Photo suppiled by NZ Police Propaganda Office
Another facet to the Crown's case against Switched On Gardener is the important matter of censorship. The particular photo above is very telling. The NZ Police consider gun magazines OK but bud porn and human rights magazines not. There's a bad whiff of Internal Affairs and Customs about all of this.
I gather much of the case will rest on their undercover spies, who established a relationship with the owner operators of the various stores. Switched on Gardener, unlike their backstabbing two-faced entrappers, has never pretended to be anything other than what it is. It has operated for nigh on a decade in much the same fashion.
It might be argued that the illusion of tolerance for all those years allowed the peaceful homegrow market to grow up. This massive raid was nothing more than a cynical harvesting of some obvious hippies. Good for the PR, MSM, stats and other Key Performance Indicators. This was the raid on Hamsterdam-lite, shooting at fish in a barrel.
As Bomber pointed out on yesterday's Panel on NatRad, the civil forfeiture regime was sold on getting tough on gangs. I don't know if the police can maintain the lie that Switched On Gardener were gang members. Not unless they want to claim nursery centres, Mr Green and Hire A Hubby are gangs too.
Another thing that bugs me is hearing about how the Judas conversations about growing tips are being used as evidence against SOG. They're clamping down on not only arty magazines, but talking science as well? I thought the Bill of Rights Act had some pretty concise protections on the freedoms of expression. Conversation is not illegal yet.
The chatter about police narcs being sold clones is also an interesting thing. The Law Commission has some very interesting things to say about social dealing. From page 194 of Controlling and Regulating Drugs:
10.21 Although scale should generally be treated simply as a sentencing matter, there is a class of supply that we consider should be carved out for separate treatment. This class of supply is “social supply”, where supply is of a very low level, among friends or acquaintances, without profit or with a very small profit, and with no significant element of commerciality.
You can't get high off a clone. Not in the immediate future, anyway. Clearly, if you wanted to nurture the thing to fruition, there's a big difference. If anything, the undercover traitors should be arresting themselves. And how much would you give a friend or acquaintance for a guaranteed girl plant of known parentage anyway? The SPCA charge a tonne for speyed kitties. What do you think a pedigree is worth?
Final thought for the moment; the jury nullification precedent set by the Waihopai hippies. There's a chance that juries will throw the charges out, finding the offences absurd and penalties disproportionate. If I was on the jury, I know I would.
3 comments:
The vast majority of citizens who grow dope at home pursue this harmless gentle pastime because they don't want mix with and buy from criminals.
This latest publicity stunt by the police will serve only to drive otherwise law abiding citizens into contact with criminals and increase the profits and power of the gangs -- commercial dope suppliers will be laughing all the way to the bank. Clamping down on cannabis also has the effect increasing consumption of more dangerous and easily obtainable drugs such as alcohol and P.
Instead of doing 'flashing lights, cop cars and I got myself on TV' stuff the police should be putting their energy in the the hard stuff that is eating at core of society: domestic violence, white collar crime and alcohol abuse (and, yes, by any objective scientific measure, cannabis really is harmless when compared with alcohol and P).
Prohibition exacerbates evil.
It makes good people into sleazy liars in their attempts to avoid persecution...ie Don’t dob yourself in to the Nazis for being a Jew.
One of the most moral things about SOG type indoor operations is that it reduces the amount of Property violations committed by growers trying to avoid detection.
Before Grow lights the majority of kiwi pot was grown in National parks and on other peoples property.
This involved Trespass/ guerrilla gardening which is yet another evil many unbroken revolutionaries were 'forced' to commit.
By buying a set of lights and quietly setting up a cupboard not only means that pot growers were helping the economy, but withdrew from committing the evil of trespass on other peoples wilderness.
This also reduced the amount of hardened Gangsters sleeping with Guns in the bush.
SOG should get a medal for reducing real crimes!
Tim Wikiriwhi
Libertarian Independent.
Hamilton West
I'm in agreement with on the shocking nature of what the new Zealnd police have done to a garden shop (also think prohibition dosn't work, causes more harm than good and is a violation of basic human rights).
I've also noticed the increasing use of police propaganda becouse I'm a gun owner and police have been using the same tactics on innocent (i.e have followed the letter of the law) gun owners.
I take exception to your comment "The NZ Police consider gun magazines...". Don't put people into boxes and demonize people who may very well be on your side. Gun owners have just won a high court case against the police over an attempt to make up laws without parliment.
NZ gun owners in my experiance tend to be far more aware and concerned about civil liberties than the average NZer.
Post a Comment