The war on drugs is about the disposal of excess Americans; "a holocaust in slow motion" says Wire creator David Simon

I agree, put this on the first page! Good read.

 

Care, how did you fit so many characters into the title?

 

Good point, it's the longest title I've seen here in a while, or ever, they usually get cut off way before that.

 

I don't think you realize exactly how good "those dumb fucks in LE" really have it! The starting pay for police officers in many urban areas is 70k! Also, the best health insurance money can buy, a true guaranteed pension for life that's equals out to 75% of the the three highest paid year you worked and a union that basically makes you immune to getting fired unless you really do something outrageously stupid! 28 days paid vacation a year! Oh, and the best part of all, you only have to work 20 years to collect a pension for the rest of your life! You can get hired as a police officer at 21 and be all done 41, collecting 60k a year and health for the rest of your life...You can start a completely new career at that point and make that on top of your pension....

It's the same thing with prison guards, but they only start at 45-50k a year! These unions are like a incurable parasite! they demand more and more and more while the rest of the country suffers through the worst recession in decades, and they generate so many votes and have so much political power you can't reform them or get rid of them!

They are low-brow, meat-head scum for the most part! and they don't want the gravy train to ever stop! It's outrageous....No politician can openly criticize them or vote against them because the general public considers them heroes...Oh man, don't get me started!

GREAT POST and extremely valid points. Here Here!

 

^I just googled it and it's really frustrating...It says police officer's starting salary is between 29k-49k to start, with the top 10% making 72k....but unless I live in a place with one the highest paid police in the country, I don't see how it's possible....Prison guard make at least $20 an hour almost everywhere...The $800 a week, around 40k a year, and prison guards are notorious for being the biggest overtime whores their are, so it's almost always 20% more.... police always make more than that prison guards, so I really wonder where the cops making 29k a year are....^but thanks man!

 

Good that articles like this are on Bluelight.

 

I don't think you realize exactly how good "those dumb fucks in LE" really have it! The starting pay for police officers in many urban areas is 70k! Also, the best health insurance money can buy, a true guaranteed pension for life that's equals out to 75% of the the three highest paid year you worked and a union that basically makes you immune to getting fired unless you really do something outrageously stupid! 28 days paid vacation a year! Oh, and the best part of all, you only have to work 20 years to collect a pension for the rest of your life! You can get hired as a police officer at 21 and be all done 41, collecting 60k a year and health for the rest of your life...You can start a completely new career at that point and make that on top of your pension....

It's the same thing with prison guards, but they only start at 45-50k a year! These unions are like a incurable parasite! they demand more and more and more while the rest of the country suffers through the worst recession in decades, and they generate so many votes and have so much political power you can't reform them or get rid of them!

They are low-brow, meat-head scum for the most part! and they don't want the gravy train to ever stop! It's outrageous....No politician can openly criticize them or vote against them because the general public considers them heroes...Oh man, don't get me started!

Let me say this though. The star-ledger did a big story about police salaries in NJ. It wasn't the urban officers raking in the dough, that's for sure. It basically worked like this, the nicer the area and the less crime there was, the more the cops were paid, in some cases, whole depts made $100k+, while those working in Newark, Camden, etc, were getting peanuts. No wonder why enforcement in those areas is difficult, when you pay shit, you get shit.

 

This article I think is more accurate, showing the mean salary at $55,000....they don't make peanuts by any stretch, they love to say shit like that but that's just a way of deflecting the truth....the fact that they can retire after 20 years of service and collect 3/4 or their salary for life is absolutely outrageous and shameful...

Talking about the "starting salary" for a police officer is misleading....I was a union city employee who basically did park maintenance, road repair, snow blowing, cutting brush back from the roads... a lot of different stuff....anyway, my starting salary was something like $28,000 a year, which doesn't sound that great, but what a lot of people don't know is that part of the union contracts includes mandatory pay increases at certain points in time and it's usually heavily front loaded in the first few years....

I started at 13.^^ an hour, after six months it went up to 16.^^. After eighteen months on the job it went up to $20 an hour....So it's essentially like an automatic %50 pay raise after 18 months! It's the same way with the police but some of the contracts their unions are awarded are absolutely fucking ridiculous! So, I'm sure there's some police that "start out" at $38,000 or whatever, but it's a very misleading stat because they have large pay increases automatically built in....

There's no regular private company that gives every one a 30-50% pay raise after they've been there for two years out of kindness. It just doesn't happen....

I could go on about this shit forever but it's not the point of the thread....

I come from one of the most politically corrupt places in the US though, and the politicians in my state need the unions to keep getting elected so it's gets a little bit ridiculous at times to see some police officers making the kind of money that's usually associated with the "educated upper-middle class"...And conversely, to see highly educated people making "working class money"...
Oh I forgot, here's the link:http://degreedirectory.org/articles/How_Much_Does_a_Police_Officer_Make.html

 

Care, how did you fit so many characters into the title?

magnets

 

Well, I pretty quickly lost an awful lot of respect for this guys' opinions after his claim that he's against legalizing mj. I agree that weed isn't somehow any better than anything else and that the war on drugs in general absolutely needs to end, but it's patently absurd to suggest that legalizing pot will hinder the process.

So he wants the thing to fall as one complete edifice...meanwhile, for those of us not living in fairytale land, the fact that the foot is in the door is a huge positive. Once people see how absurd all the paranoia surrounding weed was, they'll begin questioning the hype surrounding other drugs as well. That's how people work; they don't just wake up one day and suddenly jump from one idealistic extreme to the other. Also, despite what he seems to suggest, very few people seek to change laws exclusively b/c they believe they'll benefit from it. Neither I nor anyone in my family smokes weed and yet all but my old, racist grandmother would vote to legalize it in a heartbeat.

I've gone this far without mentioning an even more obvious point; how incredibly selfish he sounds. Yes, the situation is far, far from ideal, but it's really dickish to say "Well, legalizing weed will save a bunch of people from going to jail or having their lives ruined, particularly b/c as a mostly non-addictive substance, and one that kids wind up experimenting with frequently, lots of totally regular people who only use every once in a while won't have to worry about it completely destroying their careers/futures...but it doesn't do as much as I would like it to, so screw those people."

I hate to end things really abruptly cause I'm kind of OCD about writing, but it's late and I'm really tired/nodding out so, uh...yeah, fuck the war on drugs. It's awful and disgusting in every way, shape, and form and I pray to god or the universe or whatever that some day soon it will be nothing but a distant memory and a cautionary tale for future generations.

 

Good that articles like this are on Bluelight.

Yes, actually I had HBO when The Wire was still in its' early seasons but I never was interested in it, but now after reading this article an interest in watching it has been kindled and I am now beginning Season 1 with high expectations, always a pleasure to find a gem of a TV show that I overlooked due to not really looking at what the show was really all about. :D

 

I think I might be the only one who's never seen The Wire

just never get around to watching it, downloaded it like 5 months ago

 

I've never seen it either. I agree with the guys stance on "all or nothing" legalisation. Imagine the paltry effect that legalising MJ would have on the health of the wider drug using population - still divide & conquer usually works. I'm not american so have no opinion on whether it's racial or not, I'd call it a class thing myself - so typically European I am.
Anyone who had an interest in the health of people would legalise the most damaging drugs first allied with a serious strategy to give alternatives to having nothing much to do but get stoned.

 

The best documentary about war on drugs I have ever seen, it's not a war on drugs, it's a war on the people

 

I've never seen it either. I agree with the guys stance on "all or nothing" legalisation. Imagine the paltry effect that legalising MJ would have on the health of the wider drug using population - still divide & conquer usually works. I'm not american so have no opinion on whether it's racial or not, I'd call it a class thing myself - so typically European I am.
Anyone who had an interest in the health of people would legalise the most damaging drugs first allied with a serious strategy to give alternatives to having nothing much to do but get stoned.

The level of police harassment in lower-income neighbourhoods is absolutely outrageous, profiling is prolific and they are basically on a constant look out for targets to arrest as opposed to serving citizens or anything wholesome. I seriously doubt this has anything to do with race, although Mr. Simon essentially states that blacks are predisposed to smoking crack and since he made his name (in regards to any topic relating society to drugs) exposing a city in which the majority of the population is black, I can't help but think that maybe his view is a bit skewed. If you look like a hood kid, it doesn't matter if you're white or black or hispanic you will get harassed by cops and they just have to tell you to put both hands on the wall to produce an arrest if they so intend.

 

REALITY CHECK: Hues, I disagree completely about what you say prison guards and policemens starting pay is because I am myself trying to get into both....and looking all around the country. Your estimates are "very generous." Have any of you ever watched lockdown or lock up on TV. THEY CANT GET PRISON GUARDS IN some of the smaller towns because the pay isnt much more than a trucker would make or a Burger King asst mgr. Yes there are a few exceptional cities and still, no one is starting at 75k. They might advertise that...but they wont pay it!!! And any prison guard making over 50k is getting so much overtime he has no home life9which I bet half of them dont) And what does that have to do with giving legalization of only pot a trial for say 2 years?

Next reality check.- Did ending prohibition not take billions out of the pockets of mobsters? YES! YES! YES! And no one even wants to mention how many lives were saved by not letting people have to buy bathtub made whiskey ,then called "rotgut whiskey' which made many go blind! Yuh think illegal drugs arent "rot gut."

Reality Check #3- What is that idiot from The Wire talking about? He makes a show like that and then isnt informed enough to know that as many blacks smoke weed as whites. Whats the difference and why bring color into it.....again? I say we make a compromise--LETS HAVE A 2 YEAR POT LEGALIZATION PROGRAM IN WHATEVER STATES APPLY FOR IT OR WANT IT, AND AFTER 2 YEARS REASSESS WHAT TO DO ABOUT OTHER DRUGS AND WHETHER TO CONTINUE THE PROGRAM ALTOGETHER. WHAT IS MORE SANER THAN THAT? WE ALL DONT HAVE A CLUE HOW THIS WILL END UP IF WE DO IT UNLESS WE TRY IT. I SAY IF THE "POPULAR VOTE" WANTED IT...LEGALIZATION OF HORSE MANURE INJECTIONS WOULD BE MADE AVAILABLE IN VENDING MACHINES IF IT KEPT THE PARTY IN OFFICE RE-ELECTED!!!!


are you sure they make that much??? seriously??? i work my ass off and am in so much student debt when i could have just become a shitty police officer? a high ranking one at that with my education? I'd love to see some actual figures on how much money police officers, lawyers, judges, DEA agents, FBI, prison industry people make on the war on drugs and compare it to how much big pharma, tobacco and alcohol make. Who has more power? I see them as competing forces ideologically. I'd like to see a boxing match between the two sides and i'd be betting and hoping big pharma/tobacco/alcohol took those mother fuckers down in the first round!

i can't believe those wages for LE and PO, that's far beyond the average for Americans isn't it? here the average income is like 67,000-77,000 for a family/year which is actually the highest in the province lol. Poor province though but still.

we need to get the big global conglomerates like big pharma/alcohol/tobacco on board, they make INSANE amounts of money, just look at the wiki pages for some big pharma companies and check their revenues! Why are they working with the current system when they could topple it over and take control, gaining more money and most importantly more power? Combine forces, legalize all drugs, and minimize government and release all non-violent offenders from prison, that isn't ideal but it's a a hell of a lot better than now! i'd fight for that. They could even pull it off in a subtle way so the sheep don't notice.[/QUOTE]

@Care: completely agree, if we legalize cannabis then the drug war will continue and those most affected by the drug war will suffer more (ie. inner city kids, people in Mexico, less fortunate people in general). However it will save those high class old money douche bags i used to hang out with from getting in trouble. The type of kids who are like, 'i only do natural drugs mannn, cause that chemical shit will fry your brain' What i would do to those pieces of shit in a revolution is a constant fantasy of mine. lol
That really is what David Simon is trying to get across and it's a great point that i didn't even think of.

@Reverand Random: yes i misunderstood you lol it is untenable for politicians to legalize drugs, that would put them, LE, prison industries out of work and they all work together. However the forces that work for drugs, big pharma, tobacco and alcohol, may have more power than them, which could turn the tide and create a power shift, which would be interesting and amazing to see if nothing else. The corporations supporting drug use would become the government, how fucked would that be, but for a drug addict, it's a dream come true!

 

^Dude, let me tell you this....I come from the East Coast, New England....A close blood relative of mine has a job that pretty much involves dealing with all the various unions involved in the municipality that I'm from....He knows the salries inside and out...He can call it up on his laptop in a heartbeat...I know how much they make...He was the one who got me my municipal job....Incredible job with great benefits that in no way I deserved...I was just a DPW laborer...Our union is AFL-CIO, one of the biggest unions in the country...basically all the city and state workers in the country that aren't police, fire or work for the school department work in this union....

There's a "step system" that increases very rapidly over 2 years from the time you're hired...I started out at $27,000 and within 18 months I was at $40,000...as a bottom of the barrel laborer!

The police may start of at something like $35,000, but within 2 years...even one of the "paper chasers" is in the 50s as police! And half the department has some sort of "rank"...Shit, there's more sergeants than there are regular police! And our municipality is middle of the road for the northeast! It may be slightly lower in the south and Midwest but it's very easy to get into the 50s as a cop these days....Shit 70s even 80s, 100s for Christ sakes! I'm not lyin....

The firefighter with their overtime and "minimum manning" laws, shit....a lot of those guys(the regular entry level dudes) are in the 70s and 80s without even seeing more than 2 fires a year....If fire and EMTs are combined, they definitely deal with a lot of shit....but still, it's great money! And the benefits are fucking ridiculous! I know, I had the same ones....

 

Reverend,

I think you are more spot on than you realize but dont like. Big pharma with the oil boys control most everything anyway. So who would oyu rather see control drugs, pharma co's who wont cut your head off if you compete with them and will give you unpoisoned uncut product and also free needles,free rehabs and lots of goodies as a write off!!!? Or the people we have now? (which we dont even know who they are and its best that way) Great example. Millions of Americans and tons more coming each year fall victim to their doctors script pad and get hooked on opiate painkillers. what did big pharma do to help? they invented a drug called suboxone which you take in its place and the theory is you wean yourself off of that. Heres the catch...the suboxone is about $5 a pill, the percocets or roxys are maybe 80 cents. Which one would you push? But heres the thing...it does have benefit I must admit because you can only get as much as whats on your doctors prescription. nobody od's, nobody dies and if your not strong enough to get help,you just havea habit to support all your life. But you wont die....not for many yrs anyway. Imagine if big pharma was asked by the govt to make substitutes for everything? But the govt is too chicken to take the risk. I say what risk? the country is teetering on anarchy now. In certain neighborhoods it IS in anarchy and has been for years.....and its spreading....nice and slowly,so we dont hollar too much and riot. Somebody,i dont know who, is pretty damn smart.

we need to get the big global conglomerates like big pharma/alcohol/tobacco on board, they make INSANE amounts of money, just look at the wiki pages for some big pharma companies and check their revenues! Why are they working with the current system when they could topple it over and take control, gaining more money and most importantly more power? Combine forces, legalize all drugs, and minimize government and release all non-violent offenders from prison, that isn't ideal but it's a a hell of a lot better than now! i'd fight for that. They could even pull it off in a subtle way so the sheep don't notice.[/QUOTE]

@Care: completely agree, if we legalize cannabis then the drug war will continue and those most affected by the drug war will suffer more (ie. inner city kids, people in Mexico, less fortunate people in general). However it will save those high class old money douche bags i used to hang out with from getting in trouble. The type of kids who are like, 'i only do natural drugs mannn, cause that chemical shit will fry your brain' What i would do to those pieces of shit in a revolution is a constant fantasy of mine. lol
That really is what David Simon is trying to get across and it's a great point that i didn't even think of.

@Reverand Random: yes i misunderstood you lol it is untenable for politicians to legalize drugs, that would put them, LE, prison industries out of work and they all work together. However the forces that work for drugs, big pharma, tobacco and alcohol, may have more power than them, which could turn the tide and create a power shift, which would be interesting and amazing to see if nothing else. The corporations supporting drug use would become the government, how fucked would that be, but for a drug addict, it's a dream come true!

 

Guys, In America, and Im sure it is like this in every 1st world country to the most dispicable evil 3rd world country....there are people who are born destroyers. Have someone take 20 years of their life to erect a statue to honor a fallen hero, and some asshole with a spray can and no brain will find a way to destroy the whole 20 yrs of labor in 10 minutes. Regardless if he is on drugs or not!!!! We all dont see me to be evolving as humans at the same pace,do we? What do savages who stone women to death have anything to do with drug dealing and legalization. People born barbarians stay barbarians...regardless of drug use or not. Al Capone,one of the most heartless and ruthless people who ever lived had no drug problem. Maybe its a parenting problem. Maybe its a lack of respect for elders that started very young and we allowed it so we dont get "sued" by some liberal lawyer or sharpton type miscreant looking to make a buck out of distorting the facts. But lets stop blaming drugs for most peoples unwillingness to do an honest days work, be responsible fathers and do an honest days work for an honest wage. You hear bangers themselves say right out.........."if you were me at 12 years old, and you can make $200 a day dealing or carrying drugs as opposed to sitting in aclassroom and coming home to an empty refrigerator...what would you do? I know what "I" WOULD DO. bUT iD HAVE LIMITS ON HOW FAR i WOULD GO. kILLING ,TORTURING AND MAIMING OTHERS TO SHOW YOU ARE THE KING WOLF ON THE BLOCK HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DRUGS...ITS ABOUT FEAR AND INSECURITY!

 

I've always wondered why the US police never bothers to do a drug raid on celebrity parties or Wall Street. Maybe I'm wrong (blame the media! ), but aren't those places infested with drugs, particularly cocaine? Guaranteed bust and it really shows off your muscles as a police officer. Nobody cares if you take down a black inner city kid, but you'll be (in)famous if you arrest someone who's known. A racial "holocaust in slow motion" seems to be a good explanation.

However, I don't fully agree with Simon's view on MJ legalization (or better: decriminalization): we in the Netherlands are famous for our coffeeshops, although it's still illegal to grow the stuff. Weird system when you think about it, but it works. Recently, I've heard more and more politicians plea for the same system to be applied to other drugs, especially MDMA. They see the advantages it brings and the biggest problem with MDMA is contaminated pills. Selling them in legal businesses at least makes someone responsible and where there's responsibility there's caution. Not that it's probable to happen soon, but at least it's getting some attention from the people that make the decisions.
Now of course our culture is completely different than the US's, especially on drugs and racial problems, but I see my country (and some other EU countries) as proof that politicians can think rationally about drugs. Demanding that all drugs should be legalized right now is just not going to work. Small steps are required to ease people into seeing that drugs aren't pure evil and that legalization is better in the end.

I for one can't wait to buy a pack of 'Marlboro Haze', or some 'Johnson & Johnson 150µg LSD blotters', which would actually contain 150µg (+-1µg or so) pure LSD, as they will be held to a very strict margin.

 

No, no no, chick. Gotta disagree. The race card is getting old. Even bigots are bored with it. The reason most of us feel its okj to leave the wall street boys alone is that regardless of thir color and there are now many more blacks on wall st than ever before is.......they wear suits and ties and fit into society. I dont want them bothered. I want criminals bothered. the wall street guy will never break into your house and tie up your wife and daughters and rape them under the excuse of needing drug money. they just ask their boss for an advance. Dude im an ex broker, the worlk on wall street knows no color...just green. BUT WE BETTER LEGALIZE SOMETHING, I CANT KEEP REPEATING MYSELF ....BECAUSE IT WORKS!!!!! IT WORKED IN PROHIBITION IN 1929 and it will work again. The products may be different, people are always the same. end of it. period. please believe me. and many millions of married men would feel a lot better to drop off a hooker at her closest 7-11 to pick up a pack of "joints" than to drop her off on a corner where there aint nobody there. SAFER ALL AROUND FOR US ALL! And the drug dealers will still find a way to get a piecde of the action but we must try legalization...MUST.....because we cant lose. This way we will have something to weigh or compare the old system against. that alone is worth a fortune. History always repeats. Its a no brainer. whenever you take something away from people they really want, the ones who benefits are the bad people....only! End of story. Yes there will be a small group of pre teens who will over dose9but im talking pot only in the beginning) but in the end..............that stereotypical junkie we see living in a rented room where 8 people on the floor share the same bathroom is going to be a lot cleaner,happier and safer.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT, MANY DRUG ADDICTS WOULD HAVE BEEN VERY HAPPY TO GET HIGH ON WHATEVER WAS AROUND BEFORE THEY BECAME HARDCORE ADDICTS. I "KNOW" THIS BECAUSE I HAVE 2 BUDDIES IN NA AND THEY TELL ME THE STORIES.