The logic, whether or not you agree with it, is that drugs in general are hazardous and can kill or disable you, and they contribute to a black market and all the related crimes of drug trafficking and addiction. So punishments aren’t for drug use but for possession and trafficking.
Edit: to all the downvoters, I’m not advocating for draconian drug laws, I’m just answering OP’s question on why cops and lawmakers have such a policy and the logic behind it.
drugs in general are hazardous
Not true in general, and certainly not true in specific cases. There are over 16,000 drugs used by humans, and very few of them are hazardous at the correct dose. Are they hazardous at incorrect dosage? Some are, some are not, but then almost anything, water included, will kill you at inappropriate dosage. Many illegal recreational drugs such as LSD, psilocybin and DMT have no known lethal dose.
they contribute to a black market and all the related crimes of drug trafficking
That’s simply a function of them being illegal. If they were not illegal, they would not “contribute to a black market and all the related crimes of drug trafficking”.
rehabilitation instead of prison…
How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?
Edit:
How about if I’m not bothering anybody then don’t even arrest me?
I misunderstood that comment above. My bad.
What do you mean? People get arrested for possession of weed for example that they plan to consume by themselves, not bothering anybody. Then they get locked up. You rather lock them away, than try to rehabilitate them? This applies to so many cases. Of course there are cases where the verdict says prison but at least try to keep people out of prison. But wait the prison system is a corporation trying to make money.
Uh did you misread it? That’s exactly his point, people getting arrested when they weren’t even bothering anyone.
My bad, I did indeed. English is not my native language 🙈
Just gonna leave this PDF of Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete? here.
TLDR?
Any headline that ends in a question mark has the answer as “no”
TLDR: Yes
Taps the sign that says “The Cruelty Is The Point”
If only it was like in Portugal…
Or Switzerland
Or literally most western countries
Or no.
I couldn’t name another other than Portugal and Switzerland that have essentially decriminalised most drugs last I checked.
I was comparing to America
Which tbf is a really low bar (except for weed in some states. Still find that fascinating)
Why what you got over there?
Not Portuguese myself but my understanding is that since 2001 most drugs are decriminalised for possession (the rule is like 10 days’ worth or something) but they can still confiscate your drugs and levy fines in rare cases. These offences carry no criminal record and can never carry a sentence of incarceration. Basically kinda illegal but not really.
Wow yeah no way that would fly in the USA. Prisons make too much money.
Guess what, it happened in Oregon! (it’s a trainwreck)
self fulfilling prophecy
You do know it’s not police who make these laws, right? It’s the politicians that get elected by the people who create these laws.
Sure, but the world is too grey to always follow laws exactly as written. If someone is sitting on a beach smoking some weed, they are not going to damage society or others by doing so. Arresting them for drugs that only harm themselves, costs society money for the arrest and provide no benefit to anyone.
Unless our laws are perfect (likely impossible) there will always need to be some leeway for interpretation of the spirit of the law. Cops should not blindly follow laws but understand their intent to prevent harm towards others.
Also, laws are slow to change and don’t often stay up to date with societal changes.
So what you are advocating for is police making their own decisions on a whim, instead of following the rules. I actually thought that behaviour was the problem.
Not on a whim, based on training on the law and its intent. Not that they get that training like that in the USA, AFAIK.
Police should also be accountable to laws and weigh that responsibility against each situation.
Police should also be accountable to laws and weigh that responsibility against each situation
How is that supposed to be possible?
Which part? Understanding how they should follow the law in the real world and the responsibility that brings? They could be wrong or right in any situation (they aren’t lawyers and the world doesn’t conform to laws) and they should be aware of that.
By weighing the law against each situation, what do you mean in practice?
If the law says by possessing marijuana you are a dealer, but a cop finds someone with a small amount, it’s likely for recreation and their possession brings no harm to society or others (what the law wants to prevent). Arresting them may be following the letter of the law, but not the intent (to stop distribution).
Another invented situation: cop pulls over someone driving erratically and too fast, then the driver is a woman who escaped being raped by her date. She was driving erratically because she was emotionally and physically distraught. Is giving her a ticket helping anyone? The cop could say “okay, take it easy and slow while I follow you to make sure you’re out of danger and feel safe getting home”.
Sorry I can’t be more specific, I haven’t gotten years of training on such situations.
They chose to make their career of enthusiastically enforcing these laws with extreme violence. They chose this. Fuck the police.
I mean, its a good start, but it really should be coming from governmental policy.
Its tragic that the government of the UK is so ass-backwards that the enforcement jackboot of the government is the thing going “hey, wait, this feels wrong”.
I feel like this attitude and generalized hatred towards every person working as police will make it worse because no one will want to do that job anymore. It has already happend in the USA. This activism against police in general swaps to other countries via internet culture and European countries as well struggle to get anyone work as police. This will make it necessary to lower standards and additionally, more police will be on edge since there aren’t enough people.
I feel like this attitude and generalized hatred towards every person working as police will make it worse because no one will want to do that job anymore.
thatsthepoint.jpg
How can you possibly rationalize that less people working as and apply to be police will somehow make the situation better? The opposite is true.
Less authoritarian pigs, more support workers.
Less shot dogs, more rehabilitation centers.
Less ex-military APCs, more rehab beds.
no one will want to do that job anymore
Good.
I’ve never seen a crime deterred or solved by the cops. You know what prevents crime? Improved standards of living. Secure housing. Gainful employment. Future prospects.
You believe that there would be no crime if just everybody had a home and a job? Are you for real?
Crimes of poverty, deprivation, desperation? Significantly less than currently.
But yes, there would still be plenty of white collar crime that we don’t currently tackle either, and in some cases encourage by policy.
If heavy handed policing worked, it would have worked by now.
I’d go farther: home and job are optional, there would barely be any crime if just everybody had future prospects they were worried of losing for not following the law.
You live in a very different world than I do, apparently. What about domestic violence, rape, sexual harassment, infringement on personality rights, etc.?
How much of that is the police stopping? By the time you see it in the news, it’s already happened, committed mostly by people who thought they had nothing to lose, and a few mentally ill.
Domestic violence in particular, is much easier to solve when people can just get up and leave, instead of being tied down by a lack of an alternative.
There will always be inequalities, there will always be unhappiness/unrest, there will always be crime to some degree, and thus there will always be the need of some responsibility to deal with it. The important thing is that this group is selected and actively monitored according to strict requirements. The current situation is bad, especially in the US, something needs to change. But saying we don’t need cops is just as stupid as the tankie quote “I don’t dial 911 🔫🔫”.
Not everything is about absolutes, everything has nuance, and to say what you’ve just said is to miss the wood for the trees.
Police unions and private prison system lobbyists have entered the chat
It’s supposed to be rehabilitation, but also it’s to stop you from ruining other people’s lives
Failure to enforce drug prohibition resulted in Qing China having a nationwide addiction epidemic for British opium, resulting in the opium wars, the country’s bankruptcy, partial European colonization as well as the so-called “century of humiliation”. The effects of this addiction epidemic are still being felt nowadays, e.g. in widespread racism towards Asian people as well as the current opioid epidemic where Chinese-made fentanyl is exported worldwide with the unofficial sanction of the Chinese government.
This is the reason why drug prohibition is a thing, and why many Asian countries have death sentences even for simple possession of narcotics.
There is no way you just compared modern drugs and war on drugs on the fucking Qing China.
Especially when there are MODERN examples of drug decriminalisation that work, like Portugal or Switzerland.
You are either completely ignorant or stupid to ignore it and use a fucking ancient example instead
Why not? The opium wars are a dark spot in Chinese history and the fascist CCP government is hell bent on “revenge” against the west for that. That’s why the CCP is exporting fentanyl to the west via shell companies and causing the modern opioid epidemic. I would like to see how decriminalization can deal with a targeted attack like that.
Yeah… Racism has nothing to do with the historical opium epidemic in China. Racists just racist. Anyone different from them too, like LGBTQ, and intellectuals.
There are racists everywhere that’s true, but people who are naturally racist are rare because racism is something that is taught. The lack of a strong voice for minority races is what allows racists in power to normalize their discrimination against them, eventually making it a systemic and widespread phenomenon.
You argue that the opium epidemic has absolutely zero effect on racism towards Chinese people. However I say that the opium epidemic directly started a chain of events that led to the downfall of the Chinese government, which enabled racist people to teach their racism to the government and the rest of society without fear of repercussions, therefore enabling widespread and systemic racism against Asians.
This is such a bastardization of history. Shame on you for spreading this nonsense.
Yeah, it’s not about empathy for you at all
You’re a cog in the machine and they’re protecting the machine, not you.
This approach is 100 years after prohibition. Hopefully it can overcome the institutional momentum of current drug laws and get implemented in more places.
Faulty premises lead to faulty conclusions.
You know, that sounds like a convenient bullshit story by statists and other mobster to justify their never ending violence. Also, Britain weaponizing drugs, big cringe. You guys deserve thermonuclear armageddon so bad.
The fact that people who can produce brain farts like you are allowed to vote, should tell everyone why pure democracy cant work.
Regan’s administration started the war on drugs. Convicting drugs users of a criminal crime has the effect of taking the right to vote away from people who tended not to vote for the Republican party and allowed them to be legally used as slave labour. At least one member of that administration has explicitly stated that this was a strategic decision to win elections.
ACAB
all cats are biutifull
You only get life-ruining time for distribution. Distribution ruins other people’s lives, often minors and people who have it rough in life.
All Dealers Are Bastards
Mandatory minimums can make even minor possession carry a long sentence. It’s not just dealers.
You say that as if an couple years in prison doesn’t have permanent effects.
It is true that some drugs are very dangerous and can ruin people’s lives. One of the most dangerous ones is alcohol, which is legal. One of the least dangerous ones is cannabis, which is still illegal in most places and at a federal level in the USA.
So maybe (just maybe) this is not about protecting people at all and never was?
Are all merchants who sell alcohol bastards?
Dont get me wrong, im all for legalisation of weed and maybe some other lighter stuff. But it should be regulated, similar model to alcohol. Strict punishment if you get caught selling anything addictive to a minor.
There barely is a punishment for selling alcohol to minors. It isn’t even a crime. You might just get your license revoked and pay a little fee. At least that how it is in Germany.
JUSTICE
It didn’t say what mechanism would be used for the drugs to ruin your life. Prison works just as well as turning tricks for smack as far as life ruining goes.
You don’t go to jail (if there isn’t evidence of you selling it) in my country. Because it’s not a penal crime, but an administrative one.
I’m from the city this cop was from and if I remember correctly he was shot in the head and survived but obviously not the same. Maybe he died I don’t really remember.
I’m not a fan of the police but on a human level some awful stuff happened to this guy.
Edit: looked it up because I was curious he underwent brain surgery and survived.
Fuck the police as a whole tho
I used to have that same belief but watching “good” cops cover for bad ones made me realize they’re all scummy.
I agree even this guy but life has nuance and I felt this was info that is pertinent to the meme.
That’s the rub, ask yourself why doesn’t it happen more often that a “good cop” calls out a “bad cop?” It just seem so rare. I don’t understand why, these are people from the same community. 🤷♂️
Good cops are usually punished for calling out bad cops. The system is broken.
There is always some nuance, but in general most morally upstanding people drop out of training or are pushed out of the force in some way.
