New category

[Petrovich]

I have a suggestion for a new category.

I live in Zanesville, but I have close ties to Columbus. I read both papers daily.

Since the members of this forum are from all over our great state I would like a category devoted to news from our respective corners of the state.

In particular, I read about shootings almost daily that occur in Columbus....I'm serious....it is a REGULAR occurence.....double shootings are even common.

To get a sense of the level of violent crime that is happening in our state I would like to see a category devoted to violent crime in this forum.

My guess is that we will be, literally, appalled when we see how much violent crime is happening and we may consider moving to New York city.

Can you fix us up admin??

http://www.wbns10tv.com/Global/story.as ... v=LUERdtcI

[jgarvas]

I have a suggestion for a new category.

I live in Zanesville, but I have close ties to Columbus. I read both papers daily.

Since the members of this forum are from all over our great state I would like a category devoted to news from our respective corners of the state.

We've actually been talking about this the past few days. One idea we also came up with is to add a link to the forums so that anyone who sees something that might be a potential story for the website can submit it directly from the forums.

That *IS* coming. The news stories forum is a good idea too.

[NavyChief]

I'm sure all those news stories point out whether or not the shooters are CHL holders, right? What? No? You mean they're not using their public records access to ascertain how many CHL holders are shooting their neighbors willy-nilly? I'm shocked. (Obviously the only viable solution is to quickly enact more stringent gun control. I'm sorry. I meant "common-sense" gun control.)

[TunnelRat]

I'm sure all those news stories point out whether or not the shooters are CHL holders, right

C'mon, Chief! You know that the CHL issue will never come into play unless the shooter has one! The Old Media wants the reading public to believe that criminals who illegally carry and use firearms are just like us. But woe to the poor CHL holder who finally has to use his weapon to save a life...

[rickt]

Newspapers only report a fraction of what is happening. I hear many things on my police scanner that never even make it into the newspapers or TV news.

The Plain Dealer tries to keep to a minimum the amount of crime reporting it does, for a variety of reasons. You would never see anything like this Channel 19 video in the PD:

http://www.woio.com/Global/SearchResult ... se&x=9&y=9

[NavyChief]

C'mon, Chief! You know that the CHL issue will never come into play unless the shooter has one!
...
But woe to the poor CHL holder who finally has to use his weapon to save a life...

Yeah, I know. And even then the only way it gets any play whatsoever is if he screwed up somehow. Then stand by.

[Petrovich]

There is hardly a day goes by without a shooting in columbus.

So far, only one involved a CHL holder and he was a security guard.

The shootings are virtually all drug related.

[NavyChief]

The shootings are virtually all drug related.

No!!! I'm shocked!! Shocked, I say!

[TunnelRat]

The shootings are virtually all drug related.

Actually, most of the shootings only involve illegal drugs. Drugs such as aspirin and Tylenol, which are available cheap over the counter, are rarely involved in shootings, nor are most prescription drugs.

A simple way to seriously limit drug related shootings would be to legalize drugs and tax their use. This would simultaneously cut the knees out from under the gangs and drug cartels, and would put money in our cities' coffers.

It would also put nearly an end to all the improper searches and seizures that we read about, and reduce our prison population by half. It would also obviate the need for uniformed police to wear masks. I could go own and own.

Just a suggestion...

[NavyChief]

Tom -
A kindred spirit... (Of course, the "War on Terror" is rapidly replacing the "War on Drugs" as the number one agent of erosion of our civil rights - but it'd still be a start.)

[Petrovich]

The shootings are virtually all drug related.

No!!! I'm shocked!! Shocked, I say!

I pointed out the obvious to illustrate my point. I didn't mean to insult anyone's intelligence.

If one gangbanger shoots another gangbanger I'd say it probably the one useful thing he/she has done for society.

A simple way to seriously limit drug related shootings would be to legalize drugs and tax their use. This would simultaneously cut the knees out from under the gangs and drug cartels, and would put money in our cities' coffers.

That is the most ridiculous notion I've heard in a long time.

[TunnelRat]

A simple way to seriously limit drug related shootings would be to legalize drugs and tax their use. This would simultaneously cut the knees out from under the gangs and drug cartels, and would put money in our cities' coffers.

That is the most ridiculous notion I've heard in a long time.

Solely because you haven't thought it out. Understand that most of the criminal problems we struggle with today are due in large part to the proscription of certain drugs. It is not drug abuse itself that causes crime, but that the abused drugs are illegal, hence both expensive and available only illegally.

Are drugs a good thing (I am referring to the commonly abused ones)? I think not. Have our laws against them ameliorated the situation? Again, I think not.

At the beginning of the twentieth century heroin was available over the counter as easily and as cheaply as aspirin. The murder rate was strikingly low, and oddly enough, so was the reported rate of drug abuse. Were there addicts? Sure [in the movie Tombstone Wyatt Earp's wife is show addicting herself to heroin, sold in those days as laudanum] . Were there some societal problem arising as a result? I don't know. Frankly, it is not something we hear a lot about.

Consider Prohibition: that was an experiment at proscribing a drug -- alcohol. What was the result? A decade or so of increasing crime, and increasing criminal profits. The main thing produced by Prohibition was organized crime, todays Mob and Mafia. Do you think it was a ridiculous notion to legalize alcohol?

All the billions spent on our so-called "War on Drugs" have not resulted in less drug abuse, but in more. It has also financed the drug cartels in Mexico, Columbia, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, China, and Europe -- not to mention how much of the drug money goes to finance terrorists.

If drugs were legal, they'd be cheap, clean, and pharmaceutically pure. If drugs were legalized, the criminal gangs, drug cartels, and the terrorists would lose a major source of their funding.

If drugs were legalized, teenage kids would have a much harder time buying them on the street because the sale of drugs could be regulated (ask a teenager which is easier to get marijuana or beer? That's because marijuana is illegal, so it is sold by crminals on the street. Beer is legal, so it is sold by shopkeepers in stores.).

If drugs were legalized, the police wouldn't have to wear masks and kick down doors in the middle of the night. They wouldn't have to ask to search your car at a traffic stop. They wouldn't need to finance their operations by confiscating property.

If drugs were legal, the justice department wouldn't have to squander its resources arresting doctors who prescribe pain pills for patients in chronic agonize pain. If drugs were legal, the FBI wouldn't have to hunt down and arrest cancer patients who use marijuana to reduce the side effects of their chemotherapy.

If drugs were legal, our law enforcement officers could focus on reducing violent crime. I could go own and own and own.

[TunnelRat]

Wait, there's more:

I got this from the Flex Your Rights page.

In 2000, police made 1,579,566 total arrests for drug abuse violations. 81%—or 1,279,448—of these total drug arrests were for possession. 46.5%—or 734,497 of all drug arrests—were for marijuana offenses. And of the total marijuana arrests, 646,042 (88%) were for possession alone.
Sources: Federal Bureau of Investigation, Uniform Crime Reports for the United States 2000 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), pp. 215-216, Tables 29 and 4.1.

The United States is the world leader in rate of incarceration. As of June 30, 2001 there were 1,965,495 inmates held in federal and state prisons and local jails, with an incarceration rate of 690 persons per 100,000. This places the U.S. ahead of second-place Russia (676 per 100,000) as the world leader in incarceration, both by rate and in absolute terms. Most nations in western Europe incarcerate their citizens at a rate ranging from 60-130 per 100,000.
Sources: The Sentencing Project analysis of the US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics study, Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2001.

Prisoners sentenced for drug offenses constitute the largest group of Federal inmates (61%) in 1999, up from 53% in 1990. On September 30, 1999, Federal prisons held 63,360 sentenced drug offenders, compared to 30,470 at yearend 1990.
Source: Beck, Allen J., PhD, US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1999 (Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, August 2000), p. 12 and Table 21.

Over 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was due to drug convictions.
Source:US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Prisoners in 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, 1997).

In 1997, there were 55,069 drug offenders in federal prisons (out of a total Federal prison population of 88,018 that year). Of these, 10,094 were in for possession, 40,053 were in for trafficking, and 4,922 were in for other drug crimes.
Source:Mumola, Christopher J., "Substance Abuse and Treatment, State and Federal Prisoners, 1997" (Washington, DC: US Dept. of Justice, January 1999), p. 3, Table 1.

Nonviolent offenders accounted for eighty-four percent (84%) of the increase in state and federal prison admissions since 1980.
Source:Ambrosio, T. & Schiraldi, V., Executive Summary-February 1997 (Washington DC: The Justice Policy Institute, 1997).

[BEAR!]

P4G;
Prohibition of alcohol made millions for gangsters and a few politicians. It also caused the crime rate to skyrocket. Its the same for the"war on drugs". Illegal drugs have been illegal since the 30's and yet can be bought on any street in any city,there is no end. Don't worry however, drug use will never be legal, there are too many people making money on them including, law enforcement, drug treatment centers, politicians and dealers themselves. You can buy pretty much ANY drug you want IN PRISON!! Now who do you think is winning this "war"?

[Petrovich]

Okay....I think I follow.

Let's legalize murder. Heck, if murder was legal we wouldn't have to expend all those resources catching murderers, big long EXPENSIVE trials, big long EXPENSIVE prison sentences....not to mention all those resource taxing appeals....whew!!

We'd also put contract killers right out of business. Heck, if murder was legal you could just whack somebody, pay the government fee and everybody makes out....you get rid of the person that's bugging you, and the government gets its revenue.

All facetiousness aside, I think you guys are missing the main point. Drugs destroy lives.

As for the alcohol question.....yeah, it's legal alright. Now sit back and think about all the damage that's done to our society as the result of alcoholism.....and don't ask me what the solution is because I don't know.