Editorial: Why Prohibition Scares Me

Editorial: Why Prohibition Scares Me 12/19/03
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org, 12/19/03

This week saw a great victory in the federal courts. Patients Angel McClary Raich and Diane Monson, in a lawsuit they brought against the federal government, won the right to use and obtain mar1juana for medical use consistent with the terms of California law including Proposition 215. For the time being, at least, medical mar1juana is legal in the several states within the US 9th Circuit that have passed medical mar1juana laws. Raich told DRCNet (following article) that she has been "living in a state of fear that we could be raided and imprisoned at any time."

Such fear is justified, and not only for medical mar1juana users, or for that matter any drug users. Grim news this week proved this in a terrible way. Kenneth Brown Walker, a 39-year old father and taxpayer in Columbus, Georgia, was shot in the head by a police officer. The police stopped the car he was in, and they claim he was shot because he didn't show his hands. No drugs were found; the driver and the passengers were completely innocent, didn't do anything wrong. Kenneth Walker was minding his own business, yet now he is dead.

I was not in or near Walker's car, so I will withhold judgment for the moment -- not on the culpability of the officer who shot him, only on his degree of culpability. Judgment is long overdue, however -- harsh judgment -- for the leaders in law enforcement and politics who have encouraged the reckless drug war tactics which lead to such tragedies. It ought to have been obvious from the beginning that the more police are in the business of intruding into random situations waving guns around, the more often accidental shootings will take place, the more danger there will be for police, suspects and bystanders alike.

Prohibition scares me. Every time I hear another report of drive-by shootings -- drug gangs expanding into new territory -- guns following the drugs into the communities, even the schools -- I grimace in frustration at the state of denial which permits it all to continue. When will we do the obvious and put it all to a stop by ending criminal prohibition of drugs?

The longer we wait, the greater the escalation of the arms race. The more dangerous the criminals grow, the more police sent on patrol, the heavier the weaponry both of them carry. The louder the calls for arrest, the better financed the vested interests in enforcement, the larger the number of raids and resulting tragedies. And the cycle continues.

Angel Raich and Diane Monson shouldn't have to live in fear. Police shouldn't wave their guns around randomly at peaceful people. And Kenneth Walker shouldn't be dead. The war on drugs is futile and dangerous, and not a single needless killing in it can be justified. The prohibitionist system must be dismantled in full. And in the meantime, for every police killing or drug trade shootout or preventable overdose, judge guilt, cast blame, condemn the system. For Kenneth Walker's sake, and those who follow.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/316/scary.shtml

 

Newsbrief: Georgia Deputy Kills Innocent Man in Highway Drug Stop 12/19/03
A Columbus, Georgia, man was shot and killed by a sheriff's deputy on Interstate 185 on December 10. The deputy had pulled over the man's vehicle because it was suspected of carrying armed drug dealers and drugs. It wasn't.

Kenneth Brown Walker, 39, was killed by a single gunshot to the head after a Muscogee County Deputy whose name has not been made public stopped him and three companions in a GMC Yukon. An area anti-drug task force in Columbus was on the look-out for a similar vehicle linked to an ongoing crack cocaine investigation. According to Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson, who held a news conference to discuss the killing December 11, "the information was that this vehicle -- and there is more than one gray vehicle in Columbus, Georgia -- if this was the vehicle that the informant said it was, that these were people from Miami and they were armed," Johnson said.

After stopping the vehicle, the unnamed deputy ordered the four men onto the ground, according to Johnson. There was "some resistance by Walker," the sheriff said. "He was placed on the ground but his right hand couldn't be seen. That hand wouldn't come out." So the deputy shot Walker in the head. "What I can tell you is that when he shot him, he did not try to shoot him in the head," he said. "I can't tell you what was in his head other than that it's a pure judgment call if he felt like his life was in danger."

Johnson has admitted that Walker was not linked to the investigation and had no criminal history. He would not venture a comment on whether the shooting was justified. Oh, yeah, Walker was black. He was also a devoted husband and father, a respected member of his church, and a 15-year middle-management employee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

The driver of the Yukon, Carver High School basketball coach Warren Beulah, called a local radio station, Foxie 105.3, two days after his friend's killing, and described the events. "I felt like an animal," he said. When he asked why a group of Metro Narcotics Task Force agents and sheriff's deputies had pulled him over, he was told "Shut up," he said. It seemed as if "we were tried and convicted" before even getting out of the vehicle, Beulah related. "The way they had the guns in the faces, not saying anything... you basically didn't know what to do and you felt like if you even tried to turn your face from one side to the other, they'd shoot you. It was that scary. We could not even say anything. We were treated like animals until they found out there were no drugs."

Local officials joined friends, family members, and coworkers of the slain man for a memorial service Tuesday. The Rev. Douglas Force, pastor of Walker's home church, St. Mary's Road United Methodist, spoke for many when he talked of race and policing. "We are tired and slaughtered," he said. "Every stop may be our last. There are too many people in this country who don't understand that. It's time we stop living in denial. It's time to start holding folks accountable for their actions."

John Dowdell, an attorney hired by the Walker family, told reporters Walker and his friends did nothing wrong. "They will testify that Walker didn't physically or verbally disobey any command by any law enforcement officer," Dowdell said. "The evidence will show these young men were physically removed from the vehicle, had guns touching portions of their body and were shoved to the ground in a prone position."

The FBI has begun a preliminary investigation into the killing and so has the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

 

After stopping the vehicle, the unnamed deputy ordered the four men onto the ground, according to Johnson. There was "some resistance by Walker," the sheriff said. "He was placed on the ground but his right hand couldn't be seen. That hand wouldn't come out." So the deputy shot Walker in the head.

They couldn't see his right hand so they shot him. Is this really the kind of country we want to live in? If we were not living under a prohibitionist regime, the police would not have had to be anywhere near as aggressive and this guy (along with tens of thousands of others) would probably be alive right now.

 

Sorry, I'm a bit more stressed than usual lately. We had an emergency ultrasound today and even though everything looks OK, just the term "emergency ultrasound" has me a bit punchy.

I will also give a heartfelt apology for anyone whom I have treated harshly in the past few days. It is not your fault, it is mine.

 

IMO, prohibition is a HUGE part of what causes trigger happy police. We have created a system where ANYONE might be carrying drugs and as such, might be armed and dangerous.

We have created laws which necessitate kicking down the doors of people with guns drawn before we even have evidence that a crime has been committed. Some of those people are killed trying to defend their homes, and some of the doors that are kicked down are those of innocent people.

Prohibition is the disease, not drug use.

 

Do you disagree?

 

Are you really saying that it is OK for this police officer to have shot a man lying prone on the ground in the back of the head because he didn't show his right hand fast enough?+

No kidding, but you are avoiding the bigger picture here. We have created a system where the police (who are supposed to be "peace officers") are potentially in a dangerous situation every time they even pull over a car. They were so on edge in this case that they shot an unarmed man in the back of the head because of the climate between the police and the people they are supposed to "protect and serve."

We should regulate currently illicit drugs to allow the police to reconnect with the neighborhoods they patrol and the people they protect. We need to create a situation where 99.9% of the people out there feel comfortable calling the police. We will not have that kind of system while drugs remain criminalized.