Monday, March 1, 2010

The Weekly Radley - They Shot The Corgi

From The Columbia Daily Tribune:

A SWAT team broke into a guy's home, shot and killed one of his dogs, and then shot and injured his Corgi (here's a pic of a Corgi)....


....but they only found enough marijuana in the home to file misdemeanor charges against the homeowner. 

Here's Radley Balko on the incident:

So smoking pot = “child endangerment.”

Storming a home with guns, then firing bullets into the family pets as a child looks on = necessary police procedures to ensure everyone’s safety.


Just so we’re clear.

Yeah, you can argue that the police were just doing their job.  And the courts, when they convict someone of marijuana possession, they're just doing their job.  So are the jailers, the social workers, the prison guards, the prison construction lobby, and the drug cartels that depend on our laws to preserve their monopoly.

When are we going to stop paying people to do this job? 

6 comments:

Hot Sam said...

When I said I don't appreciate the negative externality of people smoking their stinkweed in public, I don't see any reason why they can't smoke and grow it in their own home.

Even in the "dry" county in Kentucky I used to work in, it was entirely legal to bring alcohol into the county and drink in your own home.

My opposition to drugs in general is their addictive nature which removes free will. It would be worthwhile to test legalization in at least one state and assess any deleterious social effects. Places with de facto legalization, like San Francisco, have serious social problems because of it.

I certainly survived my teenage pot smoking days and so did most of my friends and family. All of us experimented with harder drugs. Some of them were dragged down into death and depravity.

I'm more concerned about the home invasion than alleged offense.

Steve Dekorte said...

I live in San Francisco. What "serious social problems" do you attribute to pot use here and what evidence do you have for the problem and the causal relationship?

TarrantLibertyGuy said...

I believe I've had enough with our war on dogs.

Anonymous said...

But to be fair to the SWAT team, it's kill or be killed whenever a Corgi is involved.

Hot Sam said...

Well Steve, how about the serious social problems of driving under the influence of drugs, violent antisocial behavior, and reckless endangerment?

Maybe you've lived here too long and have become numb or indifferent to what I see every day on Geary, Polk, Market, Mission, Golden Gate/6th and Haight.

Causation? Why does there need to be causation when there is cointegration? Those who flout the law with public smoking are often seeking trouble. The SFPD has become tolerant of both. There's not a day on Market and 1st where the pot smokers hang out when I don't see violent exchanges, intimidation, provocation, and public littering.

But as to causation, marijuana removes inhibitions in the same manner alcohol does. If you want to smoke in your own home or in a parlor, I have no problem with it. Then you can control the company you keep.

There's a reason bars have bouncers. The same reason applies to pot.

TarrantLibertyGuy said...

A Bob Marley Song from the cops point of view maybe?

I shot the corgi! But I did not shoot the second dog.
Oh no. Noooo.
I -
Shot the corgi!
But I swear it was in self defense!

Those damn corgis always hated me.
For What? Don't know, pal.
Every time I'd crash through doors.
They would bark at me and would growl....
They would bark at me and they would growl!

But I say...

My SWAT Team came to Columbia today
'cause dis punk was holdin' grass, yeah.
All of a sudden I saw this vicious corgi!
So I shot, I shot that bad dog's ass.
Yes - my AR-15 clips are firing fast...

That bad corgi would not obey!

Reflexes got the better of me
I just shot two dogs - not three
Every day the dog goes to a dog park.
Even small dogs can have a mean bark.
Yes, even cute dogs can have an evil bark.
But I say:

I -I- I ..Shot the corgi...... (fade out).

Tenk you mon.