Thursday, January 15, 2015

Small Fish to Fry

So this happened yesterday:
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Now I feel like almost everyone would agree that this guy did not make a very smart move here by advertising on Craigslist that he had weed for sale. He is 23 years old, and therefore considered an adult and should be liable for his actions (even if we can all probably also agree that 23-year-old males are probably the least rational of all demographics). But back to my point.
The thing that I find most unsettling about this event are the actions of the county sheriff's investigators. Do we really need to arrest and put a bond of $18,000 on a some kid who made a stupid decision? That is harsh, dude. The crime should be equal to the punishment, and really don't feel that he is getting a just punishment. In this case, these investigators zoned in on an easy target and are making an example of him.
What happened to real police work? I could not help but draw a parallel to the inept and corrupt Sheriff Lamb from the Veronica Mars television show when I read this. Are they so lazy, that their tips come from Craigslist? We have a pretty well known drug problem on the border, so I find it pretty sad that this kid is being arrested when there are bigger fish to fry. 
Notice how the reporter uses the term "suspicion". Perhaps she is a bit biased too. I don't know. It doesn't matter too much though. What does? Over criminalizing petty crimes like this. Yes, he should still be punished for his actions, but there are plenty worse crimes where the push for penalization is much weaker and the penalties are less severe.
Hopefully events like this encourage us to reflect on what crimes in our society are truly unacceptable pose a threat to others and which crimes are punishable but do not actually cause any real harm to our humanity. The priorities of authority figures need to be challenged to keep up with our evolving world. And most importantly, our government's ideology needs to be updated so that our laws and law enforcement can justly serve the society that they are charged with protecting.