When you arrest or kill a drug dealer, many others come in and fight for his place creating more violence. This is known and shown by studies and every cop's ex

When you arrest or kill a drug dealer, many others come in and fight for his place creating more violence. This is known and shown by studies and every cop's experience ever. They know this and yet they still do it, causing more violence and chaos on the streets, more deaths and more imprisonments. They support keeping things criminalized because many would likely be out of a job, or certainly out of an easy, low-risk job in favor of more difficult, actually useful police work. Police knowingly and intentionally increase violence in the communities they police. Until we stop criminalizing normal activities, this won't change. The stupidity of the drug war is now clear for all to see. In Colorado and other states you can peacefully walk into a store and buy weed. In a state like Alabama you might spend years in jail for a joint. The stupidity, inhumanity, and cruelty is glaring and disturbing. And the system of violence that is perpetrated by this situation in non-legal states and as regards to other illicit substances starts and ends with the police. They arrest people for breaking windows or some other such nonsense, then throw them in prison, give them a record, and basically turn them into real criminals since they no longer have a chance to contribute to society. The less involvement the police have, the better off society is. Does it make sense to criminalize jaywalking? We're giving the police a reason to potentially kill someone for crossing the street at the same time. That goes for every petty crime out there. Every single crime that police enforce might require that police use deadly force. Do we want to use deadly force for weed smokers, jaywalkers, and single cigarette sellers? Because that's what the 'broken windows' policy of idiocy advocates. Then we wonder why cops are kneeling on people's necks or choking them out for selling a single cigarette? Because as a society, we condone this and we especially encourage it be done to minorities through the laws we pass, the police we hire, and the rules and procedures we approve for enforcement.