Re police chief in Flint Mich. Perhaps the city should calculate how much time and effort is being spent by the chief and dept enforcing federal law, then deduct this amount from pay and appropriations.

Or, just fire the SOB

BUT, please look at the “before” data for Washington, Oregon, and Colorado – all of them had youth turnout in 2008 that was significantly lower than the national average. Also, the significant increase in youth turnout for 2012 as against 2008 merely brought their turnouts into the range of the national average.

So, while it’s good news that the marijuana initiatives were probably a very strong factor in increasing youth turnout, we need more to get younger voters to increase their participation.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/11/flint_police_will_still_make_m.html#incart_river

On Tuesday 57% of the voters in the city of Flint voted to decriminalize possession of recreational amounts of pot. The very next day the police chief comes on the local media and says the pursuit of pot smokers will continue unabated due to what he perceives to be conflicts between local, state and federal laws on maryjane.

Mind you — Flint is in a fiscal hole that is practically unimaginable. We’ve been on the verge of bankruptcy for several years and an emergency financial manager is in place, appointed by the governor. Police have been cut to a ridiculously low level and crimes against persons and property are rampant. And largely unsolved.

And yet in a place where armed robberies, rapes and murders get the official shrug due to lack of money/manpower, there seems to be enough resources to continue the war on harmless, non-violent pot smokers.

We were, and perhaps still are, the murder capitol of the country. Apparently the law enforcement paradigm here is that violent crime will not be addressed until every single, solitary pot smoker is behind bars.

If the forfeiture provisions regarding marijuana were removed from the law, the local police would lack the incentive to pursue pot, and might actually be forced to deal with real crime. As the law reads now, pot remains a cash cow, and petty local level law enforcement officials will let violent crime run rampant in order to keep that cash flowing into their coffers.