Thursday, August 25, 2005

The permit issue continues The Provo Daily Herald discusses the permit issue for the attacked Utah rave. Why it took until today for this detail in reporting to be achieved is beyond me. While the debate rages over the level of force police used to quell a party Saturday in Spanish Fork Canyon, the crucial legal question has shifted. Organizers may or may not have obtained a mass-gathering permit from the Utah County Commission -- but did they need one? [...]In addition to the health permit ensuring portable toilets, food and other health concerns, Utah County Code 13-4-2-1 mandates a security-related permit for any "anticipated assembly of 250 or more people which continues or can reasonably be expected to continue for 12 or more consecutive hours." The electronic dance beats began thumping at 9 p.m. Saturday in the Diamond Fork area and thrived for more than two hours before 90 fully armed SWAT members from various area teams swarmed the crowd of roughly 300. Had authorities permitted the party to continue, event promoter Brandon Fullmer of Salt Lake City-based Uprock Records said the party was scheduled to conclude at 6:30 a.m. Sunday -- a couple hours short of the limit set for the permit. Privately contracted security personnel as well as the sound technician (from Salt Lake-based Performance Audio) both confirmed they were contracted for that same time period. Fullmer and landowner Trudy Childs have retained a Salt Lake attorney who has filed formal legal requests for copies of all related documents from the health department, county attorney and commissioners.[...] Nonsense, countered Utah Sheriff Jim Tracy. Based on 700 presold tickets and organizers' anticipated crowd of thousands, he said authorities quite reasonably expected partygoers to linger to 9 a.m. and beyond. Of course, Tracy has quite a history of poor judgment. Note: Check out the picture in the first article. Looks like a gorgeous place for a rave. 6:33:45 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

N.J. DEA and SWAT raid wrong house - 2nd time in 4 months Somebody put these DEA and SWAT guys away somewhere. Please. For the safety of Americans. SWAT team raids wrong home: State Police and DEA agents frighten residents and tear up house A State Police SWAT team and a swarm of federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents stormed a four-family home in Newark on Tuesday, kicking down doors, waving guns and ransacking two upstairs apartments. The officers tore through an armoire looking for guns and shouted curses at frightened adults as they clutched their young children. Then the officers apologized for being in the wrong house. Home health aide Cedelie Pompee, 59, was livid yesterday as she recounted how police rushed through the Smith Street house that she has owned for 27 years, leaving cracked door frames, broken doors and scuffed walls in their wake. Pompee shares the home with her two sisters, their children and another family that rents a downstairs apartment. They didn't realize their mistake at once. With guns drawn, they went room by room, breaking through locked doors as they went. When Desir and other family members complained, the officers cursed at them and demanded to know where the guns were kept. But after 15 minutes of fruitless searching, the officers realized they had made a mistake. This, of course, after cursing at them. 'Cause that's how you do law enforcement these days. The people you're after aren't human. They're the enemy. State Police Sgt. Gerald Lewis confirmed yesterday the officers and DEA agents raided the wrong house. He would not reveal the nature of the investigation that led them to the house, other than to say it is ongoing. Lewis also refused to disclose who they were looking for. So just how clueless are these people? This is the second time in four months the State Police have raided the wrong home. In May, officers stormed the home of a retired truck driver in Woodbridge in search of a prostitution operation. Yesterday, both Pompee and Desir questioned what kind of investigation even led police to a household of devout Jehovah's Witnesses in the first place. If any surveillance had been done of the house with the iron gate and small herb garden, Desir said, officers would have known that no one in the house so much as smokes cigarettes or drinks alcohol. "You're trying to work in a community and get bad people, but you don't even know where they live," Desir said. "When you're dealing with these type of neighborhoods, there's no room for incompetent police officers." 5:07:45 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

So stupid it's almost funny In Thursday's Washington Times: Colombia helps Afghanistan wage drug war Illinois' Henry Hyde, idiot and Chairman of the House International Relations Committee, got this bright idea: Colombia has done so well with its drug war, why not have them tell Afghanistan how to do it? "We warmly welcome the restoration of formal relations between Afghanistan and Colombia and especially the joint efforts of Colombia and its elite national police to help Afghanistan tackle the enormous problem of heroin production, which also fuels terrorism," Mr. Hyde said yesterday. [...] "The Colombians are the world's experts on establishing sovereignty and security over ungoverned space, especially when fighting narcotics-funded terrorists," said Andre Hollis, a top Pentagon counterdrug official in President Bush's first term. And Hyde, of course, takes every opportunity to play the terror card... "Colombia ... has a lot to share and help our Afghan partners with in the global struggle against drugs and terror," Mr. Hyde said. When I first read it, I laughed. As I continued to think about it, I just got angrier. So absurd. So stupid. Remember, despite what morons like Henry Hyde may say, drugs don't fund terrorism. Prohibition does. 12:57:26 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []