Here we go again. As with Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, conservative pundits are now exploiting the cannabis stigma to tarnish the reputation of Freddie Gray, the young African American man whose death at the hands of the Baltimore police last month led to an uprising in the city, a new national wave of #BlackLivesMatter protests, and finally charges against six officers. Daily Caller gloats in a headline: "Freddie Gray Had A Long Rap Sheet"... But take a look at the provided list of charges: "Possession of a Controlled Dangerous Substance... Possession of narcotics with intent to distribute... Possession of marijuana... Distribution of narcotics, unlawful possession of a controlled dangerous substance..." Yeah, burglary and assault are on the list as well. But Snopes, examining the veracity of the claim, quotes the Associated Press: "Court records indicate that Gray's arrests were mostly for drug possession/distribution charges and various minor crimes, many of which were not prosecuted."
And—much more to the point—why is any of this relevant? Do prior arrests and charges give cops the right to be judge, jury and executioner? Further: illegal drugs have filled the economic vacuum of post-industrial urban America, leading to the systematic criminalization of Black youth.
Columnist Dan Rodricks provides a little corrective perspective in the Baltimore Sun, finding: "Freddie Gray a victim of America's longest war." Guess which war that is? "Overall, the record on Freddie Gray reveals a young man who had frequent encounters with police as they carried out local operations in America's longest war: the war on drugs," Rodricks writes. "The assault is the only thing on the record that suggests violence, and it was a charge, not a conviction. Though police say Gray had a switchblade-like knife on him when they arrested him April 12, he had never been accused of possessing a weapon. So, generally speaking, Gray was a low-level, nonviolent offender." The drug war "goes on, day after day, constantly creating needless encounters between police and people like Freddie Gray."
And this was written before Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn J. Mosby, in bringing charges against the six cops, found that Gray's arrest on April 12 was itself illegal, as the knife he was carrying "was not a switchblade and is lawful under Maryland law." (NYT, May 2)
In the pattern of deadly police violence, sometimes it is the cases that are not making big headlines and drawing national protests that are the most egregious. The Washington Post on April 28 noted the maddening case of Natasha McKenna, a Black woman in Alexandria, Va., who "died after she was restrained with handcuffs and leg shackles and shocked four times" with a stun-gun by Fairfax County deputies. "After the shocks were administered Feb. 3, she stopped breathing, was taken to a hospital and died several days later." In April, the Virginia medical examiner's office ruled the death an "accident." Stigmatizing the victim, the examiner's report noted as "contributing" factors her supposed "Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar Disorder." The cause of death was named as "excited delirium"—a term which was not defined.
McKenna had been arrested for assualting an officer, and was restrained when "she began resisting after being handcuffed and tethered to her cell door," according to the WaPo. It is not clearly explained why she was tethered to the door, or whether or why she continued to be shocked even after being further restrained: "During the confrontation, a deputy shocked her multiple times. Within minutes, McKenna stopped breathing."
So in the contemporary United States, a distraught woman can be tortured to death while in irons—and the killers exonerated as having done it by "accident," while the victim is stigmatized as "schizophrenic."
Hardly a coincidence that cannabis has been (dubiously) linked to "schizophrenia" in media-hyped studies. A propaganda system is at work here to legitimize state violence against the oppressed and excluded.
Graphic: Checkin Trapps
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Cannabis stigma exploited against Sandra Bland —of course
As predictable as clockwork. From Reuters, July 22:
So, once again, an African American victim of murderous policing is implicitly blamed for her own death because she (perhaps) consumed some flower tops. Matt Taibbi calls this bullshit out in Rolling Stone, accurately predicting:
Taibbi cuts through this obey-the-cops-or-die line that is being terrifyingly mainstreamed:
It's just a shame that Taibbi uses the word "corruption," as the problem here is far worse than that: murderous racist terror. The only possible "corruption" is in the cover-up. Bland wasn't killed for any reason having to do with illict monetary gain. Using the word "corruption" belittles the entire history (going back to the dawn of the republic, and earlier) of lynching as a political tool to terrorize Blacks into submission.
Ian Millhiser on ThinkProgress points out a particular irony of use of the "marijuana smear" here. If, as is claimed, Bland used cannabis shortly before her death, this is no an indictment of her—but of the jail authorities.
We can't say it enough. The cannabis stigma is political. It is a part of the matrix of oppression in the United States. This isn't just about your right to get high (although we do support that right). It is a question of life and death.
Cannabis stigma exploited against Samuel DuBose —of course
And here we go again. African American father of 11 Samuel DuBose was killed by a white University of Cincinnati police officer at a traffic stop. Video released under public pressure shows that he was shot in the head— seemingly arbitrarily—as he shouted "Stop! Stop!" The officer, atypically, has been charged with murder, and DuBose's mother has filed a "wrongful death claim." (The Stranger, Cincinnati Enquirer) How does Breitbart respond? By trumpeting claims (from anonymous sources, of course) that DuBose "had two pounds of marijuana in his car, along with thousands in cash." Note the disgusting sleight-of-hand here:
First, observe that these unverified claims are called "facts." Second, the cop in the stop would have had no way of knowing that DuBose had pot in his car, so even if the claims are true that was certainly not the reason he was pulled over. So, even if the claims are true, the "narrative" remains unchanged. And finally, and most importantly: So the fuck what? Even if DuBose had cannabis in the car, does that allow the cop to be judge, jury and executioner all in one? This is, yet again, just an attempt to use the irrational prejudice against cannabis and those who use it to damage the reputation of a victim of racist police murder.
Cannabis bust leaves unarmed (white) teen dead
This is a particularly painful one to watch. Zachary Hammond, 19, was on a first date July 26 when he was fatally shot by a police officer in his car during a pot bust in a Hardee's parking lot in Seneca, SC. His date was selling a 10-gram bag of weed to an undercover cop. What happened next is disputed, with the police department saying Hammond drove his car at the arresting officer, prompting him to shoot. Hammond's family denies this. An autopsy report to confirm which way the two bullets came from is still being waited on. Hammond was white, and race has unfortunately entered the debate. From the Washington Post, Aug. 6:
But Nick Wing on Huffington Post makes a different observation:
He goes on to note that it has mostly been Black activists on Twitter who have been raising the alarm about Hammond's death.
This touches on the controversy over the dueling hastags #BlackLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter—the latter seen as a response to the former that seeks to divert attention from racism. #AllLivesMatter is too often used to obfuscate the reality that police violence victims are disproportionately Black. Could it be used differently—to build solidarity across race lines to oppose police violence and criminalization of youth under the "war on drugs"?
Honest question.
Forcible vagina search after cops (allegedly) smell weed
From Jezebel, Aug. 10:
After that, it gets worse...