Fake Drugs Are a Dirty Business

After finding an empty plastic bag on the playground of her school in Sikeston, Missouri, 6-year-old Michaela Boyd filled it with dirt, rocks, and clover; tied it closed with a purple ponytail holder; and gave it to a friend. The friend showed the bag to a teacher, who reported it to administrators, who gave Michaela two days of detention for pretending to sell drugs. A local cop says she's lucky she wasn't arrested, while Michaela protests: "They said it was kind of a drug. I don't know what those are. I only see cigarettes."

[Drug War Chronicle, by way of Power and Control]

Comments

[SR]

There obviously aren't enough serious crimes like, say, cop killings, in Sikeston, are there?

[crimethink]

This is unbelievable. I try to be an optimist, but an event like this -- and perhaps even worse, the official attempts to justify it -- that make me wonder where our great nation is headed. To paraphrase Tim Cavanaugh, a people that is subject to jail for exchanging bags of dirt is not a free people in any meaningful sense of the word.

"It's important that a student understands what a drug is.? Sgt. Shirley Porter said.

But apparently not as important that police and school officials understand what a bag of dirt is.

[SPD]

It sounds like the first bag of pot I bought. Damn six-year-olds.

[crimethink]

But kudos to the TV station for getting their "Marijuana Facts" from MPP rather than ONDCP.

[s.m. koppelman]

What's next? Suspending kids for pretend-shooting a crook without a case for justifible self-defense while playing cops and robbers? War-crime tribunals for kids caught playing Cowboys and Indians?

[Isaac Bartram]

But kudos to the TV station for getting their "Marijuana Facts" from MPP rather than ONDCP.

Too bad it was "KFVS12.com Extended Web Coverage", so likely as not not seen by very many viewers.

Also my reaction to people like Sgt. Shirley Porter is "My god, not only are mental defectives like this allowed to be free and not under institutional supervision, they're given positions of power and authority."

[Isaac Bartram]

What's next? Suspending kids for pretend-shooting a crook without a case for justifible self-defense while playing cops and robbers?

I think they're already doing that.

[crimethink]

Of course, the station reported getting thousands of responses to this story, and I'm sure the vast majority were supporting the kid against the school (and the police).

Perhaps a few more cases of drug warriors crossing the line will make people see that it's not just drug dealers who suffer from the WoD. Like I said, I try to be optimistic...

[fyodor]

IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NO EXCUSE!

[Isaac Bartram]

.... and I'm sure the vast majority were supporting the kid against the school (and the police).

I'm afraid that's not the conclusion I would have jumped too. 🙂

[s.a.m.]

She got a valuable lesson, cold hard real world reality. Now shut up and don't make eye contact with cops or any other self proclaimed "do gooders!" Go about your business and keep a low profile.

This is the land of the "free," so watch your ass!

[Lunch Mother]

But what if her friend had tried rolling the dirt and clovers into a cigarette and smoking it? She could have died! Don't you people care about THE CHILDREN?!

[J.D. Tuccille]

If anybody would care to share some thoughts with Sikeston's resident law-enforcement genius, Sgt. Shirley Porter can apparently be reached at: [e-mail]

[crimethink]

Isaac,

I hate to sound naive, but I've gotta think that people in general are not so subservient to authority, that they would approve of slapping cuffs on a first-grader for something like this. Sure, anti-drug propaganda has taken its toll, but when cops threaten to arrest little kids -- that crosses the line in the minds of the vast majority of people.

[sirius]

"There obviously aren't enough serious crimes like, say, cop killings, in Sikeston, are there?"

A cop killing wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to this town, methinks.

[raymond]

What they've got to do is charge her with dealing and fraud, wait until she hits 15 and then try her as an adult.

Like the Zoloft kid.

[Ron Hardin]

Dirt is a gateway to worms, and then toads.

[Ayn_Randian]

Is it a crime if I can't tell the difference between Porter and a real police officer?

Paging Juanita!

[passerby]

Imagine the baggy had been discarded by someone having just emptied it of marijuana (or cocaine or meth). Laboratory analysis detects traces of illicit substances. Our six year old is now guilty of dealing. The law states something like "contains any amount of substance", meaning she has just "dealt" the entire contents of the bag, likely more than one ounce. As the law makes no distinction for no money having changed hands, and since ignorance is no excuse, our little criminal could be facing a manditory minimum sentence.

[Ayatollah Usoe]

So it turns out Officer Shirley Porter is a Dare cop. Handing off a free bag of dirt is a crime, but stealing people's assets (Dare's mission) is okay?

[Jennifer]

As a former teacher, I can say that if any teacher there HAD tried to say "C'mon guys, that's not marijuana, that's just a bag of dirt," said teacher would be accused of "knowing too much." ("So how, exactly, do you know so much about what marijuana looks like, hmmm?")

[thoreau]

Did the little girl even think she was pretending to sell drugs? I got the impression she just thought it would be cute to give a friend a bag of dirt and clover. Little kids make gifts that they think are cute all the time. The fact that a an allegedly grown-up teacher reads a drug connotation into it just proves that there's something wrong with the teacher.

[Jennifer]

Thoreau-
I agree. This teacher is just the secular female version of Jerry Falwell, who can't watch the Teletubbies without having his brain fill with images of hot man-on-man sex. Likewise, this DARE dork can't even look at a plastic bag without thinking of drugs.

Makes me jealous of whatever she's smoking.

[Mephistophocles]

When the revolution starts, I claim the first shot at this Porter bitch.

[Ira Weatheral]

Makes the cops on Reno 911 look like sober and intelligent individuals!

[Jennifer]

Do you think Porter really believes she's done the right thing here, or does she just lack the courage to admit when she's wrong?

[thoreau]

Makes the cops on Reno 911 look like sober and intelligent individuals!

Nah, they wtill would have confiscated it, but then they would have tried to smoke it themselves.

[karl]

Funny, Isacc Bartman - my reaction to people like Sgt. Shirley Porter is someone needs to beat this person into a bloody pulp with her own badge.

[WSDave]

Look at the bright side, ladies and gents: Sgt. Porter may well have just created another lifelong Libertarian.

[Eric the .5b]

Sgt. Porter may well have just created another lifelong Libertarian.

Or a scared collectivist.

[crimethink]

In another thread crossover, who wants to bet on whether some entrepreneurial kids at this school are selling baggies full of dirt for $1.50 a pop?

[Sgt. Porter]

The surest way to make them hurt, is to bust their ass, and steal their dirt.

[thoreau]

I think we need a ban on dirt and all dirt paraphernalia within 1000 feet of a school.

It's for the children!

[Larry A]

<Obscenity deleted.>

[Larry A]

On second thought, maybe this is why all the plastic bags have a don't-let-children-play-with-this warning.

[Poustman]

I grope around wildly as the free-fall begins, seeking something to grasp. *No one* can be this much of a moron. There has got to be some extenuating circumstance, some sound-bite-muddled context, some truncated punchline never reported, SOMETHING.

Then I hit terminal velocity, and all fades...

[Jane Doe]

Porter didnt arrest her, since her shipment of Extra Small Cuffs hadn't arrived yet.

[crimethink]

Jane Doe,

For small children they just use leashes.

[Twba]

Don't eat the brown acid. It's dirt.

The use of Mary Jane may be an effective preventive treatment for old timer's disease.

[kevrob]

smk & Isaac:

Yes, the Edudopes have disciplined kids for using their hands as "pretend guns."

Seven fourth graders in the Cherry Creek School District were given detention for a week after they were caught using their fingers as imaginary weapons, a newspaper reported Monday.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/1458180/detail.html

The Blobsters even quizzed the boys about their parents' gun-ownership.

See also:

http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2002/july02/zero-tolerance.shtml

Kevin

[jc]

But that kid could have used the dirt to GROW pot!

[Stevo Darkly]

Excellent point! We have to consider "root causes" here.

[zeroentitlement]

"What's next? Suspending kids for pretend-shooting a crook without a case for justifible self-defense while playing cops and robbers?"

I hate to break it to you, Koppelman, but that already happened.

More insanity available here.