Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Violent Crime

Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime
Huffington Post

CHICAGO -- As Jessica Shaver and I chat at a coffee shop in Chicago's north-side Andersonville neighborhood, a police car pulls into the parking lot across the street. Then another. Two cops get out, lean up against their cars, and appear to gaze across traffic into the store. At times, they seem to be looking directly at us. Shaver, who works as an eyebrow waxer at a nearby spa, appears nervous.

"See what I mean? They follow me," says Shaver, 30. During several phone conversations Shaver told me that she thinks a small group of Chicago police officers are trying to intimidate her. These particular cops likely aren't following her; the barista tells me Chicago cops regularly stop in that particular parking lot to chat. But if Shaver is a bit paranoid, it's hard to blame her.

A year and a half ago she was beaten by a neighborhood thug outside of a city bar. It took months of do-it-yourself sleuthing, a meeting with a city alderman and a public shaming in a community newspaper before the Chicago Police Department would pay any attention to her. About a year later, Shaver got more attention from cops than she ever could have wanted: A team of Chicago cops took down her door with a battering ram and raided her apartment, searching for drugs.

Shaver has no evidence that the two incidents are related, and they likely aren't in any direct way. But they provide a striking example of how the drug war perverts the priorities of America's police departments. Federal anti-drug grants, asset forfeiture policies and a generation of battlefield rhetoric from politicians have made pursuing low-level drug dealers and drug users a top priority for police departments across the country. There's only so much time in the day, and the focus on drugs often comes at the expense of investigating violent crimes with victims like Jessica Shaver. In the span of about a year, she experienced both problems firsthand.

More details at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html

Read the whole article. It is one of the most disgusting stories I've ever heard.

The more heinous things? A police department not investigating an assault until the victim does the detective work herself and the attacker is brought in on other charges. Messing with this lady's sex toys while she is held, scared to death. Downreporting violent crime to make the city look good. Letting drugs be sold first so the department can seize the cash.

Shit like this needs to get out so people pull their heads out of their asses. If we tried, we could make this story the next dog-shooting tape.

Well atleast it's on a fairly mainstream news site. Huff post usually posts articles like these. Don't know how many actually pay attention to them. I know I didn't until I started doing drugs

Damn shes kind of cute.

Really fucked up btw. Another reason the drug war needs to end pronto.

Shortly after she finally identified her attacker at the police station, Shaver said the detective in charge of her case told her, "Now I don't want to hear any more bitching from you."

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Jesus fucking Christ. To protect and to serve my ass.

The drug war's financial incentives appear to be having an effect. A drug offender is much more likely to be arrested in Chicago than he was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. But kill someone in Chicago, and you're only about half as likely to be caught as you were in the early 1990s.

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I guess if I'm ever gonna murder someone I'd best do it in Chicago.

Last July, more than a year after her attack, Shaver's assailant "Sonny" was finally convicted. He was sentenced to six months of probation. Reflecting back on the last tumultuous two years, Shaver says, "It just doesn't make sense. Repeat violent offenders get to walk while casual pot smokers get terrorized by SWAT teams. I'm pretty disappointed in the justice system."

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6 months. 6 MONTHS!!!!! And PROBATION!!!!! I'm so pissed off I think I'm gonna shit.

This is the source of the real bullshit:

Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn't bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.

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Stop this system.
The cops have no other reason to prey on innocent, plant-using people like the woman in the story.
They are (mostly) not inherently evil beings, but the system is evil.

"In an explosive Village Voice series last year, current and former NYPD officers told the publication that supervising officers encouraged them to either downgrade or not even bother to file reports for assault, robbery and even sexual assault."

Business as usual for major police departments trying to make crime "go away".

I suspected this was how it is for a long time. For conservative America, drug users are a scapegoat or whipping boy. For the criminal justice system, they're even more than that -- they're a source of income.

I'm happy that this article was written. Hopefully more will follow.

Still feeling pissed off about what this article reveals.

Earlier this year, Nashville's News 5 ran a report on how police in Tennessee are pulling over suspected drug dealers and seizing their cash along I-40, often without bothering to make an arrest. The station combed through police reports showing that officers spent 10 times as long policing the side of the interstate where a drug runner would be leaving after he sold his supply -- and thus would be flush with sizable amounts of cash -- than on the side where he was likely to be flush with drugs. The police were letting the drugs be sold in order to get their hands on the cash.

Back in Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) recently signed a new law that will require convicted drug dealers to reimburse the police agencies that arrested and prosecuted them. The law will provide even more incentive for departments to devote time and resources to drug crimes -- and that shift comes at the expense of solving more serious crimes.

The bill does not require reimbursement from convicted rapists or murderers.

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Just amazing that the public allows the government to treat "drug users" as worse, or less deserving of mercy, or more deserving of punishment, than rapists and murderers.
We need to stand up and put an end to such disgusting biases and tactics in enforcing the war on drugs.

^ Exactly. Technically we taxpaying citizens are paying these people. Can we not demand that our tax money be spent differently? The article mentioned a group of police officers who are united in opposition to this trend. Are there any other lobbying groups, especially ones started by and for ordinary citizens, that advocate for this cause, and have data to show that this sort of policing is ineffective and wasteful? As long as I'm a licensed professional whose urine isn't perpetually clean, I don't see myself attaching my name to this cause and publicly speaking out. But I definitely could see myself making an anonymous donation or two.

This should be turned into a movie.

I've gotten used to the fact that cops are lazy about investigating violence. I was beaten and robbed by eight people in a nightclub parking lot, and there was an audience of witnesses. Fort Lauderdale cops didn't even bother writing a report. Such is the world we live in.

All throughout my life, my only real interaction with police has had to do with my drug use.

I'd rather there be fewer cops than more cops: a world in which people were free to do what they wanted and at the same time were responsible for their own safety. What is better: long lives or good lives?

In an age where the (unionized) middle class is rapidly diminishing, it is a shame that the police force unions remain so powerful that they get their budgets increased and membership swells.

If it was merely an economic downturn, police budgets wouldn't be ballooning, so it is obvious that we are experiencing a class war.

I am really really happy stuff like this is getting media coverage, but not nearly enough. Also funny that this event happened in Chicago, as 2 years ago or so my car that was bought with completely honest money was forcefully taken away from me. and my credit score is ruined for another 5 years because I simply do not believe in paying for something I do not have. the creditors do not deem it necessary to take me to court to forcefully take my money as this is a complex and expensive case, and I can actually win since I WAS NOT CONVICTED OR EVEN CHARGED WITH A SINGLE CRIME. In any case I do not feel like paying for the legal battle as well as the outrageous storage fees the government charges for the keeping of my car as it is not worth it. I just have to use someone else in my familys credit for another 5 years until this shit aint on my record and let me tell you it really sucks because theyve basically robbed me of my ability of financial independence for a period of 7 years without charging me for a single crime, only 'preponderance' that my car was used for a drug transaction how fucked is that, before this I fooliahly didnt even think things like this were possible in America.

The way the country and the economy is going, things are getting more and more real as fuck and not just something you see on the TV or read about in the news without being affected. The way things are going I would not be surprised to see the future as either Mad Max or 1984 or perhaps a combination of the two. I feel like since the beginning of this new decade things that have been building up since world war 2 are slowly starting to spill out and cause some real nasty shit to happen.

Thankfully I feel more people are slowly starting to wake up and see shit that I've been seeing for some time now. What worries me is that so much of the american population and voters are steeped in such deep ignorance they may continue voting for shit politicians who employ shit policies. The country is going more bankrupt and closer towards economic collapse, and when America collapses its going to be a really fucking ugly mess since no one is going to bail out America like the EU did wıth Greece. If this shit goes on for longer... well dont be surprised when you start seeing post apocalyptic looking police and soldiers with gas masks and shotguns keeping crowds of the hungry and poor in order. The reality of this will not nearly be as cool as the imagery suggests. this is real life not movies or video games.

I recommend being more politically active nowadays, SUPPORT THE FUCK OUT OF RON PAUL, he is running in the Republican Party but read into his policies they make more sense than any President thats been in office since Vietnam. I have always actually been a firm believer in the ideals that the Republican party was originally founded on as theyre pretty much the same noble ideas America was founded on. We need to start supporting a shitload of more people on the local county and state levels too so go out there and do the research on the candidates and try to be a lot more active in voting as getting more people to do it as well. America is in dire crisis and many agree very soon sometime in this decade we wont be the most powerful country on earth anymore, and I can assure you that even when America loses that much power they will still try to use propaganda to make you think Americas still on top while things slowly go into chaos.

thats some messed up shit but really what new besides their trying to make ppl pay back for the investigation...cops HATE ppl who do drugs its sad because most of the stuff they believe was propaganda definatly about weed...the population needs to stand up and stop this shit before it gets more out of control i mean its our money anyways...there are so many points to this story that makes it just sickening