In January, 2009, Andrew Carroll held a plant in his hand and government people arrested him. The plant was a marijuana bud, and the government people were (and are) violent. The law enforcement officers were not shouting or jumping or hitting – they were calm and relatively pleasant to talk to – but a calm and well-spoken thug is a thug nonetheless.
Instead of thinking for themselves – instead of showing anywhere near the amount of courage that Andrew showed in publicly announcing his protest in advance – the law enforcement officers arrested his because he did something that words-on-paper somewhere said was a bad thing to do. They could have thought to themselves, “This guy is not hurting anyone, not threatening anyone, not damaging any property, not stealing anything, not committing fraud, not lying – not a single person even complained that they had a negative opinion of him standing here holding this plant. He is causing no harm at all. This law is a pointless one. We should leave him alone.” Instead, they arrested him because they either can’t or won’t think for themselves, or their understanding of what makes a peaceful society is dangerously distorted.
Andrew was released a couple hours later, with the government people’s charges against him already dropped in severity. A month later Andrew attended their arraignment for his “crime.” It was during this trial that SamIAm and 6 others were arrested and/or cited for nonviolent “crimes” such as refusing to give their name while sitting in a public lobby. A month after that, Andrew attended the government people’s trial for him. He made constitutional and moral arguments for why drug laws should not be enforced, but the judge explicitly said he did not want to hear constitutional or moral arguments in his courtroom, only legal ones. He only wanted to hear whether words-on-paper were obeyed.
The judge sentenced Andrew to $350.00 in fines and a 20% “penalty assessment” (a penalty for having been force-fed a penalty?), for a total of $420.00. Andrew politely said he refused to pay, so the judge ordered him to report to jail by June 2 (which was the time limit to apply for an appeal) to “serve” off his sentence in jail at the rate of $50.00 per day.
Please read the first installment of The Adventures of Andrew Carroll: Drug War Protestor to find out what happened on June 2.
Oh Mike! Don't you know that if they start thinking for themselves and enforcing only the laws they feel are moral they'd end up cutting their revenue intake to nearly nothing? How would they ever function then? They'd have to spend all their time catching real criminals, have to make do with a reasonable salary and pension and couldn't hassle regular people anymore! Madness, I tell you. Sheer madness!
Zues, don't you mean Reefer Madness?
Nice article Mike
Good point.
You should think about printing up a few copies. Number them and get Andrew to sign them. Then donate them to the FSP Porcfest silent auction ( http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?topic… ) or something similar.
My house was rided again for the second time in on year on jan. 26th of this year. We latter found out that it was oneof our friends 13 year old son that went and told his mom and his mom made him go to the police. Again it was just me my kids and this frend that were at my home. Them bastards tore through everythig again, and this time they found a set o digital scales in my kitchen and an empty baggie (which they left after the first time)a pipe (which they also left after the first… Read more »
They just need to leave us alone we are not hurting anybody, we are not criminals even though my record says I am. I have always been a good citizan voulenteering at the school and whatnot. LEAVE US ALONE
I almost forgot this too, They charged me with USE of maijuana , $455.00 in fines, two years probation, drug rehab, licens suspended for one year, and 10 days in county. Now I am habbitual criminal
""The judge sentenced Andrew to $350.00 in fines and a 20% “penalty assessment” (a penalty for having been force-fed a penalty?), for a total of $420.00. Andrew politely said he refused to pay, so the judge ordered him to report to jail by June 2 (which was the time limit to apply for an appeal) to “serve” off his sentence in jail at the rate of $50.00 per day." This is perhaps the only way in which any positive gain can be derived from the State's blindness to the laws of economics. If everyone decided to go to jail instead… Read more »
You'll find no argument here, Danielle. Each of us should be free to do what we wish with our own bodies and our justly acquired (not necessarily "lawfully acquired") property so long as you aren't harming someone else. And that's the problem with the drug war. The politicians, lobbyists and bureaucrats in Washington have bought the story that "Marijuana's bad, mmmkay?" hook, line and sinker and feel they have the right to violently force their version of morality on you and your family regardless of the harm they cause, even if that harm is greater than the harm they perceived… Read more »
Zeus,
I disagree with your last statement. We really should have continued our earlier discussion — perhaps we can move it to the forum.
I believe many things are sins, including burning sinners.
In other news … go Andrew!!
Paul, I was speaking in a more generic historical sense which is rife with zealots and powermongers committing atrocities in the name of their deities. From the Crusades to the Inquisitions to the annihilation of the Templar, from the Salem Witch Trials to the plethora of disgraced evangelists of today, wicked men have abused those teachings, perverted them, shat on them and spilled the blood of believers, unbelievers and sinners alike. The more-or-less peaceful version of Christianity (which is much more in-tune with Christ's teachings than any version before it) is a recent development in comparison to the last 2000… Read more »
NH Constitution, Part I, Art. 3:
"When men enter into a state of society, they surrender up some of their natural rights to that society, in order to ensure the protection of others; and, without such an equivalent, the surrender is void."
Seems to me, the government has not not only failed to ensure the protection of Andy's rights, but have instead actively violated them.
As such, Andy regains in full all of his natural rights. The surrender is void. They have freed him from any obligation to abide by any NH laws.
your objection is that officers sworn to uphold the law, do so systematically instead of applying their authority in a totally arbitrary manner?
sorry, but it isn't possible for you to be more wrong in this particular complaint.