To the statist media, there are two kinds of drug raids. The first is the kind that are reported with “no incident” where the perp is caught and jailed, and the merchandise is confiscated by the cops and everyone lives happily ever after.
Then there’s the kind that is “botched.” Usually that means cases where the cops (and, more commonly, fully militarized SWAT teams) raid the wrong house and, to defend themselves, have to kill man, woman and child and often dogs.
Yet even ordinary drug raids are criminal. The police break into homes (crime #1), threaten to hurt people (crime #2), and usually search and confiscate (crimes #3 and #4) legitimately owned property. There’s no good raid, only bad ones. And they are all wrong.
How many times does it have to be pointed out that black markets tend to be dangerous because they are criminalized? How many times must we repeat that vices are not crimes and that the state should play no part in how one’s own body is used (or abused)?Other than the nefarious foreign policy, I can think of no greater egregious threat to liberty than the war on drugs. Fueled by increasing militarism and Big Brotherism, ordinary people are now at risk. Perhaps at one point it used to be that only in the inner city would you risk being raided by mistake. It now happens everywhere. Law-abiding citizens are regularly executed by the government.
Recently, there was a drug raid in Lima, Ohio where a mother was fatally shot and a child was wounded (the kid had to have a finger amputated). This is the result of the war on drugs. This is not a separate tragedy from a “bad raid” or a “botched raid.” Rather, it is what we can expect when the police are given the legal right to destroy their way into people’s homes and threaten people’s lives for having the audacity of breaking unjust laws.
And who carried out the latest round of murders? None other than the great Lima Police Department’s Special Weapons And Tactics Team. As I look at the page, I am greeted by an animated GIF of a peace officer thug shooting straight at me. On the right column we are given instructions on how to post signs that ban guns from businesses. Because, of course, only the cops should protect us…by killing us.
