Archive for the ‘Michigan’ Category

Because they can.

Friday, October 29th, 2010

According to the Detroit News, owners and patrons of a  private club in Detroit are pissed off after a raid by sheriffs deputies and state and municipal cops in which hundreds of men and women were cited for “loitering in a place where drugs and drug paraphernalia were sold, given away, stored or dispensed.”

Seventy 70 cars were seized, including the car of a woman who was at home during the raid.

But club owner Marzell Anderson insists there was no illegal activity at his private club, and claimed the raid was just a “money grab” to charge his patrons $900 apiece get their vehicles back. Anderson, who is pursuing a lawsuit, was jailed for three days, but released without charges.

“If there was drugs and prostitution going on, why didn’t they charge me (with those crimes)? The police out-and-out stole those people’s cars,” said Anderson, who opened the club two years ago.

Why do cops arrest people who haven’t committed a crime and seize their property?  The answer is, simply, because they can.  Don’t count on your fellow citizens to come to your rescue of your civil liberties are being trampled.   As long as it’s you and not them, they really just don’t give a shit.

Paulina Grady was among those inside the club during the raid. She said she was strip-searched by male and female officers.

“They said whoever didn’t have panties or bras on would be charged with prostitution,” said Grady, who was ticketed for loitering. “They lifted my dress to see if I was wearing panties.”

Wonderful.  The lack of panties is yet another innovative technique to identify prostitutes aside from how many condoms they are carrying.

If population growth is any measure of a great city, then it’s no wonder Detroit has lost half its population since 1950.  Will the last one out please turn out the lights?

You people!

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Before I started this site, I wanted to start a blog called youpeople.org because, folks, there are times when you just want to grab the public by the shoulders and yell, “What’s wrong with You People?

While everyone has heard the phrase, ‘sex sells’, it would be a challenge to find anyone more dedicated to that philosophy for their own personal gain than politicians.  And way out ahead of the pack you will find prosecutors.

Nothing exemplifies that approach to self fulfillment quite like the parade of state attorneys general who have hitched their wagon to the moral crusade against craigslist.  As described on Huffington Post, seventeen state attorneys general have signed a letter (PDF) demanding that craigslist remove its adult services section.

“Only Craigslist has the power to stop these ads before they are even published,” Kansas attorney general Steve Six said in a statement.

Yes, that is absolutely correct.  That’s because the First Amendment prevents the government from doing it itself.  Unfortunately, being good students of the persuasion techniques practiced by organized crime, state governments are masters at intimidation when it looks like it could gain them some votes.

The campaign against craigslist didn’t start as a grass roots movement.  It started as a crusade by a noisy minority who are adept at stirring up public emotion with visions of children being exploited.

“No amount of money, however, can justify the scourge of illegal prostitution and the suffering of the women and children who will continue to be victimized, in the market and trafficking provided by Craigslist,” the letter said.

Women who advertise on criagslist are invariably described as idiots with no will of their own to resist exploitation by evil pimps and slave masters.  They have to be victims, otherwise who would get worked up about it?  And, of course, a lot of them have to be children for the same reason.

While wearing sheets is out of fashion, there should be no mistake that these state attorneys general are using persecution of a favorite target as a means to inflame the public’s mob mentality.  They might as well be carrying torches and pitchforks.  And the public, knowing that it would be impolite to demand actual numerical evidence that rises above the level of guesses and delusional claims, mindlessly goes along with the hysteria.  Who would oppose those whose only wish is to “help women and children”?  But, the last time I heard, a willingness to be your brother’s keeper wasn’t sufficient reason to burn the Constitution.

My message to the people of these states is this:

Well, folks, your wish is coming true.  In your fervor to impose your narrow personal values on everyone else, You People have created a monster who will enthusiastically piss on free speech in order to carry out your will.  But, be warned.  The monster is pretty kinky.  He likes a threesome, so don’t be surprised to find him in your bed as a supervising partner deciding what does or doesn’t constitute acceptable behavior between you and your lover.

P.S.  I intentionally avoided mention of Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley simply because if I started writing about her, this post would have turned into a book.  She is probably one of the most self-serving and parasitic of politicians, having mastered the craft of exploiting children and sex hysteria for her own personal benefit.  In a contest to be the antichrist, Coakley would be a leading contender.

Fighting crime and seizing property!

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

Well, one out of two ain’t bad, right?

In many states, property seizures have become a significant revenue source.  The theory is that property can be seized if it was used in the commission of crime, but seizures often occur where no crime took place.  In Detroit for example

As The News reported, in one instance, a Red Cross employee picking up a co-worker outside a Detroit bank had her vehicle grabbed by police because the co-worker had made eye contact with passing motorists, and so the cops assumed she was a prostitute.

Maybe I’m being overly critical, but if a cop thinks that eye contact with passing vehicles constitutes reason to suspect someone of prostitution, then he ought to be fired and have his face pasted on the front page of the newspaper over a caption that simply says: Idiot!

Officers admitted to The News that they had seized vehicles even when they were certain no crime had taken place.

I guess I’m old fashioned, because I would call that robbery, but since it’s cops taking the property and those cops are backed up by the power of the city government, it can’t be robbery, right?  I mean if it were robbery, then that would imply that the city is operating kind of a big racket where they can screw people over with impunity.  Surely that just isn’t possible in “the land of the free”….

But, really it’s not robbery, because the owner can get it back.  They just have to pay a bunch of money and hire a lawyer and shit.  Hardly any inconvenience at all, right?

Well, this has been going on for some time and cities have become quite addicted to that cash flow.  What makes this particular article interesting, of course, is that a couple of sate lawmakers want to change things:

Fortunately, two Michigan lawmakers recognize the real abuses of civil seizures. State Rep. Gabe Leland, D-Detroit, has introduced a bill that would require police to charge an individual with a crime when property is seized, or return the property without cost.

I guess it remains to be seen whether the new law, assuming it passes, results in fewer seizures or more charges being filed.

And, yes.  I did see the first line of the article which says: “Fighting prostitution and drug trafficking in our communities is a vital enterprise”. The author is clearly confused, because neither one of those is a vital enterprise.  They are both essentially a jobs program for law enforcement.