“If you want a justice system that prevents and solves violent crime, stop voting for the enforcement of victimless crime laws. Detective Baeza’s example models a path towards such a system of true justice.”
Read more: https://fee.org/articles/former-narcotics-detective-blows-whistle-on-the-justice-system/
“Where is the logic in conducting the raid at night, when no one can see anything, and shouting ‘put the fucking gun down’ at a confused, half-asleep old woman? Police put her in a position where she might have reasonably thought she was fighting for her life against robbers, giving her no choice but to fire and them with no choice but to retaliate with deadly force—all to bust her son for selling some weed.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/02/01/cops-raid-house-kill-72-year-old-woman-w
“The IRS accepts this tainted money in the payment of taxes, turning it into ‘clean’ money; and it is not an unwitting accomplice to the crime. Estimates are that marijuana business owners across the U.S. will owe $2.8 billion in taxes to the federal government in 2018. The government makes a massive profit off the deal, snatching up to 70 percent of the proceeds of the reporting businesses, as opposed to the more typical rate of 30 percent. It does this by branding marijuana businesses criminal enterprises, which are not entitled to deduct their costs when reporting their income.”
Read more: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/biggest-launderer-marijuana-money-u-s-government/
“During his nearly seven-year pretrial incarceration, Tigano loudly and repeatedly invoked his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. Because Tigano kept bringing up the Sixth Amendment, he was forced to undergo three separate court-ordered examinations to determine whether he was competent to be tried.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/25/government-is-gutting-the-right-to-trial
“Over 50 people a day are still being arrested for it in New York City alone. Most of those arrests, predictably, are happening in communities of color. The new numbers for New York City’s 2017 marijuana arrests just came out and they hardly budged — arrests declined by about 1 percent, disappointing many advocates and attorneys who took the mayor’s word on this issue.”
Read more: https://theintercept.com/2018/01/25/marijuana-legalization-weed-drug-arrest/
“Because of government offensives that toppled narco kingpins in recent years, Mexico’s drug cartels have splintered and are eager for new sources of revenue. Now, their increasingly dominant role as fuel thieves pits two of the country’s biggest industries – narcotics and oil – against one another. A May 2017 study, commissioned by the national energy regulator and obtained by Reuters via a freedom of information request, found that thieves, between 2009 and 2016, had tapped pipelines roughly every 1.4 kms (0.86 mi) along Pemex’s approximately 14,000 km pipeline network.”
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/mexico-violence-oil/
“Much of that gold comes from outlaw mines deep in the jungle where dangerous chemicals are poisoning rainforests and laborers who toil for scraps of metal, according to human rights watchdogs and industry executives. In comparison, the U.S. gold supply, mostly mined in Nevada and Alaska, offers stiff competition and regulations. Big companies control the big mines. Smaller companies looking to deal in U.S. gold are restricted to buying recycled ‘scrap’ gold from pawnshops and jewelry stores. To gain a competitive edge, many U.S. gold traders look south.”
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article194187699.html
“Mount Olive Township Police were called to the CVS location on Tuesday over ‘suspicious activity,’ according to a police report. A man later identified as 28-year-old Craig Nakonechny had ‘repeatedly’ entered and exited the store and ultimately purchased several gift cards. This was somehow enough to trigger a call to the police (it’s not clear from whom) and a visit from Officer Anthony Gardner.”
Read more: https://reason.com/blog/2018/01/19/promoting-prostitution-charge-for-nj-man
“Assistant U.S. Attorney John Davis said Anderson flaunted his ill-gotten wealth.”
“Still fighting the culture wars, Reagan and his advisers decided early on that marijuana was the biggest drug threat facing the country. And so a couple of years into his first term, federal and California officials came up with a battle plan to target cultivation in the northern part of the state. The phrase ‘battle plan’ isn’t much of an exaggeration here.”