Bob Barr Condemns Violent, Dog-Murdering Drug Raid
The former Republican Congressman from Georgia released a statement on his presidential campaign website about the July 29 Prince George's police and sheriff's raid on the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo.
…
The raid, he wrote, "illustrates how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans."
He said he believed that law enforcement has become more arrogant and less accountable, usually with very little public attention, and promises that as president, he will improve the situation.
"As president I will ensure that federal law enforcement agencies set a good example for the rest of the country," he said. "In a Barr administration, government officials will never forget that it is a free people they are protecting." [Washington Post]
I'm still getting used to hearing words like these from former drug warrior Bob Barr, but I'll take it. Barr, despite his unfortunate history, is now speaking out against abusive drug war policing with a vigor unmatched, or even attempted, by the major party candidates.
Unfortunately, we can be reasonably sure we won’t hear a word about this from Obama or McCain. Sure, it is an ugly national controversy with a fairly obvious right and wrong side. And yes, a careful statement promising to defend the rights of innocent, everyday people against government abuse would be politically safe, in and of itself. After all, there's nothing anti-police about standing up for professionalism in law-enforcement.
But implicit in all this is the central question of how far we as a society are willing to push the limits of peace and freedom in the name of a war on drugs that has already exhausted many of us to the point of unrestrained bitterness. It's a conversation that can't be avoided once Cheye Calvo's name is spoken and one which the major party candidates remain hesitant to explore. Their silence becomes increasingly hard to explain as it becomes steadily more apparent each day that the drug war blood bath sometimes doesn't discriminate as well as it's supposed to.
(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
Berwyn Heights
The brutal drug raid of Mayor Cheye Calvo's home, is a perfect example, of how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans.
The story certainly should be one for the mainstream press to cover. So why are they taking a pass, and "what will it take?"
Well...
To be fair, this has been covered extensively by the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, CNN and others. Of course, none of that coverage has adequately addressed the drug war's inevitable role in generating this sort of obscene police violence, but this is certainly a momentous event in terms of the magnitude of the attention that's been drawn.
Finally a Candidate that will stand up for what is right
Don't get me wrong, drugs are bad when misused. But reading this article, we can see how far we've come to combat a problem that just grows not to mention that these officers killed 2 family pets of an innocent person. These dogs and there owners were innocent civillians who got tangled up in a scheme by someone else.
It's amazing that the press hasn't picked up this article as someone is actually saying what needs to be said. I went to http://www.bobbarr2008.com when I read this article and Bob is saying the right things. I never voted for a third party candidate before, but now I'm ready to volunteer for his campaign and do my part to get someone in office with a head on his shoulders.
Its funny the mainstream press will pick up articles about someone's shoes or someone else's vacation plans, but they won't address or cover the issues which they are paid to cover!!
This election year was a real loser with MCBAMA running for president and the press just covering what they want to cover. But now I have a real choice!!!! Speaking of a real choice, check out this video on Bob Barr's YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im0Wqj3BSvU
Drug War
As long as we fear retaliation and harassment by the police; and, as long as the big corporate media refuses to report on the horrible abuses by the Drug War tyrants, the senseless deaths will continue to multiply. Furthermore, as long as the courts continue to refuse to hold law enforcement accountable for these deaths, the negligent homicides will continue. The police have been given, by the courts, an almost blanket authority to use racial profiling in their Drug War…and it seems that they have even been given the right to kill with no liability.
As much sadness that I feel for the loss of the Mayor’s pets, it seems a shame that his story is receiving more press than the Tarika Wilsons in this country that die everyday, or the thousands of young minority men that are needlessly jailed in the War on Drugs.
The War on Drugs (as well as the current sentencing guidelines) are nothing more than the government’s excuse: to use racial profiling; to incarcerate a grossly disparate number of minorities and those who cannot afford a proper defense; and to even kill innocent persons with little or no requirement to answer for their actions. Furthermore, the stiff sentences for crack cocaine, but not for powder cocaine; and the numerous drug raids in minority neighborhoods, but few in upper class non-minority neighborhoods are indications, too, that the War on Drugs is, in reality, no more than a War against Minorities and the poor.
Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize winning economist says it best:
"Every friend of freedom must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence."
This is no small battle that we must fight, and it is not a small dream that we must have. I think that we all must realize that as the government attains more and more power and as more prisons are built that are private, stockholding corporations, the harder it will become to win this fight to STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS.
Pat
[email protected]
http://www.4thepeople.org
press
I'm sorry, but I just don't think the story is getting enough attention. This is a excellant story to led into the other abuses law enforcement has committed and the fact that it was an innocent Mayor should be an alarm bell to all.
LOL The War on Drugs... Don't you mean: The War on America?
There have been few other Lies of the magnitude of The War on Drugs. First of all, I don’t care if people want to snort Coke, or table salt, smoke pot, inject steroids etc... I would like to know when we lost the right to decide what we put in our bodies (ie: ingest, smoke, inserts…) It really has no bearing how “dangerous” something might or might not be. What we do in our own time (as long as it doesn’t infringe on the rights of anyone else) is our business, and not the Government. THE GOVERNMENT MAY HAVE THE POWER TO GOVERN HOW WE TREAT EACH OTHER, BUT NOT HOW WE TREAT OURSELVES.
Secondly, you cannot declare war on a “thing”. For example, if you don’t like a particular “rock” can you go to war with it? Of course not. So what has happened is the American Government declared war on it’s own citizens, and to really put on the sandpaper condom… we get stuck with Trillion DOLLAR BILL to fight… US (not the U.S. I didn’t forget the periods, I mean we are paying thugs A LOT of money to fight our selves. How masochistic are we? WTF). Neat. Not to mention, I’d wager at least 75% of the people that might read what I’m writing weren’t even around when this War on America was enacted, and yet it has no sunset date. Talk about Taxation without Representation.
But as long as we keep voting for the jack@$$es to the Left or the Right... Nothing will change.
Nate
The REAL Terrorists Are American
Check out this article, interestingly enough, written by the offspring of the couple that told us to "just say no" and, by doing so, promised "a drug free America by 1995."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/152412
Who needs to worry about radical Islamic terrorists when the REAL, direct threats to our people wear American-flag patches on their uniforms? The American flag IS the symbol of my enemy. It no longer represents a Constitutional republic rooted in the Rule of Law and "liberty and justice for all."
Bob Barr may not stand a snowball's chance in hell against the Republicrat-Democan political machines but I've sent him some money and will again because he is getting the word out in defense of liberty.
If an ex-drug-war zealot like Bob Barr can see the light and reverse his position maybe there's hope for America yet.
But Bob ...
...has zero chance of obtaining the presidency.And Obama is not forthcoming ,as to what he is going to do, in regards to the worlds longest running war. So, we wait and hope that the drug warriors lose their funding. Because that seems to be the only way to stop the monster.
its the truth
as long as police are safe in thier homes we are not safe in ours .if made to take a little of thier own medicine raids by concerend citzens who shoot thiere pets and children these crimnals will keep killing ours,they only understand violence talk to your blue in the face it wont change a thing .bullets are the only thing tyrants understand just like thier nazi counter parts only direct attacts will end this .wtf
Post new comment