten to take his kid away because hes got some weed. And on and on.
The wish-list for the border in the new immigration bill includes: sport utility vehicles, helicopters, power boats, river boats, portable computers to track illegal immigrants and drug smugglers while inside of a border patrol vehicle, night vision equipment, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Remote Video Surveillance Systems (RVSS), scope trucks, and Mobile Surveillance Systems (MSS). But with marijuana one of the largest cash crops in the United States, its an endless game of whack-a-mole.
As horrific as the video from Missouri is, its at the low end of the violence meter in the drug war. Is this really a wise deployment of national resources right now?
News Forum: rollitup.org
Source: Boxden.com
Author: Jane Hamsher
Contact: Boxden.com
Copyright: Boxden.com
Website:[video]http://slumz.boxden.com/f5/may-6-swat-team-kills-dog-child-present-arrest-father-misdemeanor-marijuana-bust-video-1369073/[/video]
