Do occasionally unfold within states/territories of which haven’t imposed any form of cannabis related reform.
If one looks to the QLD police website, “busts” are occasionally put up consisting of 1-2 puny cannabis plants wherein the grower (strictly for personal use) is otherwise charged and typically imprisoned.
Granted @Californiagrown’s example isn’t indicative of the common “pot smoking college kid”, fifteen plants is more/less going to be considered a traffickable quantity. Let’s be honest, unless you’re Snoop Dogg (is that how you spell his name?) if you’ve got FIFTEEN PLANTS chances are you’re dealing.
I otherwise have numerous anecdotes of kids my age having encounters with law enforcement over minute quantities of cannabis. Police aren’t wasting resources busting down the doors of pot smoking kids and SWAT of all departments aren’t going to waste resources on pot unless we are talking about massive quantities grown and sold by criminal syndicates… but officers of the law still do appear to be arresting kids over pot, issuing large fines and court dates etc over a substance that should’ve never been designated a schedule I/S9 controlled substance to begin with.
This isn’t fault of the police. They don’t make the law, they enforce existing law put in place. If you want a law changed, take it up with parliament. It’s possible arrest rates regarding certain demographics are disproportionate despite similar crime statistics being in place. If referring to cannabis, the indigenous population in NSW are disproportionately issued court dates/arrested over cannabis in comparison to those of Caucasian descent. Cannabis use statistics are higher amongst the indigenous, though not nearly enough to account for the disproportionate arrest rate. It was found the NSW police department had a quota for searching those of indigenous descent, I don’t know whether our conduct carries over to the US or not.
The NT had this issue too, until cannabis was effectively decriminalised. Possession/small scale growth incurs a small fine. Unless you’re in possession of a large quantity/dealing you aren’t getting arrested/going to court.
It most certainly is, even Australian police will tend to discharge a firearm if an individual suddenly runs at them with a kitchen knife
In Aus discharging a firearm is associated with an enormous amount of paperwork, sometimes a court date etc. We have barriers in place of which generally mitigate the use of lethal force aside from exceptional circumstances
Getting charged at with a deadly weapon easily qualifies as an “exceptional circumstance”
I think californiagrown is referring to the VERY occasional mishap wherein a raid occurs and a perp is shot because he happens to be holding a kitchen knife as he was dicing onions or something.
Perhaps, which is why I said my comment was outside of this specific topic.
My wife went for a self defence course in the gym and the fuckers were teaching “knife defence”. Had to spend a stupid amount of time just explaining to her why you should just run.
I hate this shit. I think it’s actively dangerous to teach this. People get overconfident (“oh hey this guy has a knife! I learned what to do in this situation! Just establish wrist control…”) and end up getting killed for no reason.
John Wick is based off a comic book though. Comics aren’t exactly known for being grounded within the constructs of reality.
John Wick is awesome, it’s a “fun”, “enjoyable” and mindless viewing experience. Constant senseless, albeit stylalized and meticulously choreographed violence. The cinematography is absolutely on point!
@marine77 regarding our earlier discussion, could you send me the video you were referring to? I’d be curious watch it, it’ll add to my developing narrative/opinion.
This is where decriminalisation and/or reform regarding legislature comes in. Within some states, piddly shit (i.e 50$ worth of pot) is still a felony/serious criminal offence.
In Australia the majority of arrests for small quantities come from searching kids on the street/at music festivals (in NSW) and/or busting a few kids lighting up in the park/on the beach at 3am.
For growing however, warrants/raids are sometimes conducted over laughable quantities (i.e 1-2 plants), particuarly in the more conservative state of QLD as cultivating any quantity of cannabis is a serious offence punishable by a fairly lengthy stint in prison. The cost to take out a warrant/conduct a raid is probably more arduous than the value of the 1-2 plants.
Late for this thread explosion but no as far as I am aware. In most areas they are not except for things like concert and sport events.
Agreed domestically when it comes to “normal” beat cops and large, rapidly changing, violent situations.
Also, in reference to the “militarization” discussion I don’t consider an APC for SWAT or hostage rescue teams militarization. If beat cops had it? Yes. If beat cops get burst fire ARs or other weapons like flash bangs, yes. SWAT and HRT no. They’re typically sent in when shit has already gone far south. I am totally willing to be corrected by Marine77 though.
I have a bigger problem with the way things like qualified immunity are enforced in the judicial level than use of weapons by SWAT in urban environments.
There are a number of issues and it gets complicated. IMHO it goes back to the North Hollywood Shootout in 1997 for the genesis of most of the high powered weapons purchases for police departments. 30 minutes of a couple bank robbers hosing down an entire police response with fully automatic capable H&Ks, AK variants, drum fed weapons, body armor. Now, granted all of those weapons had been illegally modified to among other things enable full auto. But the police met the scene with 9mm and 38 specials. They had to commandeer weapons from a nearby firearms dealer in addition to SWAT responding. Estimates of rounds fired by the perps are in the 1500 ish area.
Megadeth even wrote a song about it (“44 minutes”).
I do have a bit of a problem with small ass rural departments using funds to purchase these kinds of shiny new toys. But there’s a definite need for police to have access to advanced weapons in many areas.
Knife defense is complete bullshit. Everyone who takes one of those courses should take a test where the perp has a rubber knife with paint on it. After you subdue the MOTIVATED perp, you should look at your clothes and limbs for all the paint you’re bleeding.
Fighting someone with a knife is acceptable if they came to your house and you’re screwed, or if your family is trapped and it’s last resort. Otherwise… don’t.
Part of self defense classes should be teaching situational awareness and running away.
I found the police kicking down the guy-holding-a-kitchen-knife-while-he’s-cooking’s door, then shooting him. Skip to around 19:10, if you’re impatient.
It’s very quick. Just as he’s about to ram the other car there’s a quick cut showing the front of his car and you can see that his car is barely moving and then stops entirely. Which quickly cuts into the next shot of his car going full speed. I watched it in cinema the first time and it was a very jarring transition.
