Ron Paul, sounding like a left wing radical, says war on drugs is being used as an excuse to militarize the police, giving them weaponry far beyond what they need. With Ferguson, Paul says, the war has come home. I completely agree. There is plenty of common ground between the non-authoritarian left and the libertarian right. The war on drugs is of course an abject failure. The drugs flow in because crooked banks and hedge funds need the money.
This process is exactly what happens with the war on terror, which has also mostly been a failure, and which enriches a few to the detriment of the rest. Thus we have atrocities like “baby Bounkham” which, if it happened in another country, the US would roll its eyes in horror and squawk about how that country needed a heap of democracy (preferably enforced by a US-supplied gun ) But when it happens at home, our politicians, except for a very few, are strangely quiet and submissive. Â They are bought and paid for, aren’t about to act in anything except their own self-interest and the interests of the class who funds them.
One particularly tragic victim of police militarization and the war on drugs is “baby Bounkham.” This infant was severely burned and put in a coma by a flash-burn grenade thrown into his crib by a SWAT team member who burst into the infant’s room looking for methamphetamine. As shocking as the case of baby Bounkham is, no one should be surprised that empowering police to stop consensual (though perhaps harmful and immoral) activities has led to a growth of authoritarian attitudes and behaviors among government officials and politicians. Those wondering why the local police increasingly look and act like an occupying military force should consider that the drug war was the justification for the Defense Department’s “1033 program,” which last year gave local police departments almost $450 million worth of “surplus” military equipment. This included armored vehicles and grenades like those that were used to maim baby Bounkham. Today, the war on drugs has been eclipsed by the war on terror as an all-purpose excuse for expanding the police state. One particularly tragic victim of police militarization and the war on drugs is “baby Bounkham.” This infant was severely burned and put in a coma by a flash-burn grenade thrown into his crib by a SWAT team member who burst into the infant’s room looking for methamphetamine. As shocking as the case of baby Bounkham is, no one should be surprised that empowering police to stop consensual (though perhaps harmful and immoral) activities has led to a growth of authoritarian attitudes and behaviors among government officials and politicians. Those wondering why the local police increasingly look and act like an occupying military force should consider that the drug war was the justification for the Defense Department’s “1033 program,” which last year gave local police departments almost $450 million worth of “surplus” military equipment. This included armored vehicles and grenades like those that were used to maim baby Bounkham. Today, the war on drugs has been eclipsed by the war on terror as an all-purpose excuse for expanding the police state.
Behind these pretend wars are the banksters and financiers. They profit from war, from drug money, and from pretending to fight the drug cartels.