Some recent news from New Hampshire and beyond …
- In Bangkok, Thailand the police chief makes misbehaving officers wear “Hello Kitty” armbands while on-duty. For people who pride themselves on being quite macho I am sure this is quite hard to take. The C.R.A.P. campaign comes to mind.
- A wrongly arrested man in Georgia, who spent 32 hours in jail, says an apology by the police isn’t enough. Well, I am afraid it will have to be. Should he want to sue for his wrongful kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment while his wife was in labor, it appears that he will fail. It was a simple mistake that led to his arrest. The police put the wrong name on a traffic citation. A simple mistake by the government, even if it violates your rights, is not grounds to sue. This could happen to you. If you think that this is acceptable for the government to get away with this stuff without consequence: you are the problem with the world today. Why would you want to wait for something like this to happen to you or someone you love before becoming outraged that it can happen? As Pearl Jam says in one of my favorite songs: “Can you feel this world with your heart and not your brain?” Compassion for others will help you understand what those of us who blog here have come to understand. You are better than this.
- It looks like New Hampshire will be punishing tobacco users once again by raising the tobacco tax. Raise it enough and here comes the black/gray market. I think it would be a wonderful thing if tobacco users all got their tobacco through whatever alternative markets may exist. It would starve the state of much needed revenue. I find it amusing how the state claims to be very anti-tobacco (and liquor) abuse while at the same time it NEEDS people to abuse liquor and tobacco to sustain operations.
- The NH State Police Trooper (a 21-year law enforcement “veteran”) who used his position to make money by wrongfully giving vehicle inspections remains behind bars at $100,000 bail. I think that the real problem is that people can be in positions of authority where they can misbehave like this in the first place. This is just one law enforcer who was caught. Can you imagine how many remain undetected in abusing the system they are “sworn” to protect?
- The Town of Merrimack is being pillaged. As of recent there have been more than 20, twenty, TWO-ZERO burglaries. It is so bad that the police have decided to warn the entire community: “One police officer said he hasn’t seen this many burglaries in such short time in his more than 25 years with the Police Department. Police said the burglars are not only professional, but they’re also dangerous. Police said the burglars are moving through pleasant neighborhoods in Merrimack and are likely have resumes at ripping people off.” The article then says “Police said they think the burglars are selling the items for drugs or money, and they think this is a serious enough situation to issue a warning to people in town.” My god, man. Of course they are. Any rational glance at property crime statistics would reflect that this is precisely why so much of this property crime exists. The police really have no interest in preventing this type of crime though. If they did… they would remove their head from their less-than-intelligent behind and advocate a change in drug policy which supports harm reduction. Harm reduction is not about being pro-drug use… it is being smart about the realities of drug use. People will use drugs. This is reality. People will get addicted to drugs. This is also reality. When people are addicted to drugs they will do anything to get more. We see it over and over and over and over again. I don’t want people to abuse narcotics. I want people with addiction to get help and for the love of god I want these innocent people in Merrimack and everywhere else in our state to stop being victimized. Don’t you, police? Grow a set of balls, think about this crime problem logically, and help fix this problem to make our communities safer.
