Missouri SWAT team shoots family dog during raid over â??small amountâ?� of marijuana

[KyleIsNorml]

Thanks for sharing that Boaz! :jointsmile:

[boaz]

^ thank you for all the great threads on here. :greenthumb: keep up the great work.

[KyleIsNorml]

^ thank you for all the great threads on here. :greenthumb: keep up the great work.

Your welcome Boaz and I think that you might find this very interesting as well as everyone else that is concerned about this incident..
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Columbia Missouri Police Chief Favors Alternatives To Marijuana Prohibition

Fri, 21 May 2010 21:35:32 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director

From Missouri NORML:

Missouri NORMLâ??s and local attorney Dan Viets spoke with Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton yesterday about the need to reform cannabis laws in Missouri and to stop violent home raids (Columbia is where two dogs were recently shot in a marijuana raid that was captured on video, causing great public revulsion and concern nationwideâ??not only in Missouri).

In the past Chief Burton has alluded to the need for alternative policies to straight out prohibition. The exchange yesterday between Viets and Burtonâ??where Chief Burton acknowledges the importance of NORMLâ??s advocacy workâ??was recorded and transcribed below .

Columbia Police Chief Kenneth Burton Quote:

â??If I had a chance to catch someone breaking into a warehouse and someone with marijuana (Dan and Chief crosstalk) I applaud your effort, I mean, if we could get out of the business I am sure there would be a lot of officers happy to do that.

Unfortunately, it is still a matter of law. The shooting that happened right after, â?¦ this came to the forefront was over marijuana. And crimes of violence do occur b/c of marijuana.

You may make the argument that it is because it is illegal, and hey, you may be right.

I donâ??t have anything against it except it is against the law.

And as a police officer I have sworn to uphold the law. So prioritizing, when we can, you are absolutely right. We should concentrate on meth or something more serious, but we come across marijuana it is still against the law.

I am with you on the fight, and I hope you are successful at some point and we will see how that goes.â?�

Thanks to MO NORML and Chief Burton!

Also, more good news from MO: Mayor Francis Slay of St. Louis, who announced yesterday that another member of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen is working on a marijuana decriminalization ordinance, and Slay seems to like the idea!

Heâ??s currently doing a poll on legalization, and reformers are winning big time!

Please make sure youâ??re working with your local chapter of NORML in MO or nationwide to reform our countryâ??s antiquated cannabis laws.

http://www.norml.org

[boaz]

here is the link to the O'Reilly segment. Warning, this has the actual police footage of the raid where they gun down the dogs in front of the kids.

I grew up in a small Missouri town, population 42, so I take it personal when I see this kind of sh*t take place there. Especially in Columbia, who's voters have spoken very loudly on this issue. this is an attack on democracy, as well as an attack on our basic human rights.

As I read on another web site, this was not a "botched raid". This is exactly by the plan. This is their strategy. To terrorize decent families in their own home over cannabis. :wtf: I really hope we can see some justice there.


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R4yU7UG3yE[/YOUTUBE]

[KyleIsNorml]

Thanks again for the information and the video Boaz! :thumbsup:

From watching that video I just realized something that hasn't been explained accurately nor do I think anyone else has noticed this.

Norml stated in their first article "If you notice toward the end of the video you can see what appears to be a small bong on the coffee table." Now the video that they are referring too is the main video that the police used during this raid which is the only video.

In the same article that Norml has posted they included this.. (Columbia Daily-Tribune) "Police discovered a grinder, a pipe and a small amount of marijuana"

Again in the second article that Norml had posted referring to this raid they stated "Police ultimately seized a small amount of marijuana residue and associated paraphernalia"

Then in the video that Boaz posted Mr. O'Reilly says "What did the police find? A small bag of pot.."

So let's recap. The police found a bong according to Norml.

The Columbia Daily-Tribune stated that the police found a grinder, a pipe, and a small amount of Marijuana.

Norml states in their second article in regards to their first one that the police seized a small amount of Marijuana residue and associated paraphernalia.

Last but not least Mr. O'Reilly says that the police found a small bag of pot.

Now is all very so clear that the police found an amount of Marijuana in the families house. These other articles and the media are stating that there was just more then Marijuana correct? I really hope you all see where I'm getting at. Either everyone has only included what they felt was important in their description or maybe the police are trying to make it seem bigger then what it actually is and make the father look more like a druggie. On top of all of that, by doing this unconstitutionally I can see the police trying to add more to the story to get this father in more trouble. Do you all see what I see here?

All I know is if I was that father and anyone else in the family, I would want the story accurately correct because we really don't know if the man had a pipe, bong, grinder or residue just sitting around the house. But none the less I think that the police are trying to make the father look more like a criminal by adding all this extra information to the whole story. What do you think?

I just thought that I would point this out in hope that everyone else realizes this because this whole story is really mixed up if you couldn't tell.

[boaz]

Thank you, Kyle. I did notice that, too. The first time I read about this my understanding was that the "officers" found some sort of pipe that may have had some sort of residue that they believed may have been cannabis related. From that it becomes "a bag of pot" on Fox News. :wtf: fair and balanced?

Also, my biggest complaint about the O'Reilly clip, and tv in general, is that immediately make the jump to hard drugs. I believe O'Reilly said something to the effect of "but the broader question is ..." or something. I don't care about the broader question. I care that people of Columbia pass a law and become victims of terrorism because of it. :twocents:

oh, yeah, and O'Reilly also, I believe, refered to this man as a "drug dealer". Is that not slander? :wtf: I hope they have a really good attorney.

[RedLocks]

This really sickens and scares mi.. I've been a victim of a "pseudo raid" before, police were looking for any reason to poke around Ras's house and they found one. Sitting on phone talking with my mother, next thing I know house being stormed by police and I got 9s stuck in my face, one of my kids was home too.. I guess thank god I had no dog at the time? My mother nearly had a heart attack in the middle of the store she had been in while we were chatting on the phone.

[boaz]

I'm sorry if this is getting off topic and I meant to mention this earlier but anyone else notice how clever fox news played this in this interview. I'm not saying they have an agenda or anything but note how at minute 2:00 O'reilly (seeming playing cannabis advocate here) say's look we ended alcohol prohibition and sky didn't fall in, yes a number of people abuse alcohol but adults already use soft drugs, like marijuana, why not legalize it. At which Mr. Krauthammer replies, that is a false arguement, it is not like we are choosing between one or the other, they will be additive, like alcohol and cocaine (quick cut to people smoking crack and snorting lines).

from a prohib perspective this is genious! his answer has absolutely nothing to do with the question, but the use of the alcohol with cocaine is not only sexy and attention grabbing, the two have a very salient association with each other (anyone who has ever tried coke can tell you the two go together like cookies and milk). Thus the mind automatically accepts what he is saying about people combining hard drugs with alcohol, missing that he completely dodged the question. brilliant. hats off, fox.

I don't know if fox has really has an agenda or not, and like I said I thought O'reilly was very fair, I normally agree with most of what Charles says, too, but I think historically, from the Hearsts Newspapers to now the old media seems to have vested interest in cannabis prohibition and this clip is further evidence. :twocents:

anyways, sorry to get so far off topic. Best of luck to this dad, hope you can get a good attorney and try to keep the media honest. good luck.