What a horrible death. We need reform...now. Democrats should keep presenting bills to remove the schedule 1 until it's done. It's 30 years overdue and so many lives have been ruined.
Bulldoze a pharmaceutical rep.

More and more states are approving medical Pot. Some states have legalized it or decriminalized it. Some states approved medical Pot first, saw that there were benefits, then voters decriminalized it and saw that there were benefits and there was not wild drug use as opponents claimed, then voters in those states outright legalized Pot and are seeing more benefits. Opponents of legal Pot are having a hard time of it lately, Pot has positively impacted everything from people's medical health to reducing the number of opioid addiction deaths in states where it was legalized or decriminalized.

Good laws we have there

another death caused by use of the demon weed. Hundreds of thousands of US citizens die every day from its use. This might have been prevented, I'd note, had Trump been able to build the wall. It is only safe to abuse the drugs that your doctor prescribes.

the police say that they believe the victim was having a bad pot trip -- not uncommon -- and thought he was Art Linkletter's daughter?

"Laughing gas is no laughing matter."

It sounds like the cops were riding the bulldozer to get a higher vantage point over the grass and brush (or were too lazy to walk), the suspect decided to hide despite the roaring noise of the dozer approaching, and the cops failed to see him before he was crushed. The cops them tried to minimize their role and sounded more guilty in the process.

Both parties were at fault here. That said, if we had sane drug laws, these guys shouldn't have been pursued like they were in the first place.

That’s what they said. It’s also the reason why it was extremely reckless to drive into it.

The inevitable outcome will be cop will get fired, if not criminally prosecuted and the state police will be liable for a large settlement.

I’m all for legalization, but the deceased man attempted to evade arrest. That was stupid.

Last edited Sat Jul 14, 2018, 03:25 PM - Edit history (1)

I’ve been around this forum since the beginning, albeit with another userID I no longer use. I had hoped for another amnesty period when userIDs could be changed, but there only had been one and it was probably 10 years ago.

Even had I only posted here 6 times, my opinion would be no less worthy.

Your response really was unnecessary and a waste of bandwidth. Stop being an ass!

If it really was a chase. Unless the fleeing perp was in a wheelchair, it’s not likely that the bulldozer could have ever caught him. Unless the perp did something really stupid, like try to hide in the path of the bulldozer and electing not to move out of the way when he was about to get run over?

If your going to pronounce something to be criminal, maybe back it up. Show me the relevant sections of PA Crimes Code and explain how it was a crime.

while consistently moving your own goalposts.

Just because the police are chasing a suspect, doesn’t give them freedom from accountability for their methods. If the guys were growing tomatoes on public land they wouldn’t have gotten a 2nd look. Even if you are convinced of the legitimaticy of anti-cannabis laws, the pursuit was way out of proportion to the crime. It costs several thousand dollars per hour to operate a helicopter, and it’s grossly irresponsible to use a bulldozer to chase a suspect through dense underbrush.

all they had to do was run the plates of the car and/or ask the guy they caught who his partner was.

Overzealous, stupid policing killed the guy.

and they ran him over anyway?

its pretty damn hard to surrender when pursued by a bulldozer.

when you are being pursued by such a terrifying loud machine your only instinct is to run and hide.

there is absolutely no justification for using a bulldozer to pursue an unarmed misdemeanor suspect. it is absurd overkill. it is hard to imagine the intent and use of such a machine on someone being anything other than to kill.

It's false attribution.

Might as well say, "Killed because he ate breakfast" or "killed because he took a leak earlier that day." Both preceded the act, but none of them are the direct cause of the act.

Thinks it ok to get all Rambo in a forest with a bulldozer?
Want his head on a stick... perhaps not literally...

I've always had this opinion and always will. The arrogance of those who think they can both ban a plant AND take away freedom over our own consciousness sickens me to the core.

needed to be kept safe for hunters.

Through the injection of billions of dollars into conservation programs.

Hunting is fine with me. I just had a conversation with a neighbor two days ago, about the current overpopulation of deer in our area. That's tied to a reduction in the numbers of responsible hunters, and results in deer suffering during the winter months.

My point was that hunters should not be exposed to the toxic fumes of spots where criminals have grown pot. It's a well-documented fact that thousands of people die daily from second-hand toxic pot fumes. Likewise, millions are psychiatrically hospitalized from third-hand pot fumes. And it is a fact that teenaged deer that eat pot hang out in gangs at the sides of our highways, playing chicken with innocent automobiles. This puts drunk drivers at risk.

We would all be safer if two things happened: if Congress would fund Trump's wall around school playgrounds, and citizens would only abuse the opioids that their doctors prescribe.

I just wish we could take away the motivation for them by LEGALIZING cannabis. This is an issue that is incredibly easy to fix. Nobody would hike out onto private property to grow cannabis if they could do it in their own back yard.

My neighbor where I grew up cleared about an acre of a corporation's land and planted it with corn. Corporation didn't notice, and this went on for years.

He found it cheaper to grow than to buy. And since he didn't own enough land, he found it cheaper to clear and grow on somebody else's land.

Which is cheaper, corn or weed, even in states where it's legalized?

They aren't exactly speed demons. I'm all for legalizing weed and ending the failed drug war but this is clearly a case of a person being killed by his own stupidity.

Or something like that

but you pretend to know! That's fucked up.

Pretty certain that its literally impossible to be run over by one without doing something incredibly stupid. If someone was trying to run you down with one it would look an awful lot like that scene from Austin Powers with the roller.

I'm also unsure how my interpretation of what happened without being there is "fucked up" but those taking the opposite position are apparently fine. At least mine is based on reasoning and first-hand experience.

Some brush is so thick you can’t traverse it at anything but a snails pace, yet a bulldozer can cut right through it almost effortlessly. That’s why they were using the bulldozer to cut trails to begin with and also why they were persuing him with one. The incredibly stupid part was chasing him that way. Anyone north of a room temperature IQ should have known it was going to end badly.

He could have:
1) Turned
2) Stood up and announced where he was instead of hiding so they could see him

If so, the answer is a lot. I grew up in the west and spent a good deal of my childhood out in the wilderness hiking, hunting, etc.

But I must admit, I dont recall ever really finding myself in brush that can only be walked through at a "snail's pace." I've been in brush that sucks to walk through where you have to constantly fight your way through and come out the other side scratched from head to foot. Still convinced it wouldn't be hard to avoid being run over by doing either of the two things I mentioned above.

how did the guy make his way out into the middle of it? Maybe an exaggeration?

What's the penalty for 10 plants, 1st offense? Probation?

Inevitably people do stupid things and I am certainly no exception. Not many of us are. The cop wasn’t.

He turned what ought to have been a few weeks at most in the county jail into a full year. The judge said at his sentencing that she was going to make an example out of him.

Your comment:

"How much time have you spent on hunting lands?

Some brush is so thick you can’t traverse it at anything but a snails pace"

If the brush is so thick one can only walk at a snail's pace, it isn't a good idea to be carrying a gun. That's just common sense.

... and nobody would be getting run down by bulldozers.

I live in California, and the only thing keeping the black market alive here is high taxes and confusing regulations.

Both these problems are being addressed, and there will be a sweet spot where the black market is minimized, tax revenue is maximized, and regulations ensure a safe, high quality product.

Meanwhile many people here are growing cannabis at home and the state hasn't collapsed into lawless anarchy.

The Pennsylvania State Police ought to be ashamed of themselves. This is the 21st century and it's been thoroughly demonstrated that vigorous enforcement of anti-cannabis laws causes more harm than good.

In this case they killed a man who, had he been living in state where cannabis is legal, might have been growing cannabis at home or found work with a legitimate cannabis grower.

Would the police have pursued with such vigor someone who was illegally growing tomatoes in the forest?

Running from the law over just 10 plants is the first sign that this might not end well for the now deceased.

unless they were black