Cookeville, TN — One by one, police departments across the country are learning the hard way just how asinine and tyrannical marijuana prohibition is. Despite the heavy backlash from those who see the drug war for the violent and racist despotism that it is, clueless cops keep bragging about arresting people for a plant that is legal in some form in over half the country. The latest department to get a dose of internet reality is the Tennessee Highway Patrol—but this time—the reality is from another cop!
Last Friday, the THP’s Cookeville District Sgt. Jimmy Jones and Trp. Kevin Ballew busted a man carrying an arbitrary amount of a plant that is legal in some form in over half of the country. Then, just like all the clueless departments in front of them, they took to Facebook to brag about it.
Naturally, they were lambasted by commenters who called them out for not solving real crimes and for ruining people’s lives over a harmless and beneficial plant. But then, Tony Shope, a former police officer, chimed in with deafening logic.
“What a waste of good officers time. I am a retired 26-year cop and believe weed should be legal all over. The south will figure that out one day. I would any day rather deal with someone smoking than the DUI/DWI from the bar. You have better things to do. I quit apprehending MJ cases years ago as it wasted the courts and my time,” Shope said.
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Of course, the apologists’ heads collectively exploded after seeing a cop stand against the war on drugs, so they came out of the woodwork to challenge the former officer.
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“It was your sworn duty to uphold the law !!! You failed the citizens of Tennessee and violated your oath. You’re a thief for accepting a pay check !!!” Tim Trentham wrote. “Some of us still have a moral compass. An officer is sworn to uphold the law, not dictate it !!!”
However, Shope, using reason instead of blind order-following emotion, proceeded to dismantle Trentham’s ill-conceived notion.
Quoting Trentham, “An officer is sworn to uphold the law, not dictate it !!!” Shope replied by noting that “An officer is granted discretionary authority to either write the case or not write the case. I worked narcotics for years. In those years I never saw a judge accept a petty MJ case and simply threw them out. Petty being less than 2 1/2 oz. I was a Federal agent so do not quite judge me for my paycheck. We had policies also.”
Even with his polite reason and facts, Shope still found himself on the receiving end of blind ignorance with people claiming that he is a bad cop and that those who want cops to stop kidnapping, caging, and killing people for possessing a plant “must be on drugs.”
Sadly, as illustrated by the continuous stream of Facebook posts of cops bragging about weed busts, Americans still don’t get it. They remain blinded by the constant bombardment of anti-cannabis propaganda and refuse to question their government on high.
If these same people would take the time to research how enforcing the war on drugs actually creates criminals and leads to more serious crimes like rape and murder going unsolved, we could have a revolution over night.
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As TFTP has reported, when cops stop going after people for possessing substances deemed illegal by the state, real crimes are actually solved.
In fact, a recent study out of Boston showed exactly that. The study indicated that the Boston Police Department has drastically increased the number of homicides they solved since they stopped making arrests for marijuana. The homicide clearance rate increase by 10% following the decriminalization of marijuana in the area.
“The BPD homicide unit increased the yearly Boston homicide clearance rate by nearly 10 percent […] and by more than 18 percent when the clearance rate definition was extended to include those cases awaiting grand jury decisions,” the study said.
Civil asset forfeiture pays. Busting low-level drug dealers by the dozen and confiscating their drugs, guns, cars, houses, and money pays. Writing tickets for victimless crime pays. Pulling you over for window tint, seat belts, arbitrary traveling speeds, and expired license plates; these are the things that pay — solving murders does not pay.
However, as the drug war toned down slightly with the decriminalization of marijuana, the department was miraculously able to funnel more resources and dedicate more officers towards solving murders. This is common sense.
In the United States, the murder clearance rate in 1965 was more than 90 percent. Since the inception of the war on drugs, the murder clearance rate has plummetted to an average of less than 65 percent per year.
This decline is in spite of there being far fewer murders. It is also in spite of new technological developments to help police solve crimes, like DNA testing, advanced forensic labs, and unethical spying devices like the stingray.
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Despite the near complete erosion of the constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure, the clearance rate for murder continued its free fall. This highlights the fact that no matter how many rights are given up or freedoms diminished — police cannot guarantee your safety — and all of this is due to the war on drugs.
The good news is people are waking up. In fact, As the Free Thought Project reported, a paradigm shift, according to a new Harvard-Harris Poll, is taking place in the country. For the first time, 86 percent of Americans approve of some form of legal cannabis.
Soon enough, the paradigm shift will over take tyranny and those who continue to go against the will of the people will be seen for the tyrants they are. To the Tennessee Highway Patrol and all other departments across America, we are pleading with you to stop this madness. Please, be on the right side of history and stop enforcing a law you know is immoral. America’s freedom depends on it. Liberty is not granted through people enforcing immoral laws — it is taken when good people break bad laws.
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