"The investigation leading to the raid began at least seven months earlier, when Robert Harte and his son went to a gardening store to purchase supplies to grow hydroponic tomatoes for a school project. A state trooper had been positioned in the store parking lot to collect the license plate numbers of customers, compile them into a spreadsheet, then send the spreadsheets to local sheriff’s departments for further investigation. Yes, merely shopping at a gardening store could make you the target of a criminal drug investigation."
I'm not in favor marijuana legalization or other drug legalization and I think we should prosecute drug dealers harshly. Likewise, I support the difficult work done by the police to keep the peace and enforce the law.
But this is getting out of hand. The militarization of police combined with a siege mentality and a need to be seen as getting the job done has created a police force that sometimes sees itself as above the law and accountable to no one while treating the general public with as always "guilty of something." That's not to say that all police are like this, but the numbers of those who are have been increasing.
Photo: WEBN-TV/Flickr. CC-BY-ND-2.0
