Among the many dangers of America’s War on Drugs is that it has unleashed a tsunami of government power, led to a militarization of law enforcement agencies addicted to the funding that comes from waging the government’s war, filled America’s prisons with non-violent drug offenders, and resulted in assaults on the private property of innocent Americans through government abuses of civil forfeiture laws. For example, the federal government recently used civil forfeiture laws to seize all of the money from a Detroit-area grocery store’s bank account and in 2009 seized a small, family-owned hotel in Massachusetts. In both of those cases, the small, family-owned businesses had no connection to drugs or the drug business, but became innocent victims of America’s War on
Drugs the American People, Many of Whom Are Innocent.”
The latest innocent victim of America’s cruel, shameful and longest War is a 30-year old man named Norman Gurley, who was arrested this week for a “secret compartment full of nothing” as Reason described it, or for “not trafficking drugs” as Brian Anderson described. As the news video above explains it, Gurley was stopped for speeding in Ohio, but then state troopers arrested Gurley, confiscated his car, put him in jail, and charged him with a felony crime under the state’s new “hidden compartment” law. No drugs were found in Gurley’s vehicle or in his possession. Here’s how Brian Anderson describes what happened:
Taking a page from the Gestapo handbook, the state of Ohio has recently enacted a law that makes a certain type of modification on cars a felony. The “hidden compartment” law makes it illegal to create any type of secret stash within a vehicle, which could be used to transport controlled substances. It doesn’t matter if there are any illegal drugs present, just having the hidden compartment is grounds for arrest and a class 4 felony. 30-year old Norman Gurley will go down in history as the first person arrested under this Constitutionally abrasive law.
Clearly the state troopers had nothing more than the “illegal” compartment or they would have gleefully offered that evidence. This is a bad law and another reason why we should abandon our failed war on drugs. Our prisons are filled to capacity with people charged with nothing more than possession of drugs. Do we really need to spend more precious tax dollars to house people for possessing nothing?
In a related and tragic case that went to trial last year, see the Wired.com article “Alfred Anaya Put Secret Compartments in Cars. So the DEA Put Him in Prison.” Here’s a summary from a CD post in September:
Alfred Anaya was a genius at installing secret compartments in cars. If they were used to smuggle drugs without his knowledge, he figured that wasn’t his problem. He was wrong. The DEA put him in federal prison for more than 24 years with no possibility of parole. He’ll be 64 years old when he’s released from prison.
Bottom Line (modified from this quote about the “educational octopus“), inspired by Norman Gurley’s felony drug arrest for not trafficking drugs and Alfred Anaya cruel 24-year sentence for customizing cars:
The Drug War Octopus
A government-sponsored War on Drugs will increasingly foster and spread the doctrine of state supremacy as the War is waged on the citizenry. Once that doctrine of state supremacy has been accepted by the people, it becomes an almost superhuman task to break the stranglehold of the government’s War on Drugs over the life of the average, and many times, innocent citizen. The government’s Drug War has the citizen’s body, property, vehicles and mind in its clutches. An octopus would sooner release its prey. A tax-supported Drug War is the complete model of the totalitarian state.