If I was the cops, I would start a skunk works style database of recurring offenders, arrests, judicial decisions and outcomes.
Once you have a good number of smoking-gun cases of repeat violent offenders due to DA inaction, then leak it to the media. Name and shame the DA, make sure the voters / people in power know where the weak link is and give them a better alternative.
Cops get apathetic because their arrests have no effect, but the paperwork can be useful to solve the fundamental problem.
The people that might put in unpaid extra sweat and tears to do that have been scared away from the profession due to media storms that occur on those 1 in 1000 poor interactions that are filmed on 3 hours of sleep.
This seems like a concerning level of charity being given to cops who ruin people's lives.
Would you accept a world in which "1 in 1000" planes crashed because the pilot was on 3 hours of sleep?
There should be a media storm every time a police officer abuses someone, we should all collectively be outraged. A functioning society has to start with the front-line enforcers being responsible and trustworthy.
He’s not being charitable to cops who abuse their power, he’s pointing out that good cops receive backlash due to the actions of bad cops.
Being outraged at cases of abuse doesn’t mean you have to stop empathising with the difficult job that most cops have.
Reminds me of this quote: “almost everything in the world is broken and almost no one is evil.” Don’t let your anger at evil people make you reflexively think badly of their colleagues. Focus on your love of humanity rather than your hatred of authority.
I'm all for magic mushrooms and legalization, but I don't buy this 1st amendment religious exemption bullshit. The law should apply equally to everyone and everything, or it ceases to have any meaning. It's the same as the Supreme Court carving out a religious exemption to the Civil Rights act. There's no good reason why people's woo-woo beliefs somehow changes whether the law applies to them or not. It's ridiculous.
> There's no good reason why people's woo-woo beliefs somehow changes whether the law applies to them or not.
There is: the 1st amendment is about what we consider more important than anything else: here, religion - but not just: freedom of assembly, of the press and speech also covers way, WAY more ground than any other country in the world.
Personally, I like that - and considering how many people believe in some $diety, it may be the majority.
If you don't like that, and think the majority also dislikes that, it's easy: find enough support to change the 1st amendment.
That's a pretty far fetched interpretation of the 1st amendment. It doesn't say "one's religious beliefs supersede the laws enacted by congress". Having religious beliefs doesn't mean I can practice ritual human sacrifice, or sell bleach to people with promises that it cures cancer, or impregnate a harem of child brides. Freedom of speech isn't a get out of jail card either. Most criminal statutes involve speech of some kind. You are not free to commit fraud, to lie to law enforcement, to engage in a criminal conspiracy, etc.
Religious exemptions are a good thing and should be respected. It’s important to be skeptical of novel religious claims, as they're usually just a cynical abuse of a legal exemption. Exemptions should certainly not be limitless: America is incompatible with human sacrifice.
I think we make selective religious accommodations and exemptions for no good reason. Why is one person’s fiction more deserving or more valid than another? Followers of CotFSM and Scientology have as much of a claim on special treatment as do older religions.
The state is afraid of mushrooms because they let users detach from the groupthink that guides the people from birth to death. The groupthink is made of many polished thought-circuits that compel an individual to do certain things, such as buying a nice car, working an office job, going to vacation on hawaii, watching tv, and so on.
I've had this thought too, people don't die from Cannabis or Mushroom overdoses so why are they illegal? People can consume sugar freely until they die, but they can't space out on some shrooms or relax with some weed because.....?
There's all the cynical and morality related reasons you probably already know about, but it is possible to die from any psychoactive drug, easiest by getting into a car while intoxicated and crashing it. Other ways include but are not limited to failing to correctly operate heavy machinery and falling off things. You can get diabetes from eating sugar and get similarly incapacitated, but it's not as direct. All these things can hurt and/or kill a bunch of people, so it's not just about you.
That seems like a less-than-useful generalization. I know plenty of people who do mushrooms and yet labor away in cubicles to pay for their houses, in which they watch television.
Most of the dudes I know plenty of dudes who partake in psilocybin also really like going to Hawaii. Maybe they didn't get stuff good enough to break that particular thought-circuit? What do you think?
> A spokesperson for Toronto police, meanwhile, has told CityNews that illegal dispensaries are investigated when reports are made. The service’s drug enforcement at this time, however, is “largely focused on the trafficking of illegal drugs that are resulting in overdose deaths.” It cites the need to concentrate on the supply of fentanyl in the midst of an opioid crisis.
"We have tried nothing and we are all out of ideas" seems to be the response to any sort of problem in San Francisco. There are plenty of federal and state resources that can come in and handle the problem, they just have to make a phone call.
(I don't care to debate the value of mushrooms, at this point it is illegal and I am commenting on the broader ineptitude of SF city government)
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[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 105 ms ] threadOnce you have a good number of smoking-gun cases of repeat violent offenders due to DA inaction, then leak it to the media. Name and shame the DA, make sure the voters / people in power know where the weak link is and give them a better alternative.
Cops get apathetic because their arrests have no effect, but the paperwork can be useful to solve the fundamental problem.
Would you accept a world in which "1 in 1000" planes crashed because the pilot was on 3 hours of sleep?
There should be a media storm every time a police officer abuses someone, we should all collectively be outraged. A functioning society has to start with the front-line enforcers being responsible and trustworthy.
There are about 1,000,000 police, so I guess 2 bad police events per month would be equivalent?
Being outraged at cases of abuse doesn’t mean you have to stop empathising with the difficult job that most cops have.
Reminds me of this quote: “almost everything in the world is broken and almost no one is evil.” Don’t let your anger at evil people make you reflexively think badly of their colleagues. Focus on your love of humanity rather than your hatred of authority.
That is... quite a comment to make in a thread about "illegal drugs" in the United States.
I agree. Let's get the church to pay taxes and return public lands and then I'm happy to chat.
There is: the 1st amendment is about what we consider more important than anything else: here, religion - but not just: freedom of assembly, of the press and speech also covers way, WAY more ground than any other country in the world.
Personally, I like that - and considering how many people believe in some $diety, it may be the majority.
If you don't like that, and think the majority also dislikes that, it's easy: find enough support to change the 1st amendment.
Most of the dudes I know plenty of dudes who partake in psilocybin also really like going to Hawaii. Maybe they didn't get stuff good enough to break that particular thought-circuit? What do you think?
> A spokesperson for Toronto police, meanwhile, has told CityNews that illegal dispensaries are investigated when reports are made. The service’s drug enforcement at this time, however, is “largely focused on the trafficking of illegal drugs that are resulting in overdose deaths.” It cites the need to concentrate on the supply of fentanyl in the midst of an opioid crisis.
https://toronto.citynews.ca/2023/07/18/toronto-mushroom-disp...
(I don't care to debate the value of mushrooms, at this point it is illegal and I am commenting on the broader ineptitude of SF city government)
You may not like how they do it, or why they do it, but you have to acknowledge and appreciate the spirit of the exercise.