aren't you promising - swearing - to uphold the laws of the land?
When you become an elected official, you are in a position to pass laws/rules/ordinances that affect other people, and potentially cost them money, or even jail time. Therefore, as an elected official, you have an obligation to be squeaky clean. You do not have the right to break laws - and if you do, you should be held to the highest standard, given the harshest penalty x3 that is allowed. Because of your position of power and your apparent willingness to use that power over others.
In that spirit - I hope this lady gets the book thrown at her...
◼ Mount Shasta councilwoman arrested in countywide drug bust
MOUNT SHASTA — Six juveniles and seven adults, including a newly appointed Mount Shasta city councilwoman, were arrested Wednesday in the Mount Shasta area after a four-month undercover operation targeting drug activities at two Siskiyou County high schools.
The operation, which overall netted at least 32 arrests, 16 of which were adults, was led by the Siskiyou County-Wide Interagency Narcotic Task Force, and involved numerous law enforcement agencies.
Mount Shasta Police Chief Parish D. Cross said that among those arrested was City Councilwoman Katrina Howard, 40, who was sworn into office in November.
Howard, the manager of the Woodsman Hotel in Mount Shasta and a former Mount Shasta Chamber of Commerce board member, was arrested on suspicion of marijuana sales and possession of marijuana for sale following the execution of a search warrant at her home.
She also was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to sell marijuana, maintaining a residence where marijuana is sold and being armed in the commission of a felony. Deputies said that 34 pounds of processed marijuana were seized from her home.
James Parker, senior special agent in charge with the state Department of Justice, Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in Redding, said Howard is accused of selling marijuana to an undercover sheriff's deputy who was posing as a Mount Shasta High School student.
"She was involved in several negotiations" with the undercover deputy, Parker said...
..."The goal of the operation was to identify drug dealers in and around the school grounds and adults dealing drugs to our youth of Mount Shasta" and Yreka.
He said the operation yielded nine arrest warrants and six search warrants, all within the Mount Shasta area.
The arrests and warrants were for the sale of marijuana, Ecstasy and psilocybin mushrooms, he said.
Ross Martin, the narcotic task force's commander, said that more than 100 law enforcement officers took part in the massive drug "take-down" in Siskiyou County....
...Martin said the task force enrolled an undercover Siskiyou County sheriff's deputy at Yreka High School in August.
The deputy attended classes, socialized with classmates during lunch period and attended school functions.
Over the course of two months, Martin said, the undercover agent made arrangements to purchase drugs from a dozen classmates.
Many of those arrangements were made before, during and after school hours and most of the undercover purchases occurred within 500 feet of the school and during after-hour school functions, he said.
Martin said that the investigation revealed that a large number of adults were congregating around Yreka High School, during lunchtime and after-hour school functions.
As a result, he said, the undercover deputy was successful in purchasing marijuana from four of the adults. In addition, while posing as a high school student, the deputy made additional drug buys from seven adults within the city. The drugs included marijuana, hashish and Ecstasy, he said....
Spoken like a Reefer Madness brain-washee, Rose. I don't see a single narcotic or booze being busted for but relatively harmless intoxicants that aren't legal because bigotry abounds in America when it comes to minority drug use. Only "legal" killer drugs allowed and "throw the book" at those involved with mild intoxicants.
ReplyDeleteHypocritical to the max, Rose, in my opinion, but that don't mean I don't luv ya because there's always HOPE for Amerca!
You don't see anything wrong with a city councilwoman selling marijuana to high school students, Stephen? Really you don't?
ReplyDeleteNo, Stephen. People in elected positions pass laws and ordinances that adversely affect other people. A City Councilwoman can pass an ordinance that, if violated, can get you fined or land you in jail.
ReplyDeleteIf you violate the law she passes, do you think she will say, oh, I didn't mean it? You can go free? You think they'd let you off?
No.
And therefore, she is obligated to obey the laws of the community, the State and the Country (she takes an oath to that effect, btw) - if she was a regular citizen, your reefer madness argument might apply.
Not in this case.
And she wasn't just smoking it, or growing it. And it wasn't just pot. Ecstasy. Ecstasy, Stephen.
She's selling it to kids.
How many laws did she violate? How many lives did she wreck?
She is a criminal. Morally and legally. Bankrupt. Jail isn't good enough.
Is this the same Stephen that has the rabid obsession and hatred for anyone or anything Jewish? Can it be? Could that Stephen be talking about bigotry?
ReplyDeleteStephen's one sentence is a bit confusing .... " I don't see a single narcotic or booze being busted for but relativley harmless intoxicants that aren't legal because bigotry abounds in America when it comes to minority drug use" WTF?
Maybe a little English 1A might be a good idea? Or less medication.
"Reefer Madness" ? Give me strength.
As to the Mt. Shasta city council woman. She should go to jail maybe even prison. Selling drugs to kids, 34 pounds of weed, and the arogance to run for city council (and be elected) while being engaged in this criminal activity at the same time only makes it worse !!!!
Kind of makes one wonder if any elected officials in NoCal are or have been drug dealers? Of course that couldn't happen here, I'm sure this lady in Mt. Shasta must be the only one? Right?
I don't see any of you pouncing on your local liquor stores selling cigarettes and booze to kids which as you are conveniently forgetting in your lust for punishing others that these two legal drugs are the biggest killer drugs kids are exposed--pot and Ecstacy have no such similar track records of killing human beings. Yet you all want to string the city councelwoman up and don't say a word about the thousands of liquor store owners selling cigs and booze to kids which you must know happens on a regular basis..
ReplyDeleteYour hypocrisy is what I'm drawing your attention to, not the stupidity of the council woman which is evident for all to see. Throw the book at yourselves for a change..
For all the figurative moral relevance between pot and booze, the fact remains - pot is illegal.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it shouldn't be. But it is. And she took an oath of office in which she swore to uphold the laws of the land. Period. End of story.
The liquor store owners didn't - and by the way, they do get busted for selling both cigarettes and booze to kids. There was a big bust a week or so ago, wasn't it in Mendo?
I often wonder if pot were legalized if this obsessions with it and glorification of it, would go away. People always want what they can't have. So what would become the next 'sacred' thing we want, and demand we have. Must there always be a battle? Or is it just this generation?
Even if pot (or Ecstacy, or hash, or mushrooms or heroin or meth or whatever) were legal, it would probably still be illegal to sell it to minors... in a pot store or on the playground.
ReplyDeleteAlochol and tobacco the biggest killers kids are exposed to? I don't know about that, show me.
ReplyDeleteCigarette smoking with kids is insane. With 20 some years of education and restrictions and kids stil chose to smoke? I don't understand. So much for education being the answer to drugs.
All anyone has to do to confirm alcohol and cigarettes are America's worst drugs in terms of deaths and lives made miserable is read health statistics. It's a well-known fact and each and every day kids are exposed to perveyors of these killer drugs. And Rose, you must know that probably for every liquor or convenience store busted for selling booze or cigarettes to minors there are over a 100 that are not being touched. Ask most any high school kid how hard is it to obtain these killer drugs and yet here you all are screaming for revenge against one idiot woman selling weed and X when she held a public office. Certainly not the first one to do so but she will get reamed for this with people like you chanting and waving signs for her execution.
ReplyDeleteWell, no. If pressed, I do not agree that alcohol and cigarettes are all that evil.
ReplyDeletePeople misuse everything from spray paint to mushrooms.
Yet, in France, people have wine with dinner, and kids learn to be responsible. At least that is our happy little view of the world. We're so uptight about everything. the generation that tried everything under the sun now imposes zero tolerance, and I am against that because I believe that kids are better off trying things while they still have the parental safety net. And a little experimentation, while I am not in favor of it per se, is not the end of the world.
On the other hand, I hold cops, priests, and elected officials, those who presume higher moral authority, to a higher standard. It is reasonable to do so, because they are in, as I stated above, positions to put other people away. Therefore they must be above reproach. Else they should turn in their badge, and give up their elected offices or positions as priests. They are not worthy.
The crime that comes along with what this woman, this city councilwoman, was doing is not something minor to be brushed aside either. With it comes extreme potential for violence. She should know better. She should set a better example, and yes, hang her from the highest tree. Serves her right. Happy?
Then why didn't you object to Bush's and the Zionist Neocon's war with Iraq? Did Bush honor his oath of office or did he lie his head off over and over and yet you voted for this treasonous President who is responsible for so many dead people, Iraqis and American soldiers. Now you think you can tell others how to react to petty, and I do mean petty, criminal acts such as selling pot to minors? Where is your sense of justice when killers in office go free to kill again and again and you want to throw the book at a minor city councilwoman. Doesn't make any sort of moral sense..
ReplyDeleteStephen you don't make any sense, at least on this issue.
ReplyDeleteWhat are you going to do when you don't have Bush to blame for everything?
Selling pot to minors is a "petty criminal act". Get a grip, you've been in Humboldt too long.
At the local level is where average citizens CAN do something, Stephen. Any power we have to affect any real change or any chance we have of our voices being heard diminishes outside the city limits & is virtually gone past the county line. We really can clean up our own backyards but we can't even get an appointment with the street sweeper in D.C.
ReplyDeleteWashington can roll right over us but, by God, City Hall cannot!
Who is to say that she sold to minors? Seems like the press may have been too eager to put her in the butterfly net of the sting. No charges have been filed for anything other than marijuana. Before you crucify, perhaps facts should enter into the picture?
ReplyDelete