Skip to main content

Hollywood prohibitionists fight back with DEA

Submitted by David Borden on
Has anyone else noticed the direction that television has taken in it's presenting of the drug war?On the one side is the reform movement and shows like The Wire with it's jury nullification and The Shield with it's narc's that are so corrupted by their job that even they don't know what side is up any more.On the other there's Cops with it's real life action that's been showing more and more ultra-violent take downs and Taser use that is nothing more than attitude adjustment.Now we have DEA.This one's a real beauty when it comes to muddying the water and showing the absolute worst case scenario as daily fact.It's not hard to understand the need to propagandize the drug war and to try to dull people to the necessity for violence.By showing the drug war as a real combat mission in which the cops are just trying to neutralise the enemy.I guess they hope to allay any feelings people may have that police may be over reacting when they use para-military tactics to take down a small grow op where they know there's no liklihood of a violent outcome.Police have been doing this since day one of the drug war and the only victims are almost never police.In cases where officers are killed there's little doubt that the person has reacted to a violent entry into their home with the attendant confusion.There is almost never any attempt to actually kill a police officer and if there is I'm sure the police have been aware of the person's propensity toward violence for a while.In states where a person faces life without possibility of parole for a third drug offence there may well be a necessity to use SWAT style tactics as a person is given very little to lose by surrendering.It's all as a result of bad law that makes criminals out of non-violent offenders and addicted people that need medical intervention and not a criminal record.It makes little difference what Hollywood says or how it portrays the drug war.They are obviously as split on the issue as is the rest of the country.Propaganda has been a staple of the drug war and it's advocates since it's inception.The big lie goes back to Hitler and before and is very effective in turning people against a certain segment of society.It would seem that drug users are the jews of the 21st century.

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.