Floyd wrote:
Where drugs are a problem in your neighborhood, police are a problem in my neighborhood. You’ve seen druggies stab, assault, and even kill people. My black friends get called niggers right to there face and can’t do anything about it, because they are in jail. I’ve seen cops threaten and beat people. I’ve seen cops use their authority to get personal revenge. I’ve watched struggling people's (good people's) lives destroyed by thugs in police uniforms. I’ve watched cops harass innocent people -women and children- with immunity. I’ve seen racist prejudice judges with a god complex send people, many of whom I know and like, to jails where the toilets don't have rims, the food is crap, and the guards are abusive. All this I’ve seen happen to me, the people I know and like, and my community, while knowing that it often gets much worse the world over.

Fiammetta wrote:

Yeah, it's all the cops fault for having to enforce laws written. They are all power-hungry and out for a quick fix. The criminals aren't responsible.

This is such crap. Cops are normal people like you and I. You see the bad ones on the news, and people make the generalization that all cops are control-freaks. It's utter crap. All policeman go through psychological testing to see if they are fit for the job, which includes excluding people for being control-freaks and power hungry. Like everything else, it fails sometimes but the general idea of "If they weren't cops they'd be criminals" is a total crock of shit.

Why is it that criminals always blame the cops first? It's not like you didn't know you had bad tags, and it's not like Floyd didn't know he was breaking the law. Stop blaming everyone else for your screw-up and take some responsibility for your life. You'll find things will go a little easier.

Petunia wrote:
Is the system controlling you or are you finding a way to control it?

Petunia wrote:
The issue of credibility is paramount in legal and social change. It is not always fair or correct, but that is the way it is. Finding individuals with greater credibility than the police to speak out against them and their treatement of your friends is a first step. Publicizing the wrongful acts committed by the police will lower their credibility as well. Once your position has greater credibility than theirs, change can occur. It can be a long and arduous process, nonetheless.

select wrote:
Aside from whatever political opinions you have, the best solution for these people is to simply stop using it.

select wrote:
Okay, I think you guys are forgetting that there are serious social consequences of having a mob of half-functional and delusional human beings walking around out there. Yes, drugs cause a great deal of harm. And no, I don't really care how Floyd or Libertarians define harm. I'm talking about interpersonal, professional, as well as physical harm.

This really isn't something for you, or other citizens, to decide.

I agree insofar as police departments should prioritize, and other crimes should be given higher priority. But marijuana use is far more common than higher priority offenses.

My intuition is that the police can respond to every homocide, DUI, shooting, and whatever you want to list as having a higher priority, and still have time for drug enforcement (the police I see seem to be pretty bored for the most part).

I think it's unreasonable to assume that police are choosing to investigate drug offenses over homocide cases, for example.

And if there are too many drug offences, then maybe we need more police, eh?

Basically, I think this discussion is about the law and not it's enforcement: whether people should have the right to smoke weed. No one agrees with police brutality but it's certainly no abuse that the police choose to, you know, enforce the law. That's what they are supposed to be doing.

Well, paranoia is one long-term side-effect of marijuana use.

I was speaking in terms of what's practical. You know, it's almost funny how many stoners, when they get caught, then make it out as if they're really protesting a corrupt justice system. Then words like justice and freedom start streaming out as if each one was one man against the system. But the truth is we're only talking about kids wanting to get high. Most stoners are simply not the kind of people who are political activists. Aside from whatever political opinions you have, the best solution for these people is to simply stop using it. Get that crap out of your system. I don't think it's a wise habit in the first place, but it seems to me to be a small thing to give up to make life easier in every other way.