ABSOLUTE OUTRAGE: Children handcuffed in police drug raid (dog killed!)

[Zhade]

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?category=SCHENECTADY&storyID=518529&BCCode=HOME&newsdate=9/20/2006

A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust. The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there.

The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m.

"I heard a big boom. My first reaction was to jump out of bed. We were trying to find where our kids were at and all of a sudden we had guns in our faces," said 40-year-old Anita Woodyear, who rents the second-floor flat.

During the ensuing chaos, police handcuffed two of the woman's children, Elijah Bradley, 11, and 12-year-old Victoria Perez, and shot at her dog in the kitchen before killing it in the bathroom, Woodyear said.

I am a medical marijuana user, approved by California law and registered properly. As one whose eyesight was saved from glaucoma by the compassion of this state, I am mortified to read about such a disgusting act of brutality against children and innocent animals!

The drug war is a failure. Citizens have a fundamental right to control their own body and what goes into their system, as long as it harms no one else or takes away their rights, and this madness must end!

[Kolesar]

1. And the cops are now colluding out of view to get their lies straight

...so that they can have "plausible deniability" that they violated anybody's civil rights.

[Zhade]

2. Funny how often that happens, eh?

And all over a beneficial plant that ought to be legal ANYWAY!

[acmejack]

3. The drug war is not a failure for the police!

It has poured millions into their coffers. They have confiscated all this property, had their equipment and personnel budgets boosted, they love it. They are the winners even if they if they are not prevailing.

[Zhade]

5. Where is the outrage?

These kids could now be tortured, thanks to this administration!

[William Bloode]

6. The outrage has always been there for many of us.

I spent time in prison, locked up, treated like an animal because my country declared war on me sooooo long ago.

People often bring up the argument that legalization, or decriminalization would save money, or make money. It would but no where near the amount they profit now. Politicians are paid big bucks by big pharma, and alcohol. Private prisons kick in to, then add the money from the treatment centers. It's just one big circular racket.

Truth is as long as many of these people get paid they don't care. They can turn a blind eye to stories as the one above. They will justify it with thoughts like "well if they had some grass, i bet they had some coke/crack/meth, or had it. After all it for the good of those kids they handcuffed, it'll show'em whose in charge.

The biggest reason i ever started paying attention to politics was due to the drug war and it's effects on me as well as others. I saw and began to understand about propaganda and fear mongering, abuse of your civil rights.

It's not a repuke problem either, it's more of a politicians problem. They tend not to take a real honest look at it for the most part. Speak out against the drug war, and WHAM! your labeled as weak on crime. Not to mention you lose all that money from the lobbyists.

In my entire life time it has not ever gotten better, only worse and worse. Each year they arrests more than the last. And each year they build more prisons. It's a sad vicious cycle, and sadly i don't see an end in sight.

[malaise]

4. America the free

is long gone.

[WindRavenX]

7. disgusting

End the drug war NOW

[Warren DeMontague]

8. That $40 Billion a year is being well spent.

After all, it's entirely possible that someone, somewhere, might be smoking a joint :o :wow: :hide: if the "tactical team" hadn't stormed that apartment, those kids hadn't been handcuffed and the dog hadn't been shot.