All Riots are Caused by Police

Quite a title, huh?  Provocative, yes?  Hear me out, let me make my case. 

This piece was inspired by the movie The Trial of the Chicago 7.  It is a dramatization (partly fictional) of a real event, the trial of a bunch of "radicals" who came to Chicago to make a statement against the Vietnam War, and against the Democratic nominee for president Hubert Humphrey, who had not distanced himself from President Lyndon Johnson, the Democratic president who had aggressively expanded America’s participation in the war.   The year was 1968.

The Chicago 7 (Chicago 8 at the beginning) were charged with a “federal crime to use interstate or foreign commerce routes or facilities (such as by crossing state lines or through mail, use of the Internet, or phone calls) to incite a riot, organize, promote or participate in a riot or to extend activities of a riot" (Title X of the Civil Rights Act of 1968).  Five were found guilty of this crime (by a jury), mostly because of the judge's partiality.  All of the convictions were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on the basis that the judge was biased in his refusal to permit defense attorneys to screen prospective jurors for cultural and racial bias, and the FBI surveillance of the defense lawyers' offices.  But it took 33 months to do so.

Drugs

The inspiration for this piece was an idealistic young man who was collecting donations for an organization called Law Enforcement Against Drugs, or L.E.A.D. for short.  (Let me say right now that the goals of L.E.A.D. are 1000% admirable, prevent youngsters and teens from being trapped by drugs).  Now, I admit I like to argue, and I am not above pontificating, so I approached this young man, and I began thus: laws against drugs are a cure that is worse than the disease.  We tried Prohibition and it didn’t work, so we repealed it.  Laws against drugs discriminates against minorities, because the drug of choice of middle- and upper-class white America is alcohol.

But here are a bunch of old arguments against the criminalization of drug use.