Cops Keep Posting Pics of Pathetic Weed Busts, and They Keep Getting Owned by the Internet

Lakeland, FL — One by one, police departments across the country are learning the hard way just how asinine and tyrannical marijuana prohibition is. Despite the heavy backlash from those who see the drug war for the violent and racist despotism that it is, clueless cops keep bragging about arresting people for a plant that is legal in some form in over half the country. The latest department to get a dose of internet reality is Lakeland police department in Florida.

What stands out about this most recent Facebook pot bust post is the fact that the Lakeland police department couldn't care less about the negative feedback they are receiving from the post. In more than a dozen comments on their post, the department defended kidnapping and caging a person for 116 grams of a plant — around the same weight as a stick of butter.

Sadly, their only defense for the kidnapping and caging of an otherwise entirely morally innocent person for a plant is — it's illegal, and we are just doing our job.

The idea of depriving someone of their freedom for possessing a plant is not only unjust it is immoral. Legality, as the Free Thought Project has pointed out countless times, does not dictate morality. Those who enforce an unjust and immoral law without question are responsible for the most heinous and violent deeds throughout humanity's history.

Sadly, and unfortunately, there was no shortage support for the officers in the comments. While most of the comments on the post called out the department for wasting taxpayer money by arresting people for a harmless and highly beneficial plant, there were the apologists praising the officers for 'keeping them safe.'

Throughout history, people 'just doing their jobs' have wreaked havoc on humanity. Those who attack morally innocent people — without question — because it is 'the law', have slaughtered millions. Remember, slavery was legal, arresting black people for sitting in the front of the bus was legal, locking up Japanese people in internment camps was legal, everything Hitler did....was legal.

Hiding behind legality does nothing to remove one's liability from being on the wrong side of history. It only helps those who carry out these atrocities — as well as those who blindly support them — to sleep at night.

There is no 'service' in kidnapping and caging people for possessing something that we can grow in our backyards. There is no 'service' in wasting taxpayer money on enforcing these immoral laws, and there is no 'service' in depriving people the benefits of this amazing plant.

What's more, this bust was made in spite of Polk County law enforcement getting exposed last year for having a backlog of hundreds of untested rape kits. As rapes go uninvestigated, cops in Polk County seem more interested in locking up people who haven't caused anyone harm.

As TFTP has reported, when cops stop going after people for possessing substances deemed illegal by the state, real crimes are actually solved.

In fact, a recent study out of Boston showed exactly that. The study indicated that the Boston Police Department has drastically increased the number of homicides they solved since they stopped making arrests for marijuana. The homicide clearance rate increase by 10% following the decriminalization of marijuana in the area.

“The BPD homicide unit increased the yearly Boston homicide clearance rate by nearly 10 percent […] and by more than 18 percent when the clearance rate definition was extended to include those cases awaiting grand jury decisions,” the study said.

Civil asset forfeiture pays. Busting low-level drug dealers by the dozen and confiscating their drugs, guns, cars, houses, and money pays. Writing tickets for victimless crime pays. Pulling you over for window tint, seat belts, arbitrary traveling speeds, and expired license plates; these are the things that pay — solving murders does not pay.

However, as the drug war toned down slightly with the decriminalization of marijuana, the department was miraculously able to funnel more resources and dedicate more officers towards solving murders. This is common sense.

In the United States, the murder clearance rate in 1965 was more than 90 percent. Since the inception of the war on drugs, the murder clearance rate has plummetted to an average of less than 65 percent per year.

This decline is in spite of there being far fewer murders. It is also in spite of new technological developments to help police solve crimes, like DNA testing, advanced forensic labs, and unethical spying devices like the stingray.

Despite the near complete erosion of the constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure, the clearance rate for murder continued its free fall. This highlights the fact that no matter how many rights are given up or freedoms diminished — police cannot guarantee your safety — and all of this is due to the war on drugs.

The good news is, as most of the comments show in the Lakeland police department's Facebook post, people are waking up. In fact, As the Free Thought Project reported, a paradigm shift, according to a new Harvard-Harris Poll, is taking place in the country. For the first time, 86 percent of Americans approve of some form of legal cannabis.

Soon enough, the paradigm shift will over take tyranny and those who continue to go against the will of the people will be seen for the tyrants they are. To the Lakeland police department and all other departments across America, we are pleading with you to stop this madness. Please, be on the right side of history and stop enforcing a law you know is immoral. America's freedom depends on it. Liberty is not granted through people enforcing immoral laws — it is taken when good people break bad laws.