DC Police Force Struggling To Keep Up

[SLG]

The point isn't tobacco is equal to any given drug. The point is legal =/= condoning. Social norms = condoned.

As fas as how much effort..so what? Legalization based on whats easy?

That is a very area specific graph. In my area, it is on the rise, regardless of what "the nation" is doing. I'm not much on stats, as I'm sure we all know where to find some that support our ideas.

My point was not the ease/difficulty issue, it was that hollywood doesn't subscribe to our idea of a good place to live. Legalizing something, and then convincing people it's bad for them is very difficult and slow going, and only works when hollywood gets behind it. They won't want to do what you suggest, and they'll quote all sorts of studies showing that there is no connection.

[voodoo_man]

You have a very progressive list. I'm sure it sounds good to you, but ask any investigator who has worked prostitution long enough. People smuggling is very real problem, often used to feed the prostitution industry. Many of them die in the process. TGS will have the opportunity to see it first hand. I wonder what his opinion will be then? The people smugglers usually tie into drug smugglers/weapons smuggler and even terrorists. There is nothing benign or consensual about that. You live in a utopia in your head, no doubt fueled by marijuana (it sounds like).

Gambling is a very destructive practice, but again, only to those involved. If you want to bankrupt your family (and all the problems that entails), have at it. The only problem for me is that my taxes usually go to fixing people like that. Same with many of your examples.

I really am all for as much freedom as possible. The problem is, people like me then have to clean up the mess made by people like you. Both actually (professionally) as well as through my taxes. It's not "freedom" when it encroaches on everyone else who is not involved in it.

Completely agree with everything above.

The smuggling game is so serious and so under the radar its amazing once you really understand how intricate it is.

[UNK]

Just out of curiosity, Have much is a given volume of legal Marijuana vs the same amount of illegal mariuana?
Where I am going with this is if illegal marijuana is cheaper, and I think it would be, then the same people selling the illegal marijuana are also selling other things.
If you have illegal actions going on then you are exposed to criminals. Regardless of what you are doing that can't be a good influence. Especially for youth.
Also our government has a history of legalizing activities that are harmful. Not exactly confidence inspiring in my opinion.

[SLG]

The smuggling game is so serious and so under the radar its amazing once you really understand how intricate it is.

Repeated, for those viewers coming in late.

[UNK]

I am truly curious if you have someone close to you, and I don't mean an acquaintance or some former co worker. Close enough that you have personally been seriously impacted, perhaps to the point of trying to hold things togather?

There are a lot of things that should fall into the category of: Tolerated, and legal but not encouraged, and treated when out of control: Alcohol, gambling, porn, weed, teenage pregnancy, prostitution, foul language, even addiction, etc. The deciding factor for making it a treatable condition is whether the behavior interfere's with their ability to be self-reliant and well-bahaved otherwise. The deciding factor for when it becomes criminal is their ability to obey all the other laws, and avoid harming or abusing others, and not putting others at serious risk (like driving or flying or working in a critical job.).

There are millions of people who drink socially every year and other than throwing up on someone don't create a problem. A lot of LEO's drink socially and keep it under control. There are millions of people who smoke weed every year and hold a job and raise a family, and keep it under control.

The measure of America should be the maximum amount of personal freedom, not the most restrictive. I don't choose to engage in most of them, but criminalizing behavior that has no serious consequences makes no sense socially or financially.
Cody
Cody

[BehindBlueI's]

That is a very area specific graph. In my area, it is on the rise, regardless of what "the nation" is doing. I'm not much on stats, as I'm sure we all know where to find some that support our ideas.

My point was not the ease/difficulty issue, it was that hollywood doesn't subscribe to our idea of a good place to live. Legalizing something, and then convincing people it's bad for them is very difficult and slow going, and only works when hollywood gets behind it. They won't want to do what you suggest, and they'll quote all sorts of studies showing that there is no connection.

Ok. So social pressure won't work. Illegality sure hasn't, either. How much money and time spent on weed? Effect? Worth it?

Stats are worthless compared to anecdotal evidence of what you see locally? Ok.

The simple fact is some illicit drugs have gone up, others down, while all remaining illegal. Social norms, economics, etc. matter. I have never tried marijuana, but I drank booze at 15. Both illegal. The difference was booze was accepted in my house. Dope was portrayed as a waste of money. Buy beer, you know it's beer. Buy a baggie of leaves, maybe it's dope, maybe it's not.

[SLG]

Ok. So social pressure won't work. Illegality sure hasn't, either. How much money and time spent on weed? Effect? Worth it?

Stats are worthless compared to anecdotal evidence of what you see locally? Ok.

The simple fact is some illicit drugs have gone up, others down, while all remaining illegal. Social norms, economics, etc. matter. I have never tried marijuana, but I drank booze at 15. Both illegal. The difference was booze was accepted in my house. Dope was portrayed as a waste of money. Buy beer, you know it's beer. Buy a baggie of leaves, maybe it's dope, maybe it's not.

I agree with you. I'm not saying that local observations are more accurate than well done studies. However, without knowing how a given study was done, I don't give it much credence.

Social pressure works two ways. In healthy households, it prevents the kids from trying drugs. Not all households are healthy.

Education and money go hand in hand with health and good decision making. I'm not saying you have to have an education to be a good person, of course not. Unfortunately, I see plenty of poor, uneducated making bad decisions everyday.

[TAZ]

WRT the article and DC being a skeleton crew: I don't find it surprising at all. Current events and longer term trends within the legal system are seriously reinforcing the theory that LEO jobs are low paying, high risk, high stress and unrewarding affairs. It's hard to get all excited about going to work knowing you will either be tossed under the bus or have your arrestee get a simple slap on the wrist for some Social Justice Cuckold judge. I don't blame those choosing to go into other careers and those choosing to retire at the earliest possible moment. We will undoubtedly see far more of this trend across the country, especially in large liberal metro areas. Folks better get their heads out of their asses, cause the whole when seconds count LEO are minutes away is going to get a lot worse.

As for the legal pot thing, I'd love to see some long term numbers on what actually happens when you decriminalize pot on a larger than city scale. IMO it needs to be numbers from more than a year or 2 into it. As with everything taboo that is no longer taboo folks will experiment at the onset and then stabilize. I'd like to see the stabilize me numbers not the initial spikes at the onset. Similar thing for larger scale experiments than just cities. Small areas that decriminalize/legalize will draw the potheads and skew numbers a bit. Colorado may become a decent case study over the next 5 years or so. IMO decriminalization needs to be coupled with increased expectations of personal responsibility. You can't just say drugs are legal and society will fix you up when you screw up. Punishments for criminal activities associated with drugs, alcohol... need to seriously hit those who abuse these items. DUI and the like must have consequences other than a slap on the wrist. Loss of tax based benefits for a conviction such as no section 8 housing, no unemployment benefits if you loose a job due to substance abuse... We just don't have the balls to do those cause it would piss off a lot of voters.

[pablo]

We've had major problems with the proliferation of synthetic cannabis, i.e. K2 and Spice, over last few years. People on that stuff exhibit a lot of the same behaviors as people PCP, meth, and/or crack. Once in a blue moon we would get someone with serious mental problems who'd smoke some marijuana, go all out crazy and exhibit symptoms of being on a 5-6 days meth and crack bender. Now it's almost nightly with someone on K2 or Spice.

I hate to sound like I'm throwing in the towel, but I'd would have rather decriminalized possession of marijuana for "personal use" a few years ago and the problems associated with that, than deal with people on the synthetic stuff. Reality is though that K2 and Spice have gotten a foot hold and since there is no effective way to test for its ever changing chemical compositions, it's here to stay.

There are lots of problems associated with Marijuana use, trafficking and distribution. I think there's been a rather short sighted approach to people's penchant to use drugs and that has opened the door for worse things.

As far as DC police go, they are like a lot of big departments and operate in Crisis Mode. There's high level micromanagement, incompetent management at that, and the department as a whole stumbles from one crisis to the next. Supervisors and officers aren't allowed to nip small problems in the bud, like a couple gang related robberies at the mall, because that isn't a current command staff priority. That allows the problem to turn into a crime spree that gets national news attention, so a crisis, and the an overwhelming man power response to the crisis, "See we are doing something!". That's robbing to pay Paul to pay Peter on manpower, and call times start to suffer. That problem isn't addressed, because it's not a command staff priority, until the media starts looking into it. There's a new crisis, and Paul gets robbed again to pay Peter. This time it's detective's getting pulled to work patrol. Cases don't get worked and there's a new crisis. It just turns into the hugely demoralizing pattern of reacting to crisis after crisis. It's like a sports player that makes millions of dollars and is still broke, it isn't an income problem it's a management problem. No amount of hiring is going to fix DC police's underlying management issues.

[cclaxton]

I am truly curious if you have someone close to you, and I don't mean an acquaintance or some former co worker. Close enough that you have personally been seriously impacted, perhaps to the point of trying to hold things togather?

I have.
Cody