Cops

Weed, Guns, and Prostitutes

In a move that signals just how much of a fascist tyrant he is, Trump signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III on Thursday. Schedule III drugs are things like Ketamine, Testosterone, and Codeine. That sets in motion a number of things that are important. The most obvious of these is that users of medical marijuana are no longer unlawful users of the drug, which also means that those with a medical marijuana card are no longer prohibited from buying a firearm, and can now legally put no on a 4473. It also means that BATFEIEIO will have to revise and rewrite their form 4473 questions.

Republicans are incensed because police unions have long opposed such a move, as busting people for weed is a huge source of police employment and a great way to conduct warrantless searches: “I smelled weed.” As evidence to support their ire, Republicans made the following points:

  • Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug will send the wrong message to America’s children, enable drug cartels, and make our roads more dangerous
  • According to a recently published fifteen-year review of medical research, marijuana has no real medical value, and 30% of medical marijuana users have an addiction to the drug
  • Under Schedule III, pilots, truck drivers, and other safety-sensitive professions will not be tested for marijuana.
  • Marijuana is already imperiling safety: over 40% of fatal car crashes today involve THC. Rescheduling will exponentially worsen this crisis

First, let me say that I am one of the only people that I know that has never even tried the stuff. I have no interest in it, and I just never felt the need to try it. My only oppositions to marijuana are practical ones.

  1. I hate the smell when it is smoked. It reeks. I don’t care if they legalize it, as long as I don’t have to smell it. Make it an edible, or make patches. Do that, and I won’t care.
  2. Pass limits beyond which someone is considered impaired, and come up with a test that can reliably determine if someone is beyond that limit. I don’t want someone flying my plane or surgeons operating on people while they are impaired.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s address the Republican claims:

America’s children aren’t sitting there saying “Oooh, Trump said doctors can now prescribe weed. I think I will go out and smoke it now.” Ridiculous. Anyone who wants weed gets it now. I know that it’s anecdotal, but I would say that half of the people under the age of 30 who come to the ED test positive for marijuana, and probably 1 in 5 who are over 30 do as well. The patients I don’t test smell like weed a good bit of the time, too. Your policies aren’t doing shit to prevent people from using.

Half of the states (almost- it’s 24 now) have already legalized marijuana in some form or another. The Federal government is just catching up with what the states are doing, and what the citizens obviously want.

Marijuana DOES have medical uses. The fact that studies are showing that it doesn’t is a reflection of science being for sale. The government pays someone to conduct a study on marijuana to prove it has no legitimate use, and what do you know, the preexisting opinion of the study’s sponsor is confirmed. Far too much of what we call “science” is actually paid propaganda. Most “scientists” are actually whores who sell the weight of their credentials to the highest bidder.

Truck drivers, pilots, and the like can still be tested for weed as a Schedule III drug. They are tested for intoxication on things like alcohol (no scheduled at all), Schedule IV drugs like Xanax, Ativan, and Valium, as well as other Schedule III drugs like Ketamine and Codeine. This is just a stupid and downright untruthful argument that I classify as fear mongering, no different than “every traffic accident will result in a gunfight.”

In my several decades as a paramedic, I can say that nearly every traffic accident occurring after midnight involves an alcohol impaired driver, and we aren’t making alcohol illegal. If fatal accidents involve a driver with marijuana in their system 40% of the time, I ask how many people have marijuana in their systems. Correlation doesn’t imply causation. I could easily say that 60% of people who die in a traffic crash eat sandwiches, but that doesn’t make sandwiches the cause of traffic deaths. Keep in mind that current testing for marijuana doesn’t test for intoxication, it tests for presence. Because they are fat soluble, the metabolites of marijuana stay in your system for up to 90 days. That doesn’t mean that you were intoxicated at the time you were tested, which is my second point, above.

Overall, I think this issue is a loser for Republicans, and I support the action Trump took here. I just wish I didn’t have to smell that stuff everywhere I go.

By Divemedic, ago

Guns Aren’t Probable Cause

A man is pulled over by the police for a minor traffic infraction. He notifies the cop that he is carrying a firearm and hands over his concealed weapons permit. The cop said: “Once I knew he had a gun, that gave me reason to search for more contraband.” Note that the cop had no reason to believe that there was any crime being committed- after all, the man had a permit and had notified the cop that he was carrying. Still, the cop used that information to pull the man from his car, handcuff him, and leave him locked in the back seat of his patrol car for more than 30 minutes while the cop tore through and searched his vehicle.

I had a similar run in back in 2001 with an Orange county deputy in Orlando, and he threatened to kill me. That’s why I don’t tell cops shit. In this case, the victim of this roid raging idiot sued. Anyhow, here is a lawyer’s take on this case.

Some of the things that this lawyer says, and I grant that they are sensible pieces of advice, is upsetting to me. They are:

  • Keep your hands visible
  • Don’t make any sudden moves
  • Don’t reach for anything, not even your wallet

Because cops are nervous, they tend to overreact, and will assume that you are about to use a weapon.

Cops are basically scared little boys with weapons and carte blanche to use them to kill you. That’s a bad combination, and something that speaks volumes about American law and American policing. You are the enemy and a threat- despite the fact that there are 20 million traffic stops per year and only about 120 of them result in cops being shot. (That’s a 0.000006% chance that any given traffic stop will involve cops being shot.) Cops are more likely to have a heart attack on duty, yet they don’t go around shooting people that sell fatty food.

By Divemedic, ago

Neighbor Glows

I was at my rental property, getting some work done, since its vacant. One of the neighbors approached me. I have hardly spoken to the guy. All I know is that he is some kind of golf instructor. He does have Trump stickers all over his pickup truck.

He says to me that he has heard that I do some hobby machine work on guns. Then asks if I am willing to convert his AR or at least teach him how to convert his AR into full auto.

I told him that he was misinformed. I don’t do anything like that and don’t know how.

This is the third time someone has asked me to do something like that.

By Divemedic, ago

NY and GOA: A Larger Issue?

There is a case in NY that is important, where the U.S. Northern District Court ruled in Higbie v. James that New York’s concealed carry laws are violating the Second Amendment rights of nonresidents by making it nearly impossible for nonresidents to obtain a concealed carry license. It was sponsored by Gun Owners of America.

The plaintiffs in this case argued that they each have firearms licenses which permit them to bear arms in public in their respective states “and across most of the country.” They also claimed that New York does not permit them to carry their firearms while they are in New York solely because they are not residents or employees of the State. They argued that New York’s licensing scheme is an extreme outlier among the states because at least 27 states do not even require a permit to carry a concealed firearm in public, while the vast majority that do require permits will issue permits to out-of-state residents. The US District Court agreed, and struck down NY’s complicated and overly onerous regulations as being unconstitutionally designed to deny nonresidents their constitutional rights under the Second Amendment. The court ruled that state lawmakers can not restrict concealed carry licenses to maintaining residency, property ownership, or business interests in the state.

The tyrants of NY government attempted to make the argument that their licensing measures were not entirely prohibitive for non-residential applicants, saying certain guidelines allowed for those who owned habitable property or a business stake in the state to apply for such a license. In essence, they claimed that, because they allowed one nonresident to have a permit, this excused violating the rights of the rest of them. In essence, they are relying on the “token negro” defense. The court rightly called them out on this. 

Look, this case will have no direct impact upon the reality of CCW for nonresidents in New York. We all know that, because those ass clowns will simply find another way to violate the rights of US citizens while bleating loudly about the rights of illegal immigrants to take a dump on New York city streets. Even those residents who have permits nominally have to have criminal background checks, a mental health professional sign off on the permit, and multiple references.

The reality is that New York’s scheme is all about who you know and political payoffs when deciding who gets a permit. I know someone who has a New York carry permit. He also has a state police license plate, which starts with 1SP. He began telling me that the state police union had a series of special plates made, and they are only available through Hamilton county in New York. He claimed that this plate was given to “friends” of the police union, and the lower the number was that followed the 1SP, the more important you were to the cops. He said that this plate routinely gets him out of traffic and parking tickets. Not because he paid for it, nor did he jump through hoops. It’s because he knows someone, or as he puts it, “I’ve got a guy.”

This sounded like a lload of BS to me, so I activated my Google skills. What I found was that handing out special plate numbers is a common practice in New York. and I quote:

To some recipients, special license plates issued by the Saratoga County clerk are a symbol of county pride. For others, they are an inherited treasure passed on by a family member or loved one.
For many who have them — a list that ranges from county workers to state Supreme Court judges — an unwritten rule is that a lower number may indicate a special driver.
Indeed, an examination of the recipients of the special plates, which carry an “SP” prefix, shows they are coveted by a select group of government employees and elected officials, including judges, prosecutors, town supervisors, attorneys and political party leaders. The spouses and children of those people are also among those, estimated to be in the hundreds, who have the plates.

Now the SP prefix goes to Saratoga County. The 1SP prefix, which I can find little about, belongs to the State Police. This is how things are done there, from Concealed Weapons Permits to License plates, corruption and special favors rule the day.

They claim it is for “county pride” but I am sure there are not that many people who believe that. This is a way of announcing to the police that you are politically well connected and should receive special treatment.

The real impact of the Higbie case is that the noose is closing. The era of violating people’s rights to bear arms is closing through the courts. That doesn’t mean the fight os over. Evil, corruption, and man’s quest for power to rule others never ceases. That’s why the fight can’t either.

Donate to the GOA or the FPC. They are doing the work of patriots.

By Divemedic, ago

Warrants

The left is running around saying that it is illegal for ICE to arrest people unless they have a warrant. The idiots are injecting themselves into the situation by confronting police and demanding to “see the warrant.”

  • The leftist isn’t involved in the case. Random people can’t walk up to police and demand to see anything. The cops are under no compulsion to show you a warrant, nor to explain themselves to randos on the street.
  • The cops don’t have to be in physical possession of the court order or warrant in order to make an arrest. All they need is to know that the warrant or order exists. That’s why they call in the identification of people they are in contact with. If they call in your ID and are told there is an arrest warrant, it isn’t a “get out of jail free” card if they don’t have the physical warrant.

Stop being morons.

By Divemedic, ago

In The Finest Tradition

Cop takes cover behind a woman. I applaud shooting the robber, but any man (especially a cop) who takes cover behind women and children is a pussy.

This isn’t the first time I’ve had to say this. Remember the time cops in South Florida hid behind cars filled with soccer moms?

EDIT: Comments here have crossed the line and are generating more heat than light. With that, comments on this post are now closed.

By Divemedic, ago

Property Taxes Again

Governor DeSantis is pushing to have a ballot initiative on Florida’s 2026 ballot. The initiative would be to eliminate property taxes.

Those who oppose this claim that counties, school boards, and other government entities rely on this to provide essential services. That’s a load of crap. On average, counties only rely upon property taxes for 18% of their expenditures. Of course, if you ask the counties, they play a bit of a shell game with the facts:

“If you want to get it from sales tax, well, it’s really going to disproportionately hurt lower income,” Kroll said.

Each year Kroll’s offices collect more than $700 million from property taxes, he said.

“The majority of it goes to the school board that that’s about $248 million,” Kroll said.

The remaining revenue goes to the Seminole County Board of Commissioners and Kroll said they use most of that money to fund the budgets for the Seminole County Sheriff’s Office and Fire Rescue.

  • It isn’t going to disproportionately affect lower income. See, lower income will buy less stuff, so they will pay less in taxes. If a person spends ten times as much, they will pay 10 times more in taxes. That’s how proportionality works. What they really mean is that the poor are now paying nothing, while those who aren’t poor are paying for bullshit that isn’t necessary. There are so many carve outs and exemptions, that nearly half of the people in my small town pay NOTHING in property taxes. More on that in a minute.
  • Don’t look now, but $248 million isn’t most of $700 million
  • The Seminole county school board has an annual budget of just over $1 billion. Only 1 in 3 households in Florida has a school aged child, yet we are each paying thousands to send those kids to school, even though education is a giant failure. It’s a huge drain of resources.

Seminole County’s proposed 2025 budget is $1.2 billion, which includes a potential property tax increase for 2025. That amount also doesn’t include the money that goes to the school board, because that is a different budget. In fact, they are increasing the milage rates for property taxes by 10% over 2024 levels, as well as increasing the county gas tax from 6 cents to 11 cents per gallon, and increasing taxes on electric, cable, and telephone.

With property values climbing, there is no need to raise taxes, but they do like them some tax and spend. Government officials always like to blame the services that are popular for tax increases, even though there is plenty of room to cut other, unneeded services. People don’t want to see the fire department cut, so they fund things like free needles for drug addicted transgender unwed mothers, then cry poor when there is no money left for the fire department.

Let’s take a look at the Seminole County Sheriff’s budget: There is plenty of waste here. The SWAT team has 20 members, and spends $4.5 million a year on it. That is a lot of money. Perhaps there is some room for cuts there. The sheriff’s office is paid $4.4 million per year to provide school resource officers to Seminole county schools, but actually providing those officers costs the Sheriff’s office $9.9 million per year. The cheaper way to go is to have the schools participate in the Guardian program, allowing teachers who volunteer to go through the training to be armed at school. Most counties in Florida who are part of the Guardian program accept the grant money, but then pay cops to fill the roles while not allowing teachers to participate. It’s a HUGE waste of money to have cops there when so many teachers would do it for free. Then they are spending all of that cash, only to find out that school resource officers aren’t required to do a damned thing if, God forbid, there actually IS a shooting at their school.

I pay over $6,000 a year in property taxes. 28 percent of that goes to the county, another 33 percent to the town, 31 percent to the school board, and the remainder to police, fire, EMS, hospital, and the water authority.

Overall, the loss of property tax revenue would mean that government agencies would need to get rid of some luxury items and perhaps learn to stop wasting money. If I could vote more than once to get rid of property taxes, I would.

By Divemedic, ago

Protecting and Serving the Shit Out of You

A woman called police. When they arrived, she claimed that a man kicked in her door, beat her, and fled into the woods on foot. She named him, said he was her boyfriend who had just broken up with her, and was upset over the breakup. The police got a warrant for his arrest for domestic violence.

The only problem? He was a married paraplegic and had been confined to a wheelchair for the past 25 years. Instead of actually conducting a further investigation, the cops arrested him and told him that if he could bring proof that he was actually paralyzed to his trial, he could then prove his innocence. They arrested him and accused him of faking his medical condition to get out of going to jail. Watch for yourself:

The cops inform him 13 minutes into the video that he needs to get a lawyer so he can establish his innocence. Since when has that ever been the law? The cop even admits “She says you kicked down her door, but it doesn’t look like you can kick down anything.” So why are you still arresting him, you fucking idiot? This officer also admits that he spent nine months investigating this. How good is he at investigating when he didn’t even know that the guy he swore a felony arrest warrant for has been confined to a wheelchair for nearly three decades? He even says it’s been in his driving record that he requires a wheelchair and has a handicapped permit.

To make matters worse, the woman had an arrest record for lying in previous cases. This cop, his sergeant, and his lieutenant are all incompetent.

This is one area where Trump and I disagree. Cops don’t need more immunity, they need less. Qualified immunity needs to go away, and cops should be forced to carry malpractice insurance like other professions. I have a one million dollar policy that only costs me $150 a year, but then again, I am not an incompetent idiot who doesn’t know how to think for myself. They can get a policy, too.

To those who would say “Well, there was an arrest warrant, they have to follow it,” that is bullshit. I get written orders from doctors all of the time that I refuse to follow because they are stupid. Just last night, I had a doctor order me to conduct a pregnancy test on an 84 year old woman, and a second doctor wanted me to give a medication to someone when it was right there in the chart that they are allergic to that medication. I can use my brain and refuse to carry out an order that doesn’t make sense. So can cops.

It’s why they make us go to school and have a license. They expect you to not be a complete dumbass.

This story and others like it is why I won’t cry any time a cop gets killed.

By Divemedic, ago