So, the latest, crazy, violent, known sex offender to finally "get caught" sat on his stench of death porch, drinking beer for years while his victims piled up inside. Anthony Sowell was a registered sex offender, required to check in reguarly with the sheriff's office. Officers would stop by to make sure he was there, but didn't have the right to enter his house!? Can you imagine what would have happened if the smell of delicious, lovely, sweet, fresh-growing marijuana was coming out of his house? Even with no previous criminal record, an army of DEA agents and SWAT teams from a tri-county area would have descended on the place a long time ago, possibly taking out completely uninvolved neighbors in the process.
Phillip Garrido was a known, violent, previously imprisoned, registered sex offender, periodically checked on by police, sometimes after neighbors' complaints. He chatted with authorities while his child prisoner was held captive in a completely illegal tent and shed encampment in his back yard that could be seen plainly on Google Earth. The authorities knew the encampment was there and illegal, but did not have the right to enter his house?! Can you imagine if a DEA surveillance helicoptor on a sweep over the neighborhood had detected an illegal marijuana farm in the tent/shed complex in the yard? Even without a previous criminal record, a small army of DEA agents and SWAT teams from a tri-county area would've descended on the place a long time ago, possibly taking out completely uninvolved neighbors in the process.
Why is this dichotomy in sniffing out crimes of a completely different sort. Is one even a true crime? One certain factor that must skew law enforcement agencies is the fact that they can confiscate money and property in drug raids, even when nobody involved is ever convicted of a crime. Gotta like the sports cars at the DARE events. Sorry, Fourth Amendment. Old common law that actually empowers objects themselves with animation (evil spirits) and thusly allows their "unreasonable" seizure, regardless of any person being in possession of the object, trumps our Constitution.
How much money might we save, in these budget weary times, if all of the non-violent drug offenders could be released from prison? How much might we save if we didn't have to burden the court system with marijuana "offenders"? How much might we save in border patrol, DEA sweeps and human life if marijuana was legalized and we shut down the main source of income for the drug cartels south of the border almost overnight? How many people might we save from already known sex offenders because there will be plenty of room in the prisons for them and our priorities and focus will be in proportion to the actual crimes that we care about preventing. Actual, despicable crimes.
Friday, November 6, 2009
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