What Is Going On In Indianapolis? 8th Police Officer Shot In Last 18 Months

[UKMustangFan]

Wasting Billions

 

Sounds like a whole hell of a lot to me.

[Jumper_Dad]

The problem isn't dedicated task forces so much. On its face, that doesn't look like much. But it's the fact that we waste so much money on court time and prison-building is where the biggest problem is. That money could be far more productively spent than in areas such as punishment, but it'll never happen now because of the power of the prison-industrial lobby.

I agree that other ideas need to be tried. Drug court is a good idea where the emphasis is on treatment and not imprisonment, but how many times do the same people continue to go through the system before finally being put away for a while.

[Jumper_Dad]

Wasting Billions

 

Sounds like a whole hell of a lot to me.

It is a lot but the $100Billion referenced in the article is around .0062% of US GDP or .026% of US Budget.

 

Even if drugs were legalized tomorrow that doesn't mean everyone could afford them. The ancillary crime around drug use which isn't victimless would continue as the poor and those trying to hide use from family would continue to rob and steal to afford the legal drugs.

[Getslow]

Locally in a county with around 60 or so police officers 2 are assigned to drugs...that's not really breaking the bank there.

I think in most departments you will find that the Narcotics "Division" is a fraction of the entire department. Yes officers in the course of their everyday duties run into and arrest due to drug violations but most local policing resources are NOT dedicated to drugs.

 

Not to sound like... whatever... but a department with only 60 officers isn't going to waste much of anything. There's just not a lot going on there. Louisville has over 1,200 and is currently understaffed. A lot of them spend a lot of time doing things related to drugs, and not just the narcotics division. Officers answer calls all the time for drug-related problems.

[00Rocket28]

The problem with the people who are against "the war on drugs" is that they only see it as "people should be allowed to put whatever they like in their bodies." On the surface this seems reasonable, unfortunately drugs lead to other crime. Whether it be an addict stealing spare change or contents from your car to support the habit, or an addict robbing a dealer or 1 dealer trying to rob or off another dealer. If it were just about people being free to do drugs and only hurting themselves, it'd be great. But...the problems come from those addicts who typically can't hold down a job to support their habit "finding" the funds or items to get their next fix...

[UKMustangFan]

It is a lot but the $100Billion referenced in the article is around .0062% of US GDP or .026% of US Budget.

 

Even if drugs were legalized tomorrow that doesn't mean everyone could afford them. The ancillary crime around drug use which isn't victimless would continue as the poor and those trying to hide use from family would continue to rob and steal to afford the legal drugs.

 

I was talking more to the $25.7B it said is being spent by state and local departments for drug enforcement. That seems like a ton of money at that level.

[Jumper_Dad]

I was talking more to the $25.7B it said is being spent by state and local departments for drug enforcement. That seems like a ton of money at that level.

 

Not really when you spread it over 50 states and 1000's of City, State and County police forces.

[UKMustangFan]

Not really when you spread it over 50 states and 1000's of City, State and County police forces.

 

Over $500M per state on average. Seems excessive to me. Agree to disagree.

[Getslow]

The problem with the people who are against "the war on drugs" is that they only see it as "people should be allowed to put whatever they like in their bodies." On the surface this seems reasonable, unfortunately drugs lead to other crime. Whether it be an addict stealing spare change or contents from your car to support the habit, or an addict robbing a dealer or 1 dealer trying to rob or off another dealer. If it were just about people being free to do drugs and only hurting themselves, it'd be great. But...the problems come from those addicts who typically can't hold down a job to support their habit "finding" the funds or items to get their next fix...

 

I don't see it that way. I see it as a way to begin putting the dealers out of business. Absolutely we should police all the peripheral crime, but we're locking up people for all sorts of stuff.

 

Prosecutors can barely keep up with all the nonsense they're running through every day. Get the knucklehead stuff out of the way and get these people working on real cases.

[halfback20]

Are you disputing that a large part of law enforcement in this country isn't focused on the war on drugs? Is this even disputable?

 

Whether it's police, prosecution, Jails etc.... the war on drugs is a huge chunk of local, state, and federal budgets.

 

You say that's a big reason for funding issues. I'm not arguing a lot of money isn't spent on the war on drugs. I'm asking you if you have anything to support your claim that it's the reason some departments are understaffed. If that's not what you meant I read it wrong.

[00Rocket28]

I don't see it that way. I see it as a way to begin putting the dealers out of business. Absolutely we should police all the peripheral crime, but we're locking up people for all sorts of stuff.

 

Prosecutors can barely keep up with all the nonsense they're running through every day. Get the knucklehead stuff out of the way and get these people working on real cases.

 

Just regular possession of the MJ isn't even arrestable anymore. I'm basing my opinion on what I see

[halfback20]

http://wishtv.com/2014/07/06/murder-suspects-family-speaks-out-about-shooting/

 

Not sure what to say about some of the comments from the shooters family...

 

 

Major is not a bad person in spite of what happened. Things happen, ” said Pam Moornan

 

Now, the Davis family is worried about their son’s reputation and again, questioning police tactics.

 

“It’s horrible about what took place, but, I mean, I don’t think it’s fair though for them to keep dragging him through the mud,” said Moornan.

 

And again, questioning police tactics.

 

“I don’t know how the police was shooting. I don’t know if they took concern of any kids running around,” said Yvonne Moornan.

 

The family did say it is sorry for Officer Renn’s family, but they said the tragedy may have been avoided if Officer Renn would’ve stayed at his car since he could see Davis had a gun.

 

[00Rocket28]

Oxygen thieves

[LIPTON BASH]

The problem with the people who are against "the war on drugs" is that they only see it as "people should be allowed to put whatever they like in their bodies." On the surface this seems reasonable, unfortunately drugs lead to other crime. Whether it be an addict stealing spare change or contents from your car to support the habit, or an addict robbing a dealer or 1 dealer trying to rob or off another dealer. If it were just about people being free to do drugs and only hurting themselves, it'd be great. But...the problems come from those addicts who typically can't hold down a job to support their habit "finding" the funds or items to get their next fix...

 

The crimes you list that addicts commit are already illegal and they should be punished for those crimes. I could make the argument that a lot if not most the violence associated with drugs is due to the fact it is illegal and allows organized crime and street gangs to profit. We only have to look at prohibition to know it to be true .

 

I just don't buy the argument it should be a crime to put something in your body because of things it might cause you to do. Social Darwinism let the idiots weed themselves out.

[LIPTON BASH]

You say that's a big reason for funding issues. I'm not arguing a lot of money isn't spent on the war on drugs. I'm asking you if you have anything to support your claim that it's the reason some departments are understaffed. If that's not what you meant I read it wrong.

 

If we know we are spending billions of dollars on a war we can't win and we have to cut staffing due to lack of funds , it seems easy to assume if you free up those funds for other use it would allow us to keep officers cities desperately need .