"If someone breaks the law in Richland County, we have an obligation as law enforcement to investigate and to bring charges." So states Sheriff Leon Lott, top cop in this South Carolina jurisdiction of 348,000 residents.
As one cop to another: No you don't, Sheriff. You do not have to arrest the "someone" you're referring to: the serial Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps. Not unless the age-old law in your state has changed since last spring.
In an opinion dated April 17, 2008, Attorney General Henry McMaster wrote, "...it is well-recognized that, by definition, police officers must retain a wide degree of discretion in carrying out their duties of enforcing the laws." Citing numerous cases, your AG returns again and again to the key word, may. As in, "...sheriffs and deputy sheriffs of this State may arrest without warrant any and all persons who, within their view, violate any of the criminal laws of this State..." [Original emphasis retained.] The recipient of Mr. McMaster's letter? Why, the South Carolina Sheriffs' Association, of which you are a member.
I'd be willing to bet your pension, Sheriff, that every police officer in the country knows you have no legal mandate to arrest Michael Phelps. Cops understand that without the discretion granted them in law they'd be paralyzed, unable to do their jobs. Unable to make intelligent decisions about who gets a ticket and who doesn't, who goes to jail and who gets a pass.
Equally important, given the authority, how would you go about making the case? Did you or one of your deputies actually witness the offense (apart from a chance viewing of the ubiquitous photo)? Under South Carolina law, simple possession of marijuana is a misdemeanor. Absent witnesses and/or physical evidence, law enforcement officers must personally witness the misdemeanor (see "within their view," above) in order to make an arrest. Would you round up witnesses who were present during the "crime"? Take statements? Seek out and impound the bong for forensic testing? Would you honestly go to such lengths in order to bust this young man?
In other words, Sheriff Lott, you simply do not have to go after Mr. Phelps. Nor should you.
The drug war mentality is clearly behind all the fuss surrounding the Olympic swimmer and his bong hit. You and I both know there are far more important cases law enforcement should be pursuing. Burglaries, rapes, robberies, car prowls, auto thefts, domestic violence, child abuse, home invasions, carjackings. Arresting Michael Phelps would only add to the absurdity of the situation, and paint you as a grandstander.
Speaking of which, that's a handsome photo of you and yours posing in front of the department's recent acquisition: an armored personnel carrier with belt-fed .50 caliber machine gun. You call it a "peacemaker." I call it a weapon of war. Experience across the country suggests it will soon be employed on the front lines of the drug war, rumbling down a city street to a suspected drug house where everyone in its path, including innocent citizens, is placed at grave and unnecessary risk.
I can hear you now, Sheriff. I don't make the laws, I just enforce them. And you're right. But you and all the rest of us in the field of criminal justice -- cops, prosecutors, judges, prison officials, probation and parole officers -- are in a unique position to influence our lawmakers, and to help bring a measure of sanity to the laws we're expected to enforce.
I'm an active member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. I invite you, Sheriff, to visit our website and to consider joining us. As you'll see, we make a serious and sober argument, along with millions of other Americans, for ending the drug war.
Until that happy day comes, our law enforcers should take a deep breath, calculate the manifold harms caused by the War on Drugs, and embrace fully the discretion they've been granted.
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I've got a stimulus plan for you Washington boneheads, decriminal
Wackenhut of Houston Tx. has been a major recipient of the largest prison expansion in world history! And Bechtel, and on and on ! These guys have made weed out to be the big culprit. In doing so they have created a situation where those who traffic the innocuous mood enhancer have GUNNED UP and the race to the bottom is again "who can out spend and out gun the other"
The money involved is so much more dangerous than any of the substances
WHAT'S YOUR ADDICTION?
I think that sheriff should KMATIB
http://www
They have plenty of fugitives who have hurt others out on default warants.Th
This grandstand
It is likely Sheriff is an elected position in SC as it is in much of the South.
Now he can sit in his office and pontificat
Serving outstandin
The Sheriff only wants to draw attention to himself but Phelps better not ignore him.
Phelps is stupid live in or ever be in SC now.
It is a beautiful place but there are plenty of other nice places where he can buy friends to stab him in the back.
If he owns a house he should leave town and let the realtors sell it.
He is clearly a marked man now.
If he is too stoned to leave he'll get what they have in store for him sooner or later, no doubt about it.
The rest of the country needs to get on the same page.
Nixon started the money pit DEA and pot is a great add on. Yet LSD was produced in labs and the cocaine trade had not really spun up. There was plenty of Heroin comming from SE asia as a by-product of the war.
"Three martini Bill" Bennet became drug "Czar" under Reagan and instituted the drug testing program to as a final blow to that anti-estab
Alcohol and hard drugs are far more profitable and take only three days to wash out of the system while pot stays as a marker for three weeks or more.
Pot had become a dangerous cultural icon more than a health issue, even if it does tend to crub ambition in youth.
You must be young. Hope that answers your question.
'course, then we might find ourselves trying to keep catnip legal and if it wasn't there would be a LOT of very unhappy cats . . .