This is ridiculous. Big Brother in Utah…
Cats: miscellanea|
Read this article from the drug policy alliance.
Then read a first hand account.
More accounts, and supposedly there’s video there, too…
Now, it doesn’t bother me that authorities are supposedly trying to uphold laws against drugs. (Though I have my thoughts on the legalization of drugs… more on that in minute.) What bothers me most is the obvious scare tactics, brutality, and absolute disregard for what amounts to a bunch of kids out trying to have a good time.
Maybe their idea of having a good time doesn’t quite go hand in hand with mine… but you know, promoters did everything they could to comply with law, the gathering wasn’t out of hand, there really was no reasonable basis for authorities to be there in the manner that they were. Ok, maybe a few undercover cops… but a helicopter? Dogs? Assault rifles?
Come ON… these kids aren’t terrorists. If your undercover cop witnesses drug activity, get a few guys, go over, and just take the perpetrators into custody. Don’t swoop in like the fascist regime our country is swiftly, frighteningly, coming to resemble.
Talk about a setup. This raid was OBVIOUSLY planned, even anticipated, from the time authorities knew about the event. They could have shut this thing down before it happened. They didn’t want to. One would think with so much time to make their plans that authorities would handle the situation with a bit more finesse. But they didn’t want to. They wanted to make a show of force, they wanted to terrorize, and they did just that.
Wait… isn’t our country trying to FIGHT people who do that terrorizing thing? Hm. What? Oh…it’s OK if it’s OUR authorities doing it, but not someone else’s?
From watching the video… it’s not a huge mental leap from what happened here to the sort of things we’ve seen in Hollywood scifi flicks where the government oppresses the masses into compliance with one way of thinking, one ideology, and one acceptable mode of behavior, where anything else is squashed through brute force. I had honestly thought that that sort of thing never happened in real life, it was just made up by writers with good imaginations. Apparently I was wrong. I get the impression this happens far too often.
Man, that’s just scary.
And as far as I’m concerned… if non-lethal drugs were legalized and regulated much the same way as alcohol is, not only would this bullshit be entirely unnecessary, but local, state, and federal governments would look to make a LOT of money off the luxury taxes that could be applied.
I weep for my country. Please…PLEASE… somebody in government get a clue.
Oh, and for the record: I’m not a raver. I’ve never done drugs in my life. I’m personally opposed to drug use, not least because I think people behave like absolute morons when under the influence. I just don’t see them as useful in the recreational sense. (Life is weird enough without altering perception. Just look at what happened as detailed above.) I just happen to be a proponent of common sense, a thing that does not seem to be common anymore.
