Friday, February 16, 2007

Open Thread and Drug War reading Drug Sense Weekly 8:41:08 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Another drug war victim? Details are slow in coming in (which is, in itself, suspicious), but it appears that 17 year-old Daniel Castillo, Jr. may be the latest victim in an over-militarized drug war here at home. During a forced entry drug raid that, by some accounts, found no drugs, it's looking like Daniel awoke to the sound of his sister screaming, sat up in bed and was shot to death. Radley Balko is keeping on top of it, here and here. Update: (from Radley) This afternoon I spoke with Rick Dovalina, director of the Houston chapter of the Hispanic advocacy group LULAC, and who has served as spokesman for the Castillo family the last few days. According to Dovalina, police say they found what appear to be stems and seeds of marijuana, either in the Castillo home or in the yard behind it. Contrary to earlier reports, the victim's father, Daniel Castillo, Sr. was not arrested or charged with a crime. Police did arrest a man in a white pick-up truck outside the house. The man was apparently dating one of the victim's sisters, and police claim they found crack cocaine in the vehicle. [...] According to his sister, Castillo was shot just below the eye as he rose up from his bed after hearing her scream. She was holding a 1-year-old child just a few feet from the shooting. 9:15:10 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Stupid post of the day Every now and then I find some obscure blog post that is just astonishingly... odd. L. Craig Schoonmaker, Chairman of the Expansionist Party of the United States (?) has a different idea for dealing with the poppies in Afghanistan. He suggests eradicating the poppy fields, but instead of chemicals, he recommends... nuclear weapons. We can bomb them, strafe them, napalm them -- even nuke them, literally, with tactical nuclear weapons that can wipe out an entire valley's drug crops in 10 minutes. [...] We have firepower the drug cartel can only dream about. The drug war must be militarized. Update: Removed the link after a suggestion in comments. You can go find the idiot if you wish. 8:51:06 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Keeping you up to date with Barry Cooper Keith Plocek had a rather fascinating feature on Barry Cooper, the former cop who is marketing "Never Get Busted Again" in the Dallas Observer a couple of weeks ago. It may give you some of the flavor of the circus that is Barry Cooper. [Thanks, Kaptin] Scott Morgan at Flex Your Rights reviewed Cooper's DVD here in a post that drew some comments from Barry himself, and Scott later followed it up with The Viability of Refusing Consent Mark at WindyPundit has been following that exchange and providing his own analysis in On Refusing a Search of Your Vehicle and a followup: More Email From Barry Cooper. A lot of the controversy here has been Cooper's suggestion on his DVD that you should give consent to search your car in some situations. My stance is that you should never surrender your rights. Ever. Scott Morgan gives An Offer For Barry Cooper, which is agreed to by all parties and Windypundit condenses it to: Be aware that consenting to a search means that you're waiving your 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. If anything illegal is found after you've consented to a search, there will be very little your attorney can do for you. If an officer asks to search and you have private items that are not well hidden, always REFUSE consent. If you've got nothing to hide, always refuse the search. You've got nothing to lose. If you find it necessary to refuse a search for the reasons listed above, calmly state the following: "Officer I don't consent to any searches. Am I free to go?"...If the officer says you may leave, depart immediately regardless of anything else he says. 8:22:26 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []