Thursday, March 06, 2008

Proper dissent; or, One way to stop the insane "war on drugs"

In Time magazine, the creators of The Wire (which can be viewed as a several-season long [and compellingly entertaining] argument against the insanity of the so-called "war" on drugs) along with some frequent writers, briefly and eloquently urge US citizens to exercise their power to do something sane (no worries, there are no spoilers in the article!):

If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun's manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.

Jury nullification is American dissent, as old and as heralded as the 1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, who was acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, and absent a government capable of repairing injustices, it is legitimate protest ...