South Carolina Police Chief Threatens To Target Anyone Who Advocates Legalizing Marijuana

[Garion_55]

Shortly after the Columbia, South Carolina Police Department posted on its Facebook page that it arrested a man and seized approximately forty thousand dollars worth of marijuana from his home, several individuals wrote critical comments of this arrest and of marijuana prohibition in general. “How many unsolved murders and rapes do you have in your jurisdiction? Maybe you should focus your attention on those instead?” wrote one commentator. Another simply wrote that “Pot should be legal.”

Ruben Santiago, the Interim Police Chief in Columbia, South Carolina, did not take kindly to these comments. Yet, rather than simply defend his department’s actions or offer counterarguments expressing why he believed that this marijuana arrest was a good use of police resources, he decided instead to threaten one of the commenters. In a comment that was first reported by the libertarian-leaning blog Popehat, Chief Santiago logged into his department’s Facebook account and told an apparent advocate of marijuana legalization that the man’s political views provided “reasonable suspicion to believe” that he may be a criminal, and that police “will work on finding” him.





http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/11/02/2880221/south-carolina-police-chief-threatens-action-advocates-legalizing-marijuana/
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/01/pro-pot-comment-earns-facebook-user-a-personalized-arrest-threat-from-south-carolina-police-chief/

[sakabatou]

1. I sense he'll just get a slap on the wrists.

That, or he'll resign.

[snooper2]

2. Could somebody who does facebook please respond, a simple-

Fuck off dipshit would do

[jsr]

3. Which Police Academy did he go to? Police Academy 1 or 2?

[PeoViejo]

4. Legalizing Pot would cut into their Civil Forfeiture income.

Police and Municipalities have become addicted to the most powerful Drugs of all: Money and Power. Some have argued that Money=Power, a most vicious Cocktail.

[Bennyboy]

5. It is all about dollar signs for this guy....

I've got relatives in South Carolina. In fact, my Mom's entire family is from there. They are great people, intellectuals and doctors all, with a more or less progressive point of view, and can't figure out who the rubes are that vote for these complete whack jobs in South Carolina.

This guy, all he sees is dollar signs. Dollar signs created by tax dollars and running the drug arrest numbers game with the Fed to get more taxpayer dollars to keep the drug war, and LAWYERS, rolling in taxpayer funded hay. By the time the guy is tried it will have cost the state, county and feds, (That's US, the taxpayers) ten times the 40K he was busted with. Court is full of high priced lawyers, all working on the taxpayers dime. The DA (and staff) the Public Defender (and staff) the JUDGE (and staff) all are guaranteed employment.

Then the prison itself, who also runs a numbers game to receive funding. More prisoners, more money.

Then there is probation parole which is totally taxpayer funded. Probation officers, automobiles, more recidivism, more cops more lawyers, more corrections, more probation.

At the same time, the guy has a record and he can no longer support himself so he, and his family go on welfare and food stamps, or become homeless and become and even greater burden on society....

A system set up to fail.

[daleanime]

6. +1

[jsr]

7. Great post.