Reason Writers on TV: Radley Balko Talks About the Drug War's Latest Victim on FreedomWatch

Reason Staff | 1.10.2011 5:12 PM

Last week on Fox Business Network's FreedomWatch, Reason Senior Editor Radley Balko discussed the case Eurie Stamps, a 68-year-old, unarmed man killed during a Framingham, Massachusetts drug raid. Watch below.

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Geographer 14 years ago

There is a Farmington in ME, MI, MO, MS and MT. There is no Farmington in MA, but there is a Framingham.
1. Episiarch 14 years ago
  
  It's next to Natick!
2. jester 14 years ago
  
  What about New Mexico? Why are you so M-centric?
CalebT 14 years ago

Radley Balko has to stop this vitriolic rhetoric before another congressperson is killed!
1. Number 2 14 years ago
  
  Do not laugh. The logical extension of the "Tea Party anti-government rhetoric led to Tuscan" argument is that criticism of police officers leads to cop-killing. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera....
  1. Geographer 14 years ago
    
    Sigh...
    
    There is a Tuscany in Italy.
    
    The city in AZ is Tucson.
    1. Timon19 14 years ago
      
      I have a feeling Number 2 knows that.
Cunctator 14 years ago

Lyle|1.9.11 @ 2:48PM|#

Todd Blair should have never used Meth. Swat team would have never showed up.

That said, SWAT teams do you excessive force. Sometimes they're even killed by drug dealers who have guns and not golf clubs.
1. CalebT 14 years ago
  
  In the case of non-violent offenses (you know, fake crimes), the police should always knock on the door and kindly serve the warrant and act with at least a modicum of decency that we expect from public servants. Otherwise, expect to be in a gunfight with a (possibly innocent) person, and also expect to suffer the public's indignation if the assault results in a death (especially of an innocent person).
2. omg 14 years ago
  
  Goddamn it stop reposting troll posts from the other thread.
BakedPenguin 14 years ago

Todd Blair should have never used Meth. Swat team would have never showed up.

Tell that to Kathryn Johnson. Oh wait, you can't because she was killed in a drug raid even though she had no drugs.
1. Mr. Obvious 14 years ago
  
  I think that was the point
  1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    Too bad you weren't around when the other post went up. Because it wasn't obvious.
  2. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    Sorry, it's been a long day...
    1. dunphy 14 years ago
      
      not just that, but plenty of people get raided who never committed the "crime" in the first place. iow, witnesses lie, cops get the wrong address, etc. etc. etc. (see: yul)
wef 14 years ago

Political and moral philosophers once pondered the nature of just and unjust sovereignty, the proper and improper allegiance of the subject to the ruler, the characteristics of a legitimate and an illegitimate regime. Or so I've heard it rumored. Today, this type of conversation is apparently a yawner. The overclass is making it up as they go along, or so we would hope; it would be truly depressing to think that this is planned. Stories like this provoke one to think, Is this the behavior of a legitimate sovereign? But I must be careful with the tone and tenor of my ruminations. But, wdwgtctri?
1. Troy 14 years ago
  
  Today, this type of conversation is apparently a yawner.
  
  No, it is considered radical. That one does not obsequiously submit to authority is a sign that you need to be re-educated. Who cares what Aristotle Mill, Locke, and Hobbes (who is a dick) have to say. They are old, dead, and irrelevant.
BradK 14 years ago

Radley hit the nail right on the head here: using SWAT teams for "drug raids" is a perversion of their original intent. Instead of reducing or eliminating the threat of violence in a given situation they are creating it from scratch.

I think the media should stop soft-pedaling by referring to these government assaults "raids" and start calling them for what they truly are: Home Invasions.
Bucky 14 years ago

^^^^^
i blame eliot ness...
Esoteric 14 years ago

I'm still kind of blown away that this sort of flaming anti-drug war anti-statism is allowed on FOX News. Credit to Judge Napolitano.
1. jester 14 years ago
  
  Although technically it is on FOX Business, I must agree with you. I suspect O'Reilly would call Judge Nap a pin-head.
  1. BakedPenguin 14 years ago
    
    And then cry with his homies Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J about the miracles of tides.
    1. jester 14 years ago
      
      I heart pot-smokin' nuns.
  2. dunphy 14 years ago
    
    oreilly, to his credit has had judge nap on his show many times. fox business channel is, in general, more libertarian than fox news. stossel has his own show on the former.
2. BradK 14 years ago
  
  A long as it contains flames it meets the Fox muster.
Michael Ejercito 14 years ago

What did Carolyn McCarthy have to say?

Did she call for more restrictions on weapons used by SWAT teams?
?????? ????? 11 years ago

In the case of non-violent offenses (you know, fake crimes), the police should always knock on the door and kindly serve the warrant and act with at least a modicum of decency that we expect from public servants. Otherwise, ???? ????? ??????? ???? ????? ????? ??????? expect to be in a gunfight with a (possibly innocent) person, and also expect to suffer the public's indignation if the assault results in a death (especially of an innocent person).
alaamiah 10 years ago

FreedomWatch, R
alaamiah 10 years ago

Stamps, a 68-year-old, unarmed man killed during a Framingham, Massachusetts drug raid.
alaamiah 10 years ago

68-year-old,
alaamiah 10 years ago

FreedomWatch, Reason
alaamiah 10 years ago

a 68-year-old, unarmea 68-year-old, unarme
alaamiah 10 years ago

Eurie Stamps, a 68-year-old, unarme
proofing 10 years ago

68-year-old

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Reason Writers on TV: Radley Balko Talks About the Drug War's Latest Victim on FreedomWatch

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