Good God, It Didn't Take Long for the Law Enforcement Idiot Brigade to Arrive for Michael Phelps

Sleepy-eyed South Carolina Sheriff weighs in on Michael Phelps' possible fate...

Phelps could face criminal charges over pot flap

Richland County (S.C.) officials are investigating alleged marijuana incident

The Associated Press, Tues., Feb. 3, 2009
COLUMBIA, S.C. - Olympic superstar Michael Phelps could face criminal charges as part of the fallout from a photo that surfaced showing the swimmer smoking from a marijuana pipe at a University of South Carolina house party.
A spokesman for Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, who is known for his tough stance on drugs, said Tuesday the department was investigating.
“Our narcotics division is reviewing the information that we have, and they’re investigating what charges, if any, will be filed,” said Lt. Chris Cowan, a spokesman for agency.
The photo first shown in British tabloid News of the World on Sunday was snapped during a November party while Phelps was visiting the university, according to the paper.
____________
Where exactly the party occurred isn’t clear. The university said its police have no evidence it was on campus, and city police said they won’t pursue criminal charges unless more information comes forward.
The Richland County sheriff can pursue charges as long as the party was in the county, the spokesman said.
“The bottom line is, if he broke the law, and he did it in Richland County, he’s going to be charged,” Cowan said. “And there’s no difference between Michael Phelps and several other people that we arrest for the same type of a charge everyday.”
Under South Carolina law, possession of one ounce or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor that carries a fine up to $200 and 30 days in jail for the first offense. Possession of paraphernalia is a $500 fine.
The Richland County sheriff has long sought to fight drug crimes. He rose from patrol officer to captain of the narcotics division in the early 1990s, after the television series “Miami Vice” made its splash.
Lott played the part well. He wore stylish suits and had long hair then. He drove a Porsche seized from a drug dealer and even worked undercover with federal agents in Florida.

Boy, our country should be proud of our drug laws, no? What justice they do to the type of excellence and individual distinction Michael Phelps showed the world, on our country's behalf, through his hard work and talent. This is his reward in 2009 America.

Hell, we locked up comedian/actor Tommy Chong in federal prison for nearly a year for selling glass water pipes (e.g. "bongs"). Why not railroad Phelps? Maybe Sherrif Lott should get the DEA in on the action...make himself a celebrity hero.

In all seriousness, this is just brainless posturing official idiocy run amok. It is a perfect example of why pro-drug-war cops and prosecutors should be largely sidelined if not outright-ignored in any serious discussions about the future direction of drug policy in America.

Taxpayer-funded drug prohibition enforcers have as much a vested interest in keeping drug black markets going as do the lawless violent criminals getting rich from drug prohibition. The wreckage they blithely make of the lives of so many peaceable responsible citizens is itself criminal.

I suspect tough guy drug enforcers like Sheriff Lott make Vice-President Joe "RAVE Act" Biden awful proud. But for Biden, legions of them might actually be having to do real crime prevention and real public safety...that or find another line of work, one in which mindless bullies can prosper.

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

A reply to Salon's R. J. Eskrow, and his 11 stupid questions about Libertarians

Posts here have been in short supply as I have been living life and trying to get a campaign off the ground. But "11 questions to see if Libertarians are hypocrites" by R. J. Eskrow, picked up at Salon , was just so freaking lame that I spent half an hour answering them. In the end (but I'll leave it to your judgment), it is not that Libertarians or Libertarian theory looks hypocritical, but that the best that can be said for Mr. Eskrow is that he doesn't have the faintest clue what he's talking about. That's ok, because even ill-informed attacks by people like this make an important point: Libertarian ideas (as opposed to Conservative ideas, which are completely different) are making a comeback as the dynamic counterpoint to "politics as usual," and so every hack you can imagine must be dragged out to refute them. Ergo: Mr. Eskrow's 11 questions, with answers: 1. Are unions, political parties, elections, and ...

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.” The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

Search This Blog