MarijuanaNews.com : Lies Have Consequences: Police Targeted Anti-Prohibitionist Reporter Because They Believed Lies Told By Their Superiors

Posted February 8, 2005
Analysis by Richard Cowan Sponsored by

Advanced Nutrients

MarijuanaNews usually focuses on the impact of the huge
prohibitionist propaganda industry on the victims of cannabis prohibition.
See

Barbarism In New Zealand: Lies Have Consequences. Severely Handicapped Man Faces
Prison for Growing Seven Plants!
and

Lies Have Consequences. From Prohibitionist Venom to the Harsh Realities of Life
and Death for Patients. Swedish Prohibitionists, Canadian Bureaucracy and
DEAland Medical Murder.

The prohibitionist industry produces a torrent of “anti-drug” – mostly
anti-cannabis – material that is ostensibly aimed at children and is called
“drug education.”
See

The Need For Drug Prohibition Education.

How Can Parents Tell Their Children The Truth In A Sea Of Lies About Marijuana?

In fact, the prohibitionist ideology is centered around “reefer madness” – that
is, the demonization of cannabis and all those who advocate its legalization,
even – especially? – its medical use.
See

Learning About Prohibitionism: House Debate on Medical Marijuana Bill Offers New
Insight Into Police State Ideology.
and

The Seemingly Inexhaustible Torrent Of Prohibitionist Propaganda Reminds Me Of
The Greek Myth About Hercules And The Stables Of King Augeas.

In reality, it is aimed at politicians and newspaper
editors and others who suffer from learning disabilities caused by the illusions
of power.
See

Negligent Journalism: Reader Beware or A Right to Expect More? The Drug Czar
Says He Is “Subject to the Scrutiny of the Press.” The Significance of the
Ultimate Lies. Analysis by Richard Cowan

Sometimes it appears to be aimed at the general public,
especially when there is an initiative to allow the medical use of cannabis or
to lesson penalties for possession. Even then, it is not clear that the real
target is the public, because the prohibitionist establishment has made clear
its indifference to election results.
See

We Live In Interesting Times. The Elections and the Cannabis Reform Movement.
The Problems With Making Democracy Work Against Prohibitionist Propaganda.

However, we should not overlook the impact of this
propaganda on the rank and file narks, and law enforcement in general, which
extends all the way to the top of the political system, especially in the Bush
Administration, but also in Canada and other countries.
See

It’s The Stupidity, Stupid. How the Prohibitionist Ideology Has Wrecked The
Republican Party and Undermined Democracy Everywhere. When Ideology Trumps
Reality, The Result is Stupidity.

The police subculture – sometimes called the
“thin blue line” – is notoriously insular.
See

The Thin Blue Party Line Against Medical Marijuana;

Law Enforcement Lies From Alaska And Oregon – 2 Op-eds

One aspect of the police
subculture is the common belief that they are in a better position to know “the
real facts” about whatever the politicians dump on them. For example, more than
once I have heard narks say that the Dutch police are “really” opposed to the
Dutch coffee shop system, if one talks to them in private. Ostensibly, that is
something that only a visiting nark would be in a position to do.
See

Canadian Police Association Demonstrates The Role of Ideology in the Maintenance
of Marijuana Prohibition. Sweden Ideal While the Dutch Are the Worst. Analysis
by Richard Cowan.

Consequently, in 1993, on my
first trip to Amsterdam when I was national director of NORML I made a point of
meeting with the head of the city’s “vice” squad. He made very clear that
alcohol was the real problem for the police. Generally, the Dutch police are
strong supporters of cannabis legalization, which is why the system is safe, at
least for the times being.
See

Dutch Lessons: Tolerance Works. Prohibition Is Counterproductive. Who Is The
Real Threat To Our Freedom and Security?

Actually, there are plenty of cops who are opposed to
cannabis prohibition, and increasingly to the drug war itself, even in DEAland.
See

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

However, in the insular and conformist world in which
the police are locked, drug war dissenters generally find it advisable to keep
their doubts to themselves. In Edmonton, Alberta, this process has been taken to
its “logical” conclusion. Seven senior officers took it upon themselves to
target a reporter for the Edmonton Sun, who was described as a “critic” of the
police. In fact, reporter Kerry Diotte was critical of cannabis prohibition.
See

Head of 1971 Canadian Commission Recommending Decriminalization of Marijuana
“Stands By Report”
and

Column: Pot Laws Badly Need Debate
and

Column: Pot Possession Charges Stupid

Diotte and Edmonton
police commission chairman Martin Ignasiak were
attending a Canadian Association of Journalists meeting at an Edmonton bar, and
the seven cops had planned on catching them in a DUI roadblock when they left.
There were even two cops in the bar watching them.

The other cops made the really dumb - and arrogant - mistake of talking
about the trap on the police radio. The transcripts of the radio transmission
showed their complete contempt for the rights of their targets. (They had even
put Diotte’s home under surveillance.) However, their plans went awry when both
targets (actually called “T1” and “T2” by the cops) took taxis home. The best
laid traps of narks and men…

Yesterday, the Edmonton
Police Chief Fred Rayner, took “sick leave.”
As one politician quipped, “Is it his doctor’s advice or his lawyer’s
advice?”

It’s not the crime, but the cover up….

It seems that last week the Chief issued a report that
cleared the seven cops of improper action, but then someone leaked the
transcripts of their police radio conversations that proved that the Chief was
lying.

Of course, everyone is professing to being “shocked.”

Perhaps even more “shocking” was the statements by Leroy
Chahley, who was Edmonton police chief from 1987 to 1990.

“It’s not so serious that
heads should roll,” Chahley said.

Seven cops conspire to violate the rights of a
journalist and the head of the police commission, but he doesn’t think they
should be fired?! I wonder what he would say if they had been caught smoking
cannabis.

Indeed, his statement illustrates the depth of the
problem in the police subculture.

“If the police are going to do a sting, someone else
should be caught besides the police… But personally, I’m very, very, very
disappointed at the things that were said over the police radio that were
incredibly inappropriate.”

Inappropriate? Actually, I think that, given the history
of the Edmonton police, their behavior was entirely “appropriate.” It is also
“appropriate” that they targeted an anti-prohibitionist writer for a very
prohibitionist tabloid.
See

Edmonton Superweed Reefer Madness Embarrasses Justice Minister;

Local Paper Opposes Even Medical Marijuana
and links

I am sure that the editors of the Edmonton Sun will do
their duty to the Fatherland and regret that they have only one writer to
sacrifice for the war on cannabis. They have given uncritical support to exactly
the kind of prohibitionist propaganda that leads to the police feeling justified
in viewing their “critics” as enemies of the people.

A similar process can be seen at work in British
Columbia, where many newspapers give

Rich Coleman, the province’s Solicitor General a platform for the most
obvious lies.

Coleman is in charge of all law enforcement in the
province, even though his only qualification is that he was once an RCMP
officer. He is not even an attorney and has no academic degree. Nonetheless, he
is uncritically quoted again and again, especially in the small town papers, as
he calls for “American-style penalties” for BC growers.
See

Canadian Justice Minister Calls for National Debate On Cannabis Policies And
Begins It By Debating Himself. Phony Decrim Bill May Be Used As Cover To
Increase Penalties for Growing.
and

The Agenda for the Prohibitionist Counterattack in Canada. Analysis by Richard
Cowan

February 3rd the

Kelowna Daily Courier actually quoted Coleman as saying,
“The grow-op business . . .
trades kilo for kilo for cocaine in the U.S. It comes back into here as
cocaine. It funds the meth labs that we’re dealing with; it funds the gun
trade…
From 1998 see

Now USA Today Is Parroting The DEA Line That Canadian Marijuana
Is Swapped “Pound For Pound For Cocaine”

We know of guns that have
been paid for by B.C. marijuana that have been used to shoot at our troops
overseas in peacekeeping missions. It’s that simple.”
See

Would BC Have Less Bud if It Had More Prisoners? Lying to Canadians To Support
the Cannabis Prohibition.
and links

That last statement is so bizarre that it
defies comprehension, but as with his other lies, it went unquestioned. In this
context is it really so “shocking” that the police on the front lines would feel
justified in targeting someone who actually criticizes cannabis prohibition?

Kerry Diotte said on television yesterday
that if something like this can happen to him, the average citizen would have no
chance if targeted by vindictive police.

Canadians need to realize that
their personal freedom and even the sovereignty of Canada is being undermined by
the US supported and directed prohibitionist propaganda campaign. I have been
trying to document this process for several years.

Wake up Canada!
See

Documenting The Role of Politicized Canadian Police In Maintaining Cannabis
Prohibition. Canadian Narks Versus Canadian Freedom. Following the DEA Party
Line. The Battle for Canada
and

Canadian Justice Minister Cites UK Move In Trial Balloon on “Decriminalization.”
Police Want to Keep “Hammer.” Reporting from Haarlem in The Netherlands.

and

Canadians Need to Examine The Role of the Police In Maintaining Marijuana
Prohibition. Paying For Lies That Distort Public Policies and Undermine
Sovereignty. Analysis by Richard Cowan
and

The Royal Canadian Marijuana Police and DARE: Selling a Big-Time Fraud in Small
Town Canada.
and

Police Interference in the Canadian Electoral Process. The Royal Canadian
Marijuana Police Disinformation Campaign for Marijuana Prohibition. Analysis by
Richard Cowan.
and

Toronto Police Chief Supports Decrim — At the Option of The Narks – And
“Education Or Treatment Programs” For Marijuana Users. The Therapeutic Police
State. — 2 Articles
and

As Canadian Senate Gets Ready To Study Prohibition, Canadian Police Push
Prohibitionist Propaganda At Taxpayer Expense. 4 Items
and

Canadian Police Lie to The Canadian Media Who Lie To Their Readers
To Justify More Power Over the Canadian People To Please DEAland Narks
An Utterly Wretched Piece Of Pseudo-journalism
and

Toronto Police Union Opposes Decriminalization Of Simple Possession Of
Marijuana.
Cites “Gateway”