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Yet Who Would Have Thought The Old Dog To Have So Much Blood In Him?

Jun 21, 2010
By .
Irksome, Law

If you want a textbook case of what's wrong with the drug war, look no further than Marietta Robinson's bathroom.

Full disclosure:  I take everything Ms. Robinson has to say on faith.  Why?  Because Marietta Robinson has never lied to me.

Marietta Robinson, to my knowledge, has never invaded a 62 year old lady's home, looking for someone who doesn't live there, and shot a 13 year old dog which had been placed out of harm's way for his own protection.

Marietta Robinson has never described the dogs she didn't shoot as "pit bulls," because she doesn't shoot dogs, and even if she does, they aren't pit bulls.

Marietta Robinson has never used her victim's water fountain to wash the blood off her hands after casually firing eight shots into that victim's pet.

Marietta Robinson has never tried to fob off fortune cookie wrappers as glassine bags containing drug residue.

All of this, on the other hand, is Standard Operating Procedure, Business As Usual, in the War on Drugs. Of course, Marietta Robinson is lucky to be alive, much less not arrested because the fortune cookie wrappers didn't actually contain any drugs, so she should shut up and stop complaining.

Out! Out! Damned Spot!  Oh, I'm sorry.  The dog's name was Wrinkles.

I, on the other hand, don't have to shut up.  This could never happen to me. I'm a white male lawyer of good family and reputation, not an old black lady.  So I'll say it.

Everything about the drug war is a miserable failure.  Millions of otherwise productive citizens languish in the criminal justice system, while drugs continue to circulate, making billionaires of the criminals who control the trade.  That's a problem of policy, not the fault of the police, who are merely following orders.

But it's also a problem of execution, and that's the problem with the people who are just following orders.  Because it takes a special sort of person, the sort of trigger-happy goon who would be drummed out of the military for bloodthirstiness, to want a job that involves home invasions and shooting 13 year old dogs.  We hire the dregs of society, base animals barely better than the dogs they shoot, to enforce our laws.

The fault, dear Marietta Robinson, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.  We vote for the people who retain and expand these laws.  We pass bonds to pay for more prisons, and more thugs in uniform.

And until we do something about it, it will continue.  It just won't happen to people like us.

Last 5 posts by Patrick Non-White

10 Comments
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9 Comments

  1. SeanD  •  Jun 21, 2010 @7:21 pm

    Amen, brother.

  2. jb  •  Jun 22, 2010 @6:39 am

    So infuriating. I am linking to your post under the name "miserable failure". Perhaps we can googlebomb it into something that really deserves the label.

  3. Bob  •  Jun 22, 2010 @7:40 am

    There was a spot on This American Life about Barry Cooper. Apparently, the cops wore him down and won. Implied threats to his family's safety if he continued his activities. You know, things can go wrong during a drug raid, someone could get shot. No-one would want that, would you want that, Barry? That kind of thing.

  4. F. Lee Beagle  •  Jun 22, 2010 @10:20 am

    As a representative of dogkind, I take exception to your claim that someone who murders my fellow dogs is, at the same time, somehow better than us.

  5. Mittens  •  Jun 22, 2010 @1:33 pm

    As a representative of Catkind, we applaud our puppets, er, local police in their tireless efforts to rid urban neighborhoods of the scourge of dogs. Er, illegal drugs. No, wait. Dogs.

  6. Base of the Pillar  •  Jun 22, 2010 @6:15 pm

    Dearest Patrick is, dare I say, en fuego.

  7. Matt Raft  •  Jun 22, 2010 @11:18 pm

    Patrick, another great post. What the heck have you been eating lately? Your law-zen has been strong lately :-)

  8. Will  •  Jun 23, 2010 @10:07 am

    The only thing I take exception with in this post is the passage "base animals barely better than the dogs they shoot." How could anyone thats ever owned a dog think that a dog is not better than the kind of people that would shoot a pet in these circumstances?

  9. Kelly James  •  May 26, 2011 @11:27 am

    "it takes a special sort of person, the sort of trigger-happy goon who would be drummed out of the military for bloodthirstiness, to want a job that involves home invasions and shooting 13 year old dogs. We hire the dregs of society, base animals barely better than the dogs they shoot, to enforce our laws."

    absolutely. right. the. f**k. on.

    Couldn't have said it better myself, except for the fact that I must agree with the commenters and say that the sort of human being who does this to an innocent living creature is the second lowest lifeform on earth, second only to the person who does this exact same thing to children – I'm gonna invoke Godwin's law and say it – such as the murdering that went on in Nazi Germany. And let me tell you what; executing people's beloved pets in front of them is one small step away from doing the same to their children. Keep that in mind, folks, next time you hear of cops murdering pets..

    Great article, I may reference it in one of my own in the next few days.

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