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Supreme Jerks

ETS!,

"The ruling effectively denies Bill of Rights protections (freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and so forth) to non- citizens, to whom the U.S. Constitution apparently does not apply."

I never thought that the Constitution applied to non-citizens. Is it supposed to? (Call me ignorant, just don't call me late for the revolution.) A friend of mine passed a quote along to me Wednesday that he got from an article on the executions of Karl and Walter LaGrand: "Arizona officials conceded they violated the Vienna Convention but insisted the LaGrands were accorded all the rights any U.S. citizen would have received." (I'll try to find the source of this or any confirming article if you like.) Aside from the apparent "right to be murdered by the state" (which amendment is that, anyway?), the phrasing of this seems to imply that non-citizens don't have rights. If this is not true, it might be amusing--if not productive--to point that out to folks.

I did cadge this quote from an OttawaNews article on the subject (http://www.canoe.ca/OttawaNews/OS.OS-03-05-0033.html): "Both [LaGrands] chose the gas chamber in hopes that courts would rule the method was unconstitutional as cruel and unusual punishment ... In both cases, the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a federal appeal court's restraining order barring Arizona from the execution."

The Supremes come through again. Don't you just love Amerika?

Phil Kos, Seattle

Why the Crawlspace?

Dear ETS!,

Here is a story I received from a long-time friend. I know this is not an unusual occurrence, but when it is someone you know, and it is local, it has a larger impact. He is looking for advice, or places to go to get advice, so he can be instrumental in stopping this madness and/or helping his friend. Thoughts and insights are solicited:

Hi. I am a fine upstanding citizen of this "sometimes" great country called the USA. I have a very good friend who is also a fine upstanding citizen. I have known him since I was 10 years old. I'll call him "Fred". Fred has a good job. His wife has a good job. They pay taxes like good Americans are supposed to. Fred and his wife have been married for 15 years and have 2 children, the youngest of which is a sweet, naive, 13 year-old girl. Fred decided he was going to try his hand at growing some herbs and vegetables in the crawlspace of his house. He was very enthused by how well he did. Unbeknownst to his family and friends, he decided to try his hand at a bit of marijuana. Nothing big. Just some for personal use.

In February 1999, his home was invaded and ransacked by what is called the Eastside Drug Taskforce. This "taskforce" is based in Bellevue, Washington. The Taskforce arrived at his home at 4:00 PM in the afternoon on a Wednesday, via an armored personnel carrier. They were dressed in combat fatigues. They carried automatic weapons and wore masks. They proceeded to bust down the front door. The only person home was the 13 year-old daughter. She was frightened beyond belief. They completely trashed the house. They purposely destroyed their personal property. They took every belonging and piled it in heaps on the floor. Then they took things like protein powder and poured them all over their belongings. They took CD's off the shelf and flung them across the room, breaking them. They were HATEFUL! All the neighbors in the cul-de-sac came rushing over because his daughter was screaming. The guys in masks pointed guns at them and told them to get back in their houses or they'd be charged with obstruction of justice.

They also confiscated all of his and his wife's assets. This includes money they had recently acquired from the sale of stocks which was in a bank account, his pickup truck, and their computer. All of their assets were obtained by good, wholesome, TAXED income. They have been told by their lawyer that they may potentially lose their home which they have owned for 15 years and have worked LEGITIMATE jobs to make payments on.

I asked how this all happened. My friend said he didn't know. I asked why they had seized his early '90s pickup truck? He said he didn't know. He told me he had told NO ONE about what he was doing (not even me and I am one of his very closest friends whom he knows would have tried to dissuade him). We talked about why the Bellevue task force would be involved. He said it made no sense. I asked him if he'd ever stopped at one of those "Grower Stores?" His eyes got a funny look in them. He said that he had stopped on his way home from work one afternoon at a shop in Bellevue to pick up some supplies when he first started. BINGO! It is our belief (now confirmed) that the Eastside Drug Taskforce sits in the parking lot across the street from the "grow shop" and take down license numbers. Then they go to the house and do what is called Infrared Thermography. The warrant papers my friend was served said that this taskforce did the IR Thermography at his house on three separate occasions prior to the raid.

I would like to know if you know anything about, or have heard of IR Thermography? Is the use of IR Thermography to obtain a search warrant legal?

Also, is it legal for them to sit outside legitimate businesses and then investigate patrons? Isn't this a violation of civil rights? If it is legal for them to do, then someone (hopefully you) had better warn people about patronizing the "grow shops." Isn't that like sitting outside a bar and pulling over patrons for investigation of DUI or sitting outside of gun shops and pulling over patrons for carrying a concealed weapon? I am COMPLETELY OUTRAGED that a police agency who is paid with MY tax money could behave in such a fashion. My friend is NOT a drug dealer. He works hard, lives in a moderately nice house in a nice, middle class neighborhood. He, his family, and his neighbors have been TOTALLY VIOLATED.

I don't grow anything, I abide by ALL laws (ridiculous or not). I should have nothing to worry about, right? Wrong! What if I stopped at one of these shops to buy some fertilizer for my garden? What if they follow me home and do some IR Thermography and they think my cloths-dryer is a halide light? Am I going to put up with government commandos busting into my home wearing masks? I'm now finding out how Randy Weaver felt and this ain't Ruby Ridge.

Chris, a "Tax Paying, Law Abiding, Pissed Off, Scared Citizen."

That Evil Booze

Dear editor,

The other day a 14 year-old Port Angeles girl died after drinking large quantities of vodka (Herald 1/20/99). She was one of three girls of the same age that were reported to have died that day. (I heard a radio news report about two others back east somewhere.) Last March, a 17 year-old girl in Auburn died of acute alcohol poisoning. Her mother found her comatose in her bedroom. In June of 1997 a 14 year-old Anacortes girl drank herself to death. This is only a short list of news stories that I found online. I'm quite certain there were many more acute alcohol poisonings involving young people that didn't make the paper.

Yet in over 8,000 years, no teenager has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. Teenagers should not use drugs--legal or otherwise. But they often do. The fact is that our society gives our teens extremely mixed messages about drugs. (Attention parents: ALCOHOL IS A DRUG!)

Just read what a conservative, Reagan-appointed judge has to say about this: "I am skeptical that a society that is so tolerant of alcohol and cigarettes should come down so hard on marijuana use and send people to prison for life without parole ... We should not repeal all the drug laws overnight, but we should begin with marijuana and see whether the sky falls." (Richard Posner, Chief Judge of the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.)

Darral Good, via e-mail

On Conspiracies

Geov Parrish & Maria Tomchick,

Hey, 1) you have my "New World Order Swastika" thing on page 1 and than a reference to "New World Order conspiratorialists" on page 2.

2) It was from George Bush I (The First) that I originally heard the term, having missed out on Third Reich history. I THINK IT'S A REAL GOAL. No?

The Right and Left meet here and there, I guess--like with guns for the Zapatistas AND for U.S. 2nd Amendment folks. Regarding conspiracies: the U.S. system IS a conspiracy--of any and all kinds. Can't exist otherwise.

Best,

John Jonik, Philadelphia

P.S., Maria: Any relatives from the East in Philadelphia? Carl, for instance?

M.T. replies: Yeah, I hear there are a lot of Tomchicks, Tomsics, Tomics, Tomacheks, etc. on the east coast--especially in Philly and D.C. ... but I've never met any of them. They're probably all distant cousins of mine; the rumor is my family came over in one BIG sweaty mass from the Old Country (the Carpathian Mtns. near the borders of Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia) sometime around 1900. It was called the "Austro-Hungarian Empire" in those days, which was probably the best reason to want to leave. That, and mining coal on your knees by candlelight really sucked ... not that it was any easier to do that in Pennsylvania!