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NH COP SUSPENDED FOR SUPPORTING POT LEGALIZATION
Raw Story - Bradley Jardis, an officer with the Epping [NH] Police Department, is challenging a six-day suspension he received after reportedly getting into a heated argument with a supervisor. According to blogger David Bratzer, Jardis received the suspension after refusing an "illegal" request from his bosses to refrain from speaking to the media.
Jardis is an outspoken critic of marijuana prohibition and a supporter of medical marijuana laws, as well as a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, pro-legalization group. Jardis was featured earlier this year in an article in the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union-Leader profiling police officers who object to the drug laws they enforce.
Jardis also penned an op-ed in April for the Union-Leader in which he spoke in favor of a proposed medical marijuana law for New Hampshire. Sometime after those two articles appeared, Jardis began to experience pressure from his employers, his supporters allege.
Jardis is an outspoken critic of marijuana prohibition and a supporter of medical marijuana laws, as well as a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, pro-legalization group. Jardis was featured earlier this year in an article in the Manchester, New Hampshire, Union-Leader profiling police officers who object to the drug laws they enforce.
Jardis also penned an op-ed in April for the Union-Leader in which he spoke in favor of a proposed medical marijuana law for New Hampshire. Sometime after those two articles appeared, Jardis began to experience pressure from his employers, his supporters allege.
3 Comments:
If it's not illegal for Officer Jardis to be a member of LEAP then he shouldn't be experiencing any "pressure". After all, the law is the law.
Would we accept this kind of discrimination if it were based on race or gender or sexual orientation? Of course not! Then why should we accept it when it's based on the Officer's courage to oppose tradition and publicly disagree with his superiors on a matter of policy - regardless of what that policy might be?
Too many good cops feel the need to keep their personal opinions about the ineffective and destructive prohibition to themselves until after they've retired and will only then speak up against it. At that point their opinions are disregarded.
We need to encourage all of our employees to speak up when they disagree with us. We need to challenge tradition and be prepared to oppose it when we find it wanting.
And how more wanting can a policy be that for more than SEVENTY YEARS has completely failed to eliminate marijuana from this country and which is now costing taxpayers $40 BILLION a year and causing the arrest of 800,000 people a year and the brutal murders of 6,000 people every year?
End the Prohibition and encourage our police officers to break with tradition and voice their personal opinions about which policies are working and which are not.
Government is a huge "stay-on-message" type scheme. It's not about whether drugs are legal or not, or whether legalization or continued prohibition is good or bad...it's about making sure that there's a "unified front", lest someone get the idea that some LEO is advocating for illegal drugs. Like the rest of the largely dysfunctional government, it's all about propriety and message. Actual positive or negative outcomes are irrelevant.
For more info, read this one at the Union-Leader.
http://www.unionleader.com/pda-article.aspx?articleId=8738624e-5502-4f5e-9bb3-0bc45f22549b
It's kinda long, and still leaves lots to be imagined. But it's better than that RAW STORY article that only quotes a couple of bloggers.
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