Bread.. and circuses.
The Derry Journal quotes Sinn Féin’s former[?] Director of Unionist Outreach, Martina Anderson, MLA, in response to suggestions from the 32 County Sovereignty Movement that “marches and pickets” at the doors of alleged drug dealers should be supported
“Pickets are an option but I would hope that there are other steps we can take as a community before we get to that point. I am not ruling out that kind of action but other avenues should be explored before this. I would hope that we don’t need to go to people’s doors. I wouldn’t say that type of action is totally wrong and ultimately it was something that was successful in other areas,” she said.
A couple of points to note on this issue, after highlighting again the alleged nature of any accusations being made.. one is Martina Anderson’s role on the Policing Board.. the other is her position as a SF representative on the Bill of Rights Forum.. Update The reality on the ground..Adds In case it isn’t clear enough, here’s a reminder of a previous post
“Either there is law or no law. That is the basis of a civilised society.”
I should have, before contributing to this thread, as parliamentarians say, “declared an interest”. Like many, I too once smoked cannabis while a student. I am afraid I was much too zonked to remember whether or not I inhaled at the time but I have found over the years that there is much less waste if one does inhale.
Which of course brings us to the vital question: should Gordon Brown have in his cabinet ministers who are, or at least were, so profligate or so incompetent that they would waste a good toke in such cavalier fashion by failing to inhale? It will hardly do his reputation for prudence or efficiency much good. Perhaps the 32 County Sovreignty Movement can advise him as well as they seem to be so up-to-date on such matters.
**Porn is bigger than Hollywood.**
At risk of dragging this off topic, that is a statement I have often heard made and when it is made most people tut-tut dispprovingly, shake their head and simply accept it unconditionally as being true, but you know what, I think it’s complete bollocks.
Hollywood is an absolutely huge industry which has spawned billionaires, it drives an entire industrial sector in one of the biggest states in America, can anyone say that the porn industry is bigger? Most porn I have seen has been low budget, cheaply made tat, the actors and actresses turn out to be drug addled drop outs who have been burned out before they make a decent living wage. Beyond Hugh Heffner or Larry Flint whose incomes would be that of a mid-ranking Hollywood star I have never heard of anyone making huge money from porn I mean surpassing Steven Spielberg or even George Clooney or John Travolta.
Think about it yourself for a moment, 50% of the population by and large don’t even buy porn and the rest of us, well besides a few sad porn addicts, probably spend less than a couple of hundred pounds on porn in their entire lifetimes.
Can such an industry really be bigger than Hollywood? And has for Moroccan hash producers being equal to Pfizer or Glaxo, hmmm, I’ve been to Morocco, I haven’t actually looked at the latter two’s finacial accounts but I daresay that assertion is pretty wide of the mark.
Anyways to get on topic, I feel any adult should be free to imbibe whatever poisons he or she desires provided they accept fully the consequences of their actions. For me, I am a non-smoker, I never was into drugs but way and above a bigger destroyer of human lives and good society by far than drugs and tobacco just happens to be my favourite poison of choice.
Cheers, hic!
why dosent ms anderson advocate the picketing of the homes of those who are flooding the areas with cheap tobacco products and alcohol. they cause far more damage to people than weed or e.
why dosent she advocate picketing the homes of pub owners who are turning a blind eye to children entering their nightclubs and being served alcohol
big cities have big city problems
ms anderson is just showing that you cant take the bully out of sinn fein. its there to stay…only the weak and vulnerable are their targets now that they have got into bed with their paymasters
most of the druggies i know, would rather make a few pound selling hash or weed, than accept 40 pieces of silver like ms anderson and her colleagues have done
If only they would legalise the bloody stuff then those citizens opposed to their availability could get back to the honorable pastime of picketing politicians who would then be responsible.
In the meantime all those good citizens who favour legalisation could have a merry time in demonstrations spliffin’ up outside the homes of politicians.
“How do these people know the person is guilty? Who decides? In a democratic society we have courts to do that: not Provo mobs. “
Aah and now we get to the real objection: provo mobs. Oddly, an accusation levelled without any evidence whatsoever by a poster who is lambasting others for levelling accusations without any…evidence.
Without any evidence? Martina Anderson is advocating this!
The point is irrelevant anyway: whether the mobs are Provo-organised or not doesn’t matter. It’s still mob rule.
I suppose that all we can do then is sit back , do nothing and hope that the police and Prosecution service get their acts together and sort out the law before the drug dealers destroy our society more effectively than any terrorist ever could.I won’t hold my breath then ( or inhale).
Huge airy , are you suggesting that the police are not doing their job properly( or at all) and sinn fein have no option but to answer the call.You seem to be saying that the drug dealers are the weak and vulnerable members of society. I can’t see too many agreeing with you on this point. Martina anderson did not advocate picketing the homes of drug users but drug dealers and I for one think she is right. They are the scum of the earth and deserve to be named and shamed.
willowfield, there is no mention in the article that I can see of a mob doing the picketing.The article says that if the local community wants to march and picket then the 32 CSM will support them. This seems to be a response to a call by the community for action to be taken about a problem which the psni up to now have ignored.A bit unfair labeling a concerned community a mob.
the drug dealers martina anderson is talking about are young lads from nationalist areas of derry who have been unfortunate enough to get addicted and find that selling on a few tablets or a few henrys of coke helps finance their own habits. they are far removed from the wealthy dealers that anderson is portraying them as. they are from those areas and have every right to stay there. its not their fault that society has failed them.
martina anderson didnt give a monkeys about the welfare of derry people when she went round the town planting bombs, perhaps doing those kids or their parents out of jobs which may have given them a sense of self worth
Huge Airy
when you start to deal you no longer can claim to be a victim you are the cancer
thats crap…there are more victims of speeding drivers than there are of drug abuse…are you saying that anyone who breaks the speed limit are part of that cancer too. dont be silly
most drug users are not drug abusers. most enjoy a smoke or a toot or a few pills at the weekend. if there were no users there would be no dealers so surely anyone who uses drugs are part of the cancer.
im glad i gave my few pounds to my dealertoday, rather than to one off the scumbag bar owners who sell alcohol to our children. My dealer is a far better person than any of those pub owners will ever be, or couls ever hope to be
airy , all that drug use is showing. Who are these young innocent drug dealers of yours selling to? I would bet that in order to fund their own habit they are trying to get younger kids hooked.And if I caught one of those bastards tring to sell drugs to my kids then i would break the wee shits legs.If you have a gripe about alcohol or tobacco then fine, to an extent I agree with you but that does not mean that you can then try to justify drug dealing on the back of it. As for people guily of driving offences, I am of the opinion that zero tolerance is the answer.
Airy
when you sell to others you get others hooked on that poison and you are scum. you can dress it anyway you want but dealers are a cancer they are cells spreading uncontrolably just like cancer and should be treated like cancer……with poison
I suppose that all we can do then is sit back , do nothing and hope that the police and Prosecution service get their acts together and sort out the law before the drug dealers destroy our society more effectively than any terrorist ever could.
No. You can report the dealers to the police and agree to testify in court.
So that the courts can say there is not enough evidence ,not enough space in the prisons or it is not in the publics best interest for the accused to go to jail. Face facts, willow, all too often these dealers end up out on the streets straight away, selling their drugs in the same houses as before thumbing their noses at the neighbours who complained about them in the first place. Is it any wonder the residents get pissed off and demand community action.
Updated original post to note the reality on the ground..
So that the courts can say there is not enough evidence
If there’s not enough evidence, then there’s no basis for finding the person guilty. These are the standards we have in a democratic society. Don’t you accept them?
Short answer, no. I do not accept that just because the law is not good enough or the police not motivated enough that I should just shrug my shoulders and say ” ah well , they tried god love them” That is not the way laws are changed , police are given a kick up the backside or drug dealers are put out of buisness. As for not enough evidence , I think you and I know that not enough evidence more often means “we want a mountain of evidence so that there is no chance of the wee blighters being able to sue us in the future for wrongful imprisonment”.
£1000 bail….lol…he’ll make that back in a few days http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6922420.stm
Short answer, no.
You think the courts should find people guilty without sufficient evidence? That’s outrageous.
Didn’t say that , nor did I imply that , how outrageous is that?
parci:
“marijuana ……. Also studies show it prolongs the erection.”
Thank Christ for that. Considering how long it takes my husband I’d hate to have sex with him if he wasn’t a pot head.
“…Also studies show it (marijuana) prolongs the erection”.
And when did you do this research, Parcifal? Whose erection did you study and for how long? How much marijuana did you sprinkle on it? Did he catch you? Did you have a puff yourself during the study period?