LEAP is hiring

LEAP is Hiring: Assistant Media Relations Director

Pro-Legalization Cops Seek Assistant Media Relations Director

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is seeking a talented and motivated individual to work in our media relations department on a part-time basis. LEAP is a nonprofit organization representing police officers, judges, prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals who want to legalize and regulate marijuana and other drugs after witnessing the failure of the “war on drugs” up close.

The assistant media relations director will report to and work alongside LEAP’s full-time media relations director in efforts to inject the voices of pro-legalization law enforcers into high-profile news coverage of the rapidly advancing public debate about failed drug policies.

Specifically, duties will include but are not limited to:

* Writing op-eds and letters-to-the-editor.

* Drafting, editing and distributing press releases.

* Making follow-up pitch calls to reporters and producers.

* Scanning the news to identify PR opportunities.

* Using an online media database to generate lists of journalists to contact.

* Building relationships with journalists.

* Encouraging prominent bloggers to link to or write about interesting drug policy stories.

* Posting comments mentioning LEAP on prominent blogs and online news articles.

* Tracking, circulating and archiving LEAP’s news hits.

* Interacting with supporters on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit.

Through these and other tactics, the assistant media relations director will help members of the organization’s 150-member bureau of law enforcement speakers make their voices heard in the increasingly prominent global drug policy discussion.

The assistant media relations director will preferably — but not necessarily — be located in San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC, and will work three days a week (24 hours per week).

QUALIFICATIONS:

* Demonstrated ability to generate positive news coverage for advocacy efforts.

* Familiarity with diverse news organizations across platforms (print, online, broadcast).

* Excellent written and oral communications skills.

* Commitment to LEAP’s mission to replace the “war on drugs” with legalized regulation.

* Social media savvy.

* Video editing, graphics and web design skills are major plusses.

* Spanish language fluency a plus but not required.

COMPENSATION:

The assistant media relations director will be compensated at a competitive hourly rate commensurate with experience.

TO APPLY:

Please send a resume, cover letter and (preferably published) short writing sample to Tom Angell, LEAP’s media relations director, at media@leap.cc. Interviews are being conducted on a rolling basis, so interested candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. The application deadline is June 15, 2012.

More information about LEAP is available at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

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16 Responses to LEAP is hiring

  1. Matthew Meyer says:

    Do they pee test?

  2. darkcycle says:

    A job to covet. Will all the student types who visit the couch take heed and consider this as an opportunity to change the world and pay your rent at the same time? LEAP is the top of the very top of credible reform advocate organizations. This is a great job for a very very lucky (and hopefully talented) young person.

  3. Tom Angell says:

    Thanks so much for posting this, Pete! I know there are several good candidates who regularly read DWR.

  4. claygooding says:

    How do you spell pleeze? Wish I had the credentials.

  5. OhutumValik says:

    Even as some (ex-)cops fight against the WoSD, others call for stricter punishments. Found a link to this op-ed by a former NSW detective at a conservative Aussie tabloid on Transform UK’s blog:

    Let’s go to war on the folly of decriminalising drugs

    Cabramatta proved for a period that police, if empowered, can change drug patterns and force addicts into treatment programs. Treatment and rehabilitation should be the ultimate goal, not supported drug dependence.

    The experiences in Cabramatta should be revisited every time there is a debate on whether we have failed in the so-called drug war. We have only failed because we took our foot off the brake after the Cabramatta crisis was over.

    As for the addicts themselves, they become drug addicts through choice, they commit crimes through choice and they continue their addiction through choice.

    One of the most powerful anti-drug tools I saw as a frontline cop was the fear of arrest by potential drug abusers and the likelihood of having to attend court. For some, that was the difference between addiction and a normal life.

    If the war on drugs in Australia has been lost, it is only because it wasn’t a war in the first place, but more of a “police action”.

    If we were going to have a war on drugs, the first thing we would implement is draconian sentences on organised criminal gangs that are at the heart of the drug problem. They do not deserve to live among us. They deserve to languish in prison for the remainder of their lives.

    The second option would be to have mandatory rehabilitation for chronic drug users, whereby they are detained to undergo rigorous therapy to get them off drugs, not merely transfer them from one addictive substance to another, such as methadone.

    Sweden has mandatory drug rehabilitation and, according to experts, it now has the lowest drug usage in the developed world.

    Is the claim about Sweden even true? And are there any Swedish members of LEAP?

    Incidentally, here’s an interesting look at Sweden’s drug policy: “Sweden: Zero Tolerance Wins the Argument?”

    The theme of this paper is a modelling of Sweden’s drug policy and its relationship to drug problems. Both the drug problem and the drug policy of a country have to be put in their broader contexts. Although claims have been made on behalf of the Swedish ‘hard line’ on drug users — successfully promulgated by the Conservative Party during their period in opposition — the basis of Sweden’s relatively small heroin problem is the country’s geographical position and its social and economic policies, not in its drug-specific policies.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      I’ve no reason to believe that the Swedish statistics are materially misrepresented. But let’s not forget that they’re in a statistical dead heat with the Dutch, and I’m pretty certain that the Swiss are in the same ballpark. Funny how the PPs dismiss the Dutch/Swiss reality as cultural but Sweden’s environment as a success of authoritarianism.

      Perhaps the sadomoralists should give this woman a job. Did you know that there was a crime called malicious castration? I’m surprised that it’s not referred to as John Wayne Bobbit’s law. Damn, it’s been a bad week for people with penises.

    • Peter says:

      perhaps they can hire some of those troops who left iraq for their “real” drug war. how about turning loose the guys who who fried up faluja on chicagos south side. we tried “police action” and that didnt work so lets up the ante and put some tanks on their lawns.

    • Normal says:

      Even though Sweden has some of the most draconic drug laws on the planet, usage rates continue to climb.

      A recent survey shows that 40 percent of boys in certain inner-city secondary schools in Stockholm have experimented with illegal drugs. This is a 10 percent rise in just 4 years.
      The Stockholm based Maria Ungdom clinic has labeled this development as an ‘epidemic’.
      ‘When enough people are using it, you reach a point where it’s considered socially acceptable. I think we’re nearing that point. Marijuana is no longer seen as stigmatizing, since so many are using it. The same kids who’re trying alcohol are now trying marijuana.”
      — Stefan Sparring, the manager of Stockholm’s Maria Ungdom clinic.
      See: http://www.thelocal.se/34992/20110717/

    • Normal says:

      Sweden is experiencing a continual rise in gangland shootings over disputed drug territories.
      See: http://www.thelocal.se/34112/20110601/

    • Normal says:

      Sweden also has widespread Police corruption involving the black-market for illegal drugs.
      See: http://www.thelocal.se/36578/20111006/

    • Normal says:

      Statistics for Swedish marijuana seizures are up.
      See: http://www.thelocal.se/29674/20101018/

  6. KBCraig says:

    Just to be clear, though: you have to advocate “legalized regulation”.

    If you’re an active duty LEO and LEAP speaker, and declare you will no longer arrest anyone for mere possession, LEAP will kick you to the curb just like they kicked Bradley Jardis out.

    Brad was an active duty LEO and LEAP speaker, but LEAP booted him for “advocating illegal activiity” when he said he would no longer arrest anyone for marijuana possession.

    That’s right: LEAP wants LEO members, but insists they must enforce the laws that LEAP opposes.

    Go figure.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      I figure it’s called ethics when you expect people to do the job that they agreed to do. Do you really not understand the potential ramifications for their organizations long term credibility were they to allow their members to make such public statements?

      • Francis says:

        I’m not sure I agree, Duncan. I don’t think there is anything “ethical” about caging people for consensual activity, even if you are “only following orders.” And I think more civil disobedience in response to the drug war would be a great thing, and I see no reason that it shouldn’t come from BOTH ends, i.e., the would-be caged and the would-be cagers. If your law enforcement employer wants to fire you for that stance, that’s one thing, but I don’t think LEAP had to follow suit. I get the “credibility” calculus you’re referring to, and you may be right. Maybe LEAP’s “credibility” and effectiveness would be compromised if they took any other position. But I think it’s also worth considering how powerful the message of civil disobedience can be.

      • Francis says:

        And allowing their members to make such statements (i.e., not firing them when they do) is not an endorsement of those remarks. Basically, as I see it, the question is outside the scope of LEAP’s mission. If they have to say something “official,” they can say that it’s a matter of individual conscience and opinion (which it is), and that while their members hold a diversity of views on many subjects, they all agree that our current prohibition-based approach to drug policy is counterproductive and in need of reform.

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