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Maybe there needs to be more publicity about drug gangs and the slaves created by the drug cartels. They exist, and they are heinous. But so too are these kin

Maybe there needs to be more publicity about drug gangs and the slaves created by the drug cartels. They exist, and they are heinous. But so too are these kinds of reactions from the police. Its really as if the public are caught in the middle of two horrific forces, being created on both ends of the playing field. The question is: who profits? The cold hard answer, which nobody wants to admit is this: the dealers of drugs, and the dealers of weapons. Oftentimes, the same damn groups.

vdaniuk 12y ago
Your stakeholder analysis is not complete. Cops profit. Lawyers profit. DAs profit. Tough-on-crime politicians profit. Religions profit. Government profits. Political parties profit. Basically, the whole establishment profits from maintaining status quo in the drug war.
pachydermic 12y ago
Police departments profit as well. They are able to confiscate all kinds of "evidence" like the car a dealer uses when they're selling drugs and then auction those items off. It's an extremely perverse incentive which must be eliminated. More info: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-america... Well, here's the most relevant quote, anyways: """ Because of a legal quirk, SWAT raids can be profitable. Rules on civil asset-forfeiture allow the police to seize anything which they can plausibly claim was the proceeds of a crime. Crucially, the property-owner need not be convicted of that crime. If the police find drugs in his house, they can take his cash and possibly the house, too. He must sue to get them back. Many police departments now depend on forfeiture for a fat chunk of their budgets. In 1986, its first year of operation, the federal Asset Forfeiture Fund held $93.7m. By 2012, that and the related Seized Asset Deposit Fund held nearly $6 billion. Mr Balko contends that these forfeiture laws are “unfair on a very basic level”. They “disproportionately affect low-income people” and provide a perverse incentive for police to focus on drug-related crimes, which “come with a potential kickback to the police department”, rather than rape and murder investigations, which do not. They also provide an incentive to arrest suspected drug-dealers inside their houses, which can be seized, and to bust stash houses after most of their drugs have been sold, when police can seize the cash. """
hvs 12y ago
And they only exist because the product they distribute has been made illegal.
- joshuapants 12y ago
  In event of drug legalization, they could still exist to circumvent taxes. Cigarette smuggling is still a thing.
peterkelly 12y ago
> Maybe there needs to be more publicity about drug gangs and the slaves created by the drug cartels. They exist, and they are heinous. This is really my main concern with the "war on drugs". Keeping the drug trade illegal doesn't get rid of it - rather, it just pushes it underground. The result is organised crime, violence, and so many other major problems. Admittedly, I'm very far removed from the situation, but I find it difficult to imagine that there'd be so much of these problems if you could just walk into a store and buy your drug of choice in the same way that you buy cigarettes or alcohol. You don't see gangs and cartels forming from around the trade of household cleaning supplies or consumer electronics.
- aestra 12y ago
  >You don't see gangs and cartels forming from around the trade of household cleaning supplies or consumer electronics. However, they are starting to get into the trade of fake food. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/fake-food-criminal-gangs-move-from-drugs-to-a-new-underground-economy-9147486.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/fake-food-c... http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21599028-organised-gangs-have-growing-appetite-food-crime-la-cartel http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21599028-organised-gan... https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/cc-blog/1758-trends-in-organized-crime-counterfeiting-food https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/cc-blog/1758...
rosser 12y ago
Drug cartels and drug slavery are utterly orthogonal to what amounts to misdemeanor possession, which is essentially what many of these cases (including, for all I know, this one) amount to. Should the SWAT team be able to toss a flashbang into your child's crib because you have a dime bag in the nightstand?

vdaniuk 12y ago

Your stakeholder analysis is not complete. Cops profit. Lawyers profit. DAs profit. Tough-on-crime politicians profit. Religions profit. Government profits. Political parties profit. Basically, the whole establishment profits from maintaining status quo in the drug war.

pachydermic 12y ago

Police departments profit as well. They are able to confiscate all kinds of "evidence" like the car a dealer uses when they're selling drugs and then auction those items off. It's an extremely perverse incentive which must be eliminated. More info: http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-americas-police-have-become-too-militarised-cops-or-soldiers http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21599349-america... Well, here's the most relevant quote, anyways: """ Because of a legal quirk, SWAT raids can be profitable. Rules on civil asset-forfeiture allow the police to seize anything which they can plausibly claim was the proceeds of a crime. Crucially, the property-owner need not be convicted of that crime. If the police find drugs in his house, they can take his cash and possibly the house, too. He must sue to get them back. Many police departments now depend on forfeiture for a fat chunk of their budgets. In 1986, its first year of operation, the federal Asset Forfeiture Fund held $93.7m. By 2012, that and the related Seized Asset Deposit Fund held nearly $6 billion. Mr Balko contends that these forfeiture laws are “unfair on a very basic level”. They “disproportionately affect low-income people” and provide a perverse incentive for police to focus on drug-related crimes, which “come with a potential kickback to the police department”, rather than rape and murder investigations, which do not. They also provide an incentive to arrest suspected drug-dealers inside their houses, which can be seized, and to bust stash houses after most of their drugs have been sold, when police can seize the cash. """

hvs 12y ago

And they only exist because the product they distribute has been made illegal.

joshuapants 12y ago
In event of drug legalization, they could still exist to circumvent taxes. Cigarette smuggling is still a thing.

peterkelly 12y ago

> Maybe there needs to be more publicity about drug gangs and the slaves created by the drug cartels. They exist, and they are heinous. This is really my main concern with the "war on drugs". Keeping the drug trade illegal doesn't get rid of it - rather, it just pushes it underground. The result is organised crime, violence, and so many other major problems. Admittedly, I'm very far removed from the situation, but I find it difficult to imagine that there'd be so much of these problems if you could just walk into a store and buy your drug of choice in the same way that you buy cigarettes or alcohol. You don't see gangs and cartels forming from around the trade of household cleaning supplies or consumer electronics.

aestra 12y ago
>You don't see gangs and cartels forming from around the trade of household cleaning supplies or consumer electronics. However, they are starting to get into the trade of fake food. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/fake-food-criminal-gangs-move-from-drugs-to-a-new-underground-economy-9147486.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/fake-food-c... http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21599028-organised-gangs-have-growing-appetite-food-crime-la-cartel http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21599028-organised-gan... https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/cc-blog/1758-trends-in-organized-crime-counterfeiting-food https://reportingproject.net/occrp/index.php/en/cc-blog/1758...

rosser 12y ago

Drug cartels and drug slavery are utterly orthogonal to what amounts to misdemeanor possession, which is essentially what many of these cases (including, for all I know, this one) amount to. Should the SWAT team be able to toss a flashbang into your child's crib because you have a dime bag in the nightstand?