Treatment Abuse, Behavior Modification, Thought Reform > News Items

Legalize NOW

<< < (3/3)

Anonymous:
" The law failed the public here, not to speak of the four constables. And the politicians who have been hyperventilating about a rapist's horticultural pastimes -- Ralph Klein, Anne McLellan, Randy White, and the like -- are failing the public now. They are engaging in a calculated distraction that presents them as part of a thin line standing between us and an enormous, inchoate, "organized" evil. And they've been trampling the graves of the real heroes to do it. "  
The National Post

And Ginger said:
 
"Folks, according to this latest, we've all been HAD by the manic drug warriors!"

Yes, indeed, As the one who started this thread, I have to admit I was taken in by the obscene ranting of Anne McLellan, Ralph Klein and especially Guiliano Zaccardelli.  This tragedy has nothing, that is NOTHING to do with the drug war in anything other than a tangential manner.  All it goes to demonstrate is how ruthless, unconscionable politicians and senior administrators exploit moral panics for their own power agendas.  Let calmer heads prevail.....
As Ginger says:
" This does chap my ass! It also demonstrates just how detached from reality these people are."

Hamiltonf:
I was too quick to blame deaths on drugs, RCMP chief admits
Zaccardelli says he condemned grow-ops without knowing full story of ill-fated raid on farm
 
Allan Woods
National Post

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

CREDIT: Tom Hanson, The Canadian Press
In a sign that life -- and the game -- must go on, members of the RCMP detachment in Mayerthorpe, Alta., went ahead with a previously planned fundraiser hockey game last night. Before the game began, the police officers observed a moment of silence for their four comrades who were gunned down on Thursday.

Canada's top police officer said yesterday that he was too quick to condemn a marijuana grow operation as the root cause in the deaths of four Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers last week.

RCMP Commissioner Guiliano Zaccardelli said in an interview that his condemnation of grow-ops just hours after the shootings may have been inappropriate because police and politicians did not have full details of the particular case and the background of the killer.

Commissioner Zaccardelli and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan, his political boss as the minister of public safety and emergency preparedness, spoke of the scourge of marijuana grow operations within hours of the killings and the need for tougher penalties for those who operate them.

"I gave what I believed was the best information I had knowing full well that at that time I didn't have all the information," a contrite Commissioner Zaccardelli said. "Clearly, there's a lot of things in there that, in hindsight, we will have to look at in a different perspective."

Police in Mayerthorpe, Alta., first attended James Roszko's home last Wednesday with a court order to seize stolen auto parts. While there, they discovered what a search warrant said were 20 "mature" marijuana plants, "several pots containing dirt with stems coming out of them numbering close to 100," and a smell "consistent of a marijuana grow operation." They returned the next day -- the day of the killings -- with a warrant to search for the drug outfit and seized 280 plants, $8,000 worth of growing equipment and a generator worth $30,000, the Edmonton Journal reported.

But now it appears the murders were the work of a deranged man with a long criminal history and a grudge against police, and not that of a gangster protecting his cash crop.

"None of these are simple issues. This requires some reflection and discussion," Commissioner Zaccardelli said. "Let's honour the memory of these four fallen police officers and help their families get through it, and then we need to carry on the debate after this."

Commissioner Zaccardelli's comments followed statements in the House of Commons yesterday by all four political parties commemorating the deaths of constables Peter Schiemann, 25, Anthony Gordon, 28, Brock Myrol, 29, and Lionide Johnston, 32.

Opposition parties declined out of respect for the four dead officers to use yesterday's question period to probe the initial reactions of Commissioner Zaccardelli and Ms. McLellan.

Last Thursday night, Ms. McLellan said the officers "were killed in an operation involving, as far as we know at this point, an illegal grow operation."

She went on to speak of the great danger grow-ops pose to police officers, their frequent links to organized crime, and the need for stronger penalties for those who run them. All are positions she has held consistently for a long time.

Ms. McLellan would not discuss Commissioner Zaccardelli's comments yesterday.

"The first thing that happened was that everybody acted based on a lack of information," said Randy White, a tough-on-crime Conservative MP from British Columbia. "Yeah, they did react, but based on information they didn't have."

Prime Minister Paul Martin, Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, Ms. McLellan and Commissioner Zaccardelli will travel to Edmonton on Thursday for a national memorial service. Following that, Commissioner Zaccardelli said, he will be making a "more extensive" public statement on the killings.

All four political parties spoke yesterday in the House of Commons in honour of the four dead officers.

Ms. McLellan, an MP from Edmonton Centre, southeast of where the killings took place, said she was personally shaken by the incident because it occurred in her home province.

"These four officers served their community," she said, "but they were also part of their community."

There were hints that Ms. McLellan and the country's national police force could come under heavy scrutiny in coming days.

"All Canadians are asking why. Those answers will have to wait for another day," said NDP leader Jack Layton.

"The time is coming to understand the implications of their deaths and the public policy involved," said Conservative leader Stephen Harper.

Politically, it appears the federal gun registry could bear the brunt of the fallout in the days to come. Mr. Roszko had a long criminal record and should not have had access to weapons.

There have also been questions raised about the level of training and preparation given to the officers guarding Mr. Roszko's property.

A bill to reform laws governing use and cultivation of marijuana is currently under parliamentary review. It would increase penalties for those who grow the drug, but proposed decriminalizing possession of small amounts.

More Inside: Killer stalked town's police officers, page A5
© The Ottawa Citizen 2005

http://www.canada.com/ottawa/ottawaciti ... d1db21a5a0
[ This Message was edited by: Hamiltonf on 2005-03-08 19:51 ]

Anonymous:
Well, we know Roszko at the age of 16 was turned in to the RCMP by his father.  Now what kind of father would do that?  

A self righteous one.  

Think about it.

Antigen:

--- Quote ---On 2005-03-08 19:49:00, Hamiltonf wrote:

"I was too quick to blame deaths on drugs, RCMP chief admits

Zaccardelli says he condemned grow-ops without knowing full story of ill-fated raid on farm

--- End quote ---


I'm jealous.
Religions are all alike; founded upon fables and mythologies.
--Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President, author, scientist, architect, educator, and diplomat
--- End quote ---

Hamiltonf:
I think it was the drug warriors who were the quickest to jump.  I heartily agree with what Allan Young has to say:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n408/a10.html?999

SPOTLIGHT ON GROW-OPS MISPLACED, LAWYER SAYS

From the first word of the fatal shootings of four RCMP officers in rural Alberta last week, the spotlight was turned on marijuana grow-ops -- the dangers they posed, the tougher laws needed to combat them.

Within hours, politicians, police, pot activists and even the father of killer James Roszko pointed both to marijuana itself and the illegal trade in the drug as major players in the deadly chain of events.

RCMP officials said from the outset that their men were killed in a grow-op raid.  William Roszko said his son was never the same after he started smoking "that crazy dope" as a teenager.  The Marijuana Party said the shootings underscored the need to legalize pot and wipe out the black market.

Police and some politicians argued just the opposite, saying the tragedy proved that any move to legalize weed was madness.

It now appears the focus on grow-ups was misplaced.

"It was shameful and disrespectful both on the side of the state and on the side of the activists, who felt they had to respond to the state," said Alan Young, a lawyer and longtime proponent of legalizing marijuana.

"Four police officers were dead and it was alarming to see it turn into a propaganda play right off the bat.  There is really nothing about this case that should cause someone to develop public policy one way or the other.  This case is about how to deal with psychopathic people who have long histories with the law."

Young isn't alone in his distaste.  Letters to newspapers and callers to TV and radio shows buzzed Monday along similar lines.

In a letter to the Edmonton Journal, a reader scoffed at Premier Ralph Klein's appeal to the federal government to drop any plans to decriminalize marijuana in the wake of the incident.

"This idiot would have killed over a littering ticket," Allan Wood wrote, referring to Roszko.  "For Klein to push his agenda on pot this way is ridiculous."

A caller to CBC Newsworld echoed that sentiment: "The issue is about a crazy guy with a gun," he said

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page