Tyranny and the war on drugs
[Reprinted from Issues & Views Summer/Fall 1999]
In the name of establishing a drug-free society, overzealous police have too
often failed to notice the difference between the innocent and the guilty. As a
result, the war on drugs has gone beyond keeping the peace. It's become a
threat to liberty. From asset forfeitures to home invasions to military
involvement, the war on drugs has taken disturbing turns.
Among the more recent incidents, a SWAT team broke into a Compton,
California, home at about 11 p.m. on Aug. 9. They killed a retired grandfather
by shooting him twice in the back. His widow--handcuffed and wearing only a
towel and panties, according to the Los Angeles Times--and six others were
taken into custody. All were questioned. None was charged. The charges should
have been filed against the police. They weren't deputies from the Los Angeles
County Sheriff's Department, which contracts with some metro cities for police
protection. They were from El Monte, California, nearly 20 miles away. Yes,
they had a warrant. Police thought a member of a drug ring used the house as a
mail drop.
The warrant didn't name anyone in the house, though. By the way, no drugs
were found on the property. But one life was ended and others changed forever
because those officers were waging a war on drugs. The Compton incident is not
isolated. In the summer of 1998, Houston police shot to death Pedro Oregon
Navarro during a drug raid. The problem: Navarro was not a drug dealer. But
police wanted to believe he was. A man arrested for public drunkenness told
officers he would give them the name and address of a drug dealer if they let
him go. They agreed.
Without corroboration--and without a warrant--six officers stormed the home
of a sleeping Navarro and shot him 12 times. Self-defense, they said; Navarro
was going for a gun. Well, who wouldn't grab a gun if they were awakened at
1:40 in the morning by what amounts to a military raid? Navarro died because in
the blind pursuit of drug traffickers, officers were too willing to believe a
drunken man who had every reason to lie. He was on probation and would have
been sent back to jail if police had not dropped the public-intoxication
charges.
These dramatic, tragic deaths make the front pages and lead the newscasts.
But there's another ugly side of the war on drugs that doesn't get as much
media attention. It doesn't kill people; it just ruins their lives. Asset
forfeiture has become standard procedure for many police departments. Cash,
cars, homes and other property are routinely seized during drug searches and
never returned. It happens even if drugs are never found. And it happens when
the items belong to someone who had no part in the crime.
Police departments use the seized property to supplement their
budgets--giving the cops more resources to go out and seize even more property.
All police need is probable cause that the property was involved in a crime.
Talk about unreasonable search and seizure. Getting back seized property is a
problem. Innocent owners must prove that a crime did not take place. Many
simply forget it. They weigh the legal costs against the slim chance of
recovering their property and find that it's not worth it.
By calling the enforcement of drug laws a ''war on drugs,'' the government
has instilled a military attitude among police. State and local departments
spent nearly $16 billion in 1991 to wage the war. Police and deputies dress in
combat uniforms, wear masks, carry assault weapons and use explosives when they
raid homes. The public now faces the frightening militarization of the police.
Drug abuse is a problem in the U.S. The laws should be enforced, but not at the
expense of individual liberty.
-- Editorial, Investors Business Daily, Sept. 23, 1999.
©Investors Business Daily 1999
Copyright © 2008 Issues & Views
|
