Pubdate: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 2002 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198 Authors: David J. Welch, Harry D. Fisher, Jim Griffith WEED WARS Felony dumb: In regards to the political/ police action of May 4 at Fitzgerald's ["Doobieous Bust," by John Suval, May 16], it would behoove each of us to question the intelligence of both the police and those busted. On the police side, what a scandalous, wasteful allocation of manpower and scarce resources to bust a couple of potheads. How much real crime went down on May 4? How much animosity was spread across the community with this immoral act? If stupidity were a crime, those busted would be doing life without parole. Police presence was as thick as purple haze. Dude, when you know there are cops around and someone much older, whom you have never met, seen or talked to, keeps bugging you for weed, are you really surprised when they're narcs? Are you sure the cops didn't have doughnuts, because the bustees sound like a bunch of Homers. David J. Welch Houston - ------------------------------------------------- Abusing Power? If the readers of the article about the police activities during the "Million Marijuana March" would look closer, they'd discover that they have a police state on their hands. What the police did is exactly how they do things in totalitarian states: They infiltrate meetings of all kinds and try to get people to incriminate themselves. Then they make mass arrests. This is how the police acted in communist and fascist dictatorships, and it's surprising to see it in Texas, of all places. The arrest of the participants of the party is a misuse of the law, and the sole purpose of the raid was to terrorize the participants and to screw money out of whomever they arrested, the penalty being 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. Since when has it been accepted in the United States for police to storm peaceful assemblies and rough up the participants, as if we were a communist dictatorship? It's shameful that such things go on in places where people pride themselves on their love for liberty, as in Texas. It does not speak well of you that you allow ordinary people to be brutalized for no reason. Harry D. Fisher Woodland Hills, California - ------------------------------------------- Buy Bye: The event in Texas must have been done by the same police that live in our tiny town. My wife and I are casual users who are not into dealing. An acquaintance came over looking for some pot, but we told him four or five times that we didn't have any. Finally we were becoming upset that he wouldn't take no for an answer and sold him our little bit, 2.91 grams. Two months later, my wife and I were handcuffed in front of our children by two city cops and a guy from the metro drug unit. It seems that this so-called friend was wearing a wire so he could get a lesser sentence for something he had done. It almost seems that the police want to create a crime so they have something they can boast about cleaning up (nothing like a little job security). We have an 18-month probation and have spent over $9,000 in fines, lawyers and drug assessments. We even had to pay so that the guy who set us up had safety, all for 2.91 grams of marijuana. We are business owners and never had any run-ins with the law before. We will do everything we can to help legalize marijuana and put an end to the government destroying more families for such a ridiculous crime. I read somewhere something that said, "If I'm going to jail for pot, I wonder who they're letting out to make room for me." Jim Griffith Two Rivers, Wisconsin - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens