Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
The Needles and the Damage Done
Cary Caldwell of the San Antonio Current reports on a policing strategy of genius not seen since the salad days of Lt. Charles Marimow: Prosectuing volunteers for needle-exchange programs.
On Thursday, January 23, the police department plucked a “traffic ticket” misdemeanor from Municipal Court and re-filed it with the District Attorney’s office as a more serious Class A misdemeanor against three volunteers with the Bexar Area Harm Reduction Coalition, a needle exchange and condom program. Now, 73-year-old Bill Day, 67-year-old Mary Casey and registered nurse Melissa Lujan 39, face up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine each for allegedly distributing narcotic paraphernalia. The trio was cited by patrol officers on January 5 while taking used syringes from addicts and prostitutes on the street for disposal by the Metro Health District. They showed officers what they were doing — reportedly handing out baggies containing a new insulin syringe, a condom, a cotton ball, an alcohol whip, a commercial bottle cap for cooking a drug dose, and referral pamphlets to public-health agencies.
“It’s not like they were doing anything sneaky,” said State Representative Ruth McClendon, a longtime advocate for legalizing needle exchanges in Texas. “This group is well known in our community.”
But in the eyes of the police and the DA, these perfectly legal items, when assembled in a baggie and given away, constitute a “heroin injection rig.”
“You cannot flaunt the law regardless of how well-intentioned you are,” First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg explained.
I'm going to go ahead and assume that the DA made the flaunt/flout error, which goes some way toward explaining his confusion. "Every day we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing, someone else is catching HIV or hepatitis unnecessarily," says one of the samaritans Caldwell spoke to.
Last year, Steve Chapman wondered if needle exchange opponents simply wanted people to drop dead.
|1.31.08 @ 10:04AM|#
Let the punishment fit the crime: Give the DA either HIV or Hep
C.
His choice, of course. We don't want to seem heartless.
kinnath|1.31.08 @ 10:08AM|#
Why bother wasting time and resources prosecuting violent criminals when you can score face time on the local TV channel by prosecuting meddlesome do-gooders.
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 10:10AM|#
Alice, I have to ask: is your father always talking to you, trying to tell you how to live, but you don't listen to him because your head is like a sieve?
|1.31.08 @ 10:15AM|#
Every junkie's like a setting sun.
Huh? You mean they are colored red by California brush fires?
You comment thread poets
almost always confuse me.
Ah, Crap... Run! Haikus!
|1.31.08 @ 10:15AM|#
kinnath: It's simple; the first one requires effort. The DA has
a better chance of getting re-elected if he gets some good face
time, and low-hanging fruit tends to get it for them.
That being said, it is the wrong priority for them, unless the town
happened to be overrun by violent street junkies, which doesn't
appear to be the case. There's a difference between feeling safer
and being safer, and I'd rather want the police moving towards
making society be safer than have them undertake some cheery
illusory action.
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 10:21AM|#
SugarFree, the title of this post is a Neil Young song. My line
there is a line from the same song. I am offended that you would
think I would do something as gay* as compose impromptu
poetry.
* joke for all the fucking humor impaired morons
|1.31.08 @ 10:26AM|#
Oh, I see... you we're quoting song lyrics. Pardon me
for assuming you had writing talent.
You're a bigger disappointment to me than my first two wives.
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 10:27AM|#
So they wouldn't blow you either? I'm sorry, I just won't do that for you. It makes me feel subservient.
kinnath|1.31.08 @ 10:30AM|#
To make it more obvious for mad mike, append /snark to my preceding post.
|1.31.08 @ 10:34AM|#
I'm sorry, Episiarch, what we're you saying? I can't understand you with my dick in your mouth.
|1.31.08 @ 10:40AM|#
Epi (can I call you Epi?), I was wondering, since our comment
thread senses of humor seem so aligned... do people in the real
world have a hard time understanding when you are joking? Even when
I spin a grin out and give verbal and facial cues for laughter,
quite a few people can't quite get it. And if so, do you think it
has anything to do with using the same tone of voice for humorous
and serious statements. (Which is something we both seem to do on
the boards here.)
Am I making any sense? I'm really sleep deprived today.
|1.31.08 @ 10:45AM|#
Very interesting story was just posted on Drudge about Obama's position on decriminalizing marijuana ... apparently, he supports it. Here is the link ... http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080131/NATION/896961936/1001
|1.31.08 @ 10:48AM|#
"You cannot flaunt the law regardless of how
well-intentioned you are," First Assistant District Attorney Cliff
Herberg explained.
flaunt (v) - to parade or display oneself conspicuously,
defiantly, or boldly.
flout (v) - to treat with disdain, scorn, or contempt; scoff at;
mock
So in addition to being a tool, ADA Herberg is also a grammatical
ignoramus -- unless these people were waving around a copy of the
latest law journal in an ostentatious manner, but I don't think
that's what he meant. And this is where our tax dollars are going.
Where's the outrage?
|1.31.08 @ 10:51AM|#
Warren,
Are
you still remembering the SugarFree and keeping it holy?
Apostates are worse than unbelievers.
|1.31.08 @ 10:55AM|#
Good for him to take that position, but the Clintons are going to pound him with it.
|1.31.08 @ 11:00AM|#
Cesar ... I wholeheartedly agree. The Clinton's are already gearing up the attack machine on this, and will probably have a press release decrying his irresponsibility before day's end.
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 11:03AM|#
do people in the real world have a hard time understanding
when you are joking?
Sometimes, as I will often use a deadpan delivery, but I try to
follow that up with a facial expression or laugh that clearly
indicates that I am joking. Also, I try to scope out who will get
it and use it for them, and not do that around people who
won't.
Online, it's much harder to do that because there are so many
"observers", and also because I can't use facial expressions or
tone.
Does that answer your question?
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 11:04AM|#
Am I making any sense? I'm really sleep deprived
today.
Maybe you shouldn't have spent all night at the glory hole.
|1.31.08 @ 11:10AM|#
How do the DA and cops sleep at night?
They are so engrossed in getting convictions that they have lost
all sense of humanity.
I consider myself a hard-nosed anti-welfare type, but Cliff Herberg
and his cohorts make me nauseous.
|1.31.08 @ 11:14AM|#
Epi,
Well, all I had to do was stand there with my skip-rope out. You
did all the work.
(By the way, cracking jokes back and forth like this is pretty much
my whole workday. Until the girl employees show up. Then we have to
behave. Boo.)
Windy,
Your jealousy bleeds green all over the keyboard, doesn't it.
But, point taken... Epi and I can exchange fat momma jokes some
other time.
|1.31.08 @ 11:16AM|#
Aresen,
How do the DA and cops sleep at night?
On top of a waterbed filled with jellied suffering.
Most models are equipped with a nipple so they can gently suckle it
all night.
|1.31.08 @ 11:24AM|#
"You cannot flaunt the law regardless of how well-intentioned
you are," First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg
explained.
Why not the police do it every fucking day. What planet does this
the DA DumbAss live on?
Windypundit|1.31.08 @ 11:26AM|#
But, point taken... Epi and I can exchange fat momma jokes
some other time.
Ah, what the hell, it beats having to wade through 400
Ron-Paul-vs.-cosmotarian posts in every thread...
|1.31.08 @ 11:33AM|#
I'm just surprised that they didn't get charged for the left
over residue in the needles that they were taking back in the
exchange program.
hmm .. shh .. don't give the cops ideas.
LarryA|1.31.08 @ 11:38AM|#
So in addition to being a tool, ADA Herberg is also a
grammatical ignoramus
Let's be fair, folks. The DA made the statement verbally in a press
conference. The SA Current reporter provided the spelling.
Taktix®|1.31.08 @ 11:39AM|#
Let's be fair, folks. The DA made the statement verbally in
a press conference. The SA Current reporter provided the
spelling.
So Bush gets a pass for being a horrendous orator?
Russ 2000|1.31.08 @ 11:46AM|#
Even when I spin a grin out and give verbal and facial cues
for laughter, quite a few people can't quite get it.
I think this is because a higher percentage of the population are
government employees and have been trained only to laugh at
government-sanctioned attempts at humor.
|1.31.08 @ 11:54AM|#
Every time I'm in San Antonio, I'm shocked at the amount of violent crime reported on the TV news. For a city that size, it's pretty nasty. Good to know the cops and DA have their priorities straight.
|1.31.08 @ 12:00PM|#
Russ 2000,
You know, if the government would just regulate laughter, all our
problems would go away. Assuming the right people were elected to
outline the laughter protocols and their enforcement was
administered well, of course.
(Please fill-out form JX-764 to perform a .5 second chortle.
Assuming you haven't already used up your chortle credits for this
fiscal period. A grunt of beleaguered agreement is also acceptable
unless you are a resident of the 2009 Norto-American Grunt
Interdiction Zone or a member of a non-affiliated anti-grunt
treaty. Please see "Grunting Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous
States" pamphlet available at your local Department of Homeland
Hilarity office.)
Windypundit|1.31.08 @ 12:04PM|#
Please fill-out form JX-764 to perform a .5 second chortle.
Assuming you haven't already used up your chortle credits for this
fiscal period.
I think I qualify for the September 11 Emergency Ironic Chuckle
exemption. Is there a form I have to fill out?
|1.31.08 @ 12:08PM|#
You will have to apply for a waiver and have your status as a non-comedatant confirmed.
Episiarch|1.31.08 @ 12:20PM|#
SugarFree, don't quote me regulations! I co-chaired the committee that reviewed the recommendation to revise the color of the book that regulations are kept in!
|1.31.08 @ 12:44PM|#
"You cannot flaunt the law regardless of how well-intentioned
you are," First Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg
explained.
Why not the police do it every fucking day. What planet does this
the DA DumbAss live on?"
Truer than you may know. Google news about San Antonio PD +
(convicted, suspended) for a recent hall of shame list.
Jay|1.31.08 @ 5:28PM|#
Why are they giving the addicts a bottle cap? Maybe if they
leave that out, then the coppers would be ok with it...
Then again, maybe not...or I may be underestimating how hard it is
to find a bottle cap...
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245