A national group of African-American law enforcement officers has endorsed Proposition 19, a ballot measure that would tax and regulate marijuana in California. The National Black Police Association, which has more than two dozen chapters across the country, announced the endorsement in Sacramento, where the organization is holding a national conference. In a statement, Neill Franklin, the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which supports Proposition 19, said that “prohibition takes a toll on people of color across the country.†He added: “Californians finally have an opportunity to do something about it.â€
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Bout damn time!
Thud!
Waiting for the California Police Chiefs Associations response to this.
Surely any fence sitters with doubts about our claims that the laws against marijuana were doing more damage to our
society that the drug would will listen a little more closely now.
I do so love the sound of sledgehammers beating against crumbling brick… the hue and cry against Prohibition is gaining seriously legit companions all the time. This is a group I thought might flip… seems I remember them voicing concerns elsewhere in the WOD in the past.
I hope LEAP had a hand in this… and if not I hope that they extend their hand.
They did Allen,read their article about it at:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/national-black-police-association-endorses-marijuana-legalization
The long blue line has broken. Whereas most of LEAPs LEO
members are retired or former officers,NABP’s members are mostly active policeman.
This is as big as the AG’s memo,IMO.
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Will we see it legal in our lifetimes?
Cooking Lager is damned awful stuff; it should never be legalized!
I, for one, would like to extend a hearty WELCOME to the NBPA. Not only for their service but for their involvement also. Many here are LEAP members and understand the power you garner in your new position.
It’s hard for us lighter types to talk about the race angle of Prohibition but to now have NBPA making that talk, lends more credibility to the message.
You’re actually helping restore honor to your profession when you move “with the People.”
A gemstone might seem impossible to crack apart, but strike it along its’ cleavage, and it will shatter to dust.
Th racist origins of the DrugWar have always been its’ ‘cleavage’. From the outside, the DrugWar looked hard and unassailable, and its’ proponents have striven mightily to maintain that illusion. But now the DrugWar is (finally!) being seen along the proper lines of being racially prejudicial against people of color.
So long as those who were the most affected remained ignorant of the racist origins of the DrugWar, the predation could continue unfettered. But now?
Now, more members of society’s minorities are becoming aware of the extent to which racially prejudicial stereotypes, and not scientific evidence, were incorporated into drug prohibition…and that said minorities were deliberately targeted by the drug laws on the basis of those stereotypes. And that those laws are used in lieu of actual overt racial discrimination.
Which, sooner or later, placed those members of minorities in the police force face-to-face with the fact that they are instrumental in the de facto oppression of their own people.
And now, the party’s over. Minority police officers now face the choice of either continuing to engage in the (legally sanctioned!) oppression of their own people, or to do as Dr. ML King suggested when faced with an unjust law…which is just what LEAP is doing.
I can just hear the prohibs now, choking on their knee-jerk responses when they realize the racial aspect has finally been brought front-and-center. (And of course, the closet racists among them may show less restraint. Queue the racist <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy'Southern Strategy' types trying to camouflage their bigotry with ‘code’ phrases.)
For the prohibs, they must now face their worst nightmare: Black and Hispanic cops pointing to the DrugWar they’re supposed to ruthlessly prosecute and proclaim it has racist roots.
A very large hammer is swinging down upon the seemingly adamantine stone of the DrugWar, aimed right at it’s cleavage. The resulting impact will prove very dramatic, indeed.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
I wonder how many black prohibitionists/police officers have seen this quote from Harry Anslinger’s congressional testimony. How could those people possibly support this policy if they knew that this was its justification.
When the long and sordid history of the War on Drugs is finally truthfuly told, the ignorant, racist and unlawful policies of the police will be exposed. Just like the former Soviet Union’s KGB or Nazi Germany’s Secret Police – they are hated by the citizenry and they are a burden on society. When the tide turns they will be the hunted instead of the hunters.
Now, some of the (non-white) police are seeing the writing on the wall, and moving away from the status quo because they value their careers over some junk-science ideology. Smart.
I wonder if they’ll be subjected to retaliation from their brothers in blue? I wonder if we’ll have an all-out blue on blue, divided by race? Should be interesting.
So now Obama can complain about the crazy demands of the leftist National Black Police Association?
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National. And a New York Times piece as well. Fantastic.