Hi Mark F. No, it’s not that simple. A lot of my job, unfortunately is attending to children being neglected, domestic violence, assaults and other things that are the result of drug USE.

Considering alcohol abuse accounts for a MUCH larger percentage of those things you point to, one must conclude we should re-institute that prohibition too no?

Maybe if government resources weren’t being wasted on harassing mere possessors they could do more about the violence and neglect.

Harassment and intimidation by these groups, required that the police randomly approach these young people and investigate their reason for being in the park. They weren’t targeted ONLY for their ethnicity, but the way they dressed, the hours they were there, their tattoos and other identifying aspects.
Sometimes it turns out that half of them are also illegal immigrants and have warrants for other infractions. The RICOH laws has effectively reduced this activity.

Legal and illegal immigration has a feeder effect, and this activity is integrated into what citizens should be able to do.
That is to say, a birthday party or bbq/tag game also has situations either mixed gang or illegal immigrant situations. Again, warrants are in evidence and the police have to approach these situations and investigate.

To say nothing of if drivers are reckless, erratic or in any other way behaving suspiciously, the police have to pull them over and investigate if they can be identified, or are properly licensed and registered.
On board computers kick back a lot of information.
And serious criminals can be caught or incidents can be prevented or solved through random investigation.
I’m a forensic artist, there is also the matter of what a suspect looks like too and might have been seen by an officer OR a civilian.

What do you want, nobody to check? EVER?
And why get belligerent and uncooperative if a police officer wants to talk to you?
Why do you think the murder rate has gone down so much in the last 5-10 years?
Precisely because the police have been more proactive in knowing who is who and what they are doing.
We have a small police force, even including the unincorporated cites, for such a large county.
Let alone the state.
And a lot of our people are being furloughed, overtime cut and so on, while a lot of nuisance criminals have been released because of budget cuts.
All the work that’s gone into lowering the murder and assault rate, is about to be lost.

And illegal immigrants are a HUGE problem because of so much dependence and those most relied on to cover that expense are gone. And many facilities like hospitals and so on, are too.
At any rate, I just had to make another appointment to go on a 12 hour shift with a patrolman on Saturday.
Some days I could always predict that some young person would die that night from a drive by.
And I’m unfortunately, usually right. Some areas are more heavily Latino than others. Most of the victims of gang violence tend to be black or Latino.

Illegal immigration is big business and illegal immigrants easy to exploit.
And it’s not the police doing it.
Random indeed.
Better to have the police come up and ask you where you’re from, and not a gang member.
Guess which scenario is the one you’re more likely to survive?

I do know that the GOP opposes the smuggling of guns into Mexico and would like to close the border in part to stop that business.

I agree. I was ineligant. What I meant to say, and I do believe, is that the GOP and NRA’s opposition to common sense approaches to gun control has the effect of facilitating “American arms manufacturers and dealers turn[ing] a blind eye to the massive shipments of military-style south of the Border.”

And I do believe that arms manufacturers and dealers really aren’t that interested in cutting down on their business, just as they haven’t been that interested in keeping guns out of the hands of convicted felons in our own country. No, they aren’t cheering on the drug war. But they aren’t going to do anything that cuts sales.

Now I’ve known of officers who have abused people who are minorities, or women or gay people. And you know very well that they are not a significant part of an agency.
Would you prefer we do things like the cops south of the border do things?

I can’t speak for L.A. But in Arizona, they don’t just make up “a significant part of an agency.” In Maricopa Conty, they make up the leadership of an agency.

And no. I don’t prefer we do tihing like cops south of the border. I don’t prefer we have police target random people based on what they look like and demand they prove their innocense. I don’t prefer we discard legitimate investigative procedures and instead place entire classes of people under suspician. In fact, I AM arguing that we do things the American way, not the third-world way.

I certainly am aware of the flow of guns south. What I don’t at this point have a source for are:

“…with GOP/NRA backing”

I do know that the GOP opposes the smuggling of guns into Mexico and would like to close the border in part to stop that business. An argument – a strong one, in fact – could be made that it is those who oppose the closing of the border that “back” the exportation of guns to Mexican drug lords.

I do know that “the NRA and GOP get all up in arms” about efforts to deny gun rights to American citizens, but I don’t think we can, with integrity, claim that they support the exportation of assault weapons to Mexican drug cartels.

One of the things that added to the crack scourge is because it was so much cheaper and easier to obtain than powder cocaine. Economic incentive was part of participating in the marketplace, but addiction did all manner of other kinds of damage that had nothing to do with monetary profit.
It’s about access and use too. Productive people being turned into unproductive people in their primes.
Lost health, incomes and not enough public funding to deal with that and rehab and so on.

It’s not that simple, because the gangs involved, have all kinds of thumbs in all kinds of pies. Not just drugs.
A massacre by assault rifle less than a mile from my house. Four killed outright, six more with serious injuries.
There are costs, if not profits there my friend.
And there is no winning strategy anywhere.

Your white ass and my black ass are required to have valid licenses and registration for operating a car. We also have to for applying for jobs, making purchases and other things. I’ve gone walking without my id. I’ve been stopped and asked something for various reasons. I also have a badge that I don’t carry at all times.

Now I’ve known of officers who have abused people who are minorities, or women or gay people. And you know very well that they are not a significant part of an agency.
Would you prefer we do things like the cops south of the border do things?

I have more at stake than YOU do as someone who has a BLACK ass, don’t I?

But I also know that we have millions of people in this country who cannot be accounted for. And whatever incidents of overreaching by a local peace officer or officers, is no excuse to do NOTHING and treating the majority of police officers concerned with reasonable controls on the problem as if they were all Nazis.

In a war on anything, you have to know who is who and where they are.
The way things are, those who have to, know NEITHER.
And you don’t know either, for that matter.

All you mentioned was drug smuggling. You forgot about the HUMAN smuggling, and it’s attendant violence, identity theft and document fraud.
This is a hydra Jim, and all the heads of the snake need to be cut off, not just a part of it.
As for being un Constitutional, well, that’s rich.
That there is a complaint that this law influences foreign policy, while sanctuary city policies do EXACTLY that.

Tell you what Jim, I’ve suggested all along that the people involved here would do well to really have a sit down and try and understand and work with the police, instead of setting a goal to be antagonistic and uncooperative.
Because the police are NOT the gang terrorists.
And if you don’t think there is a difference, then why have police at all and YOU put on the vest.
It’s going to get down to that.
You don’t have to make the decisions or shoulder the responsibilities or deal with what’s required.
You really don’t.

Of course, I’m not defending anyone that’s acted inappropriately and abused the very position I’m talking about.
I ride along with patrol officers because that isn’t part of my regular job. I’m there after an incident has already happened. You could be more proactive instead of reactive. You DO have that option.

But it’s morally wrong and unfair to legal residents or citizens to pretend that it’s the police that are the problem and not illegal immigration.