Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Protected to Death:
"Last March, when the Drug Enforcement Administration seized less than half an ounce of cannabis that Robin Prosser, a Missoula lupus patient and medical marijuana activist, had been sent by her caregiver, the special agent in charge of the DEA's Rocky Mountain Field Division said it was 'protecting people from their own state laws.' Last week, unable to find a reliable supply of the only drug that relieved her pain without causing unacceptable side effects, Prosser killed herself. Although the use of medical marijuana is legal in Montana, friends say suppliers were spooked by the DEA."
And from the comments, I thought this particularly lucid and spot-on.
"I think many government servants, most especially law enforcement and prosecutors and judges but even low level pencil-pushers/clerks, sincerely believe that they are our sovereigns instead of the other way around; government has become equated with authority over ordinary citizens ('the authorities') in such a deeply entrenched way that people who don't view government as such (such as libertarians) are at best dismissed as kooks and at worst vilified and persecuted as being dangerous.
...I feel like there is a general disposition in government (and even amongst large portions of the public) in general which holds that government has an inalienable right to power over the general population, that government (even here in America) is solely responsible for taking 'care' of citizens in an increasing number of ways and deciding how that care ought to be administered. There's also the maintenance of authority to be considered. The above quote from the former DEA head got me thinking about this. Cops, even the very many honest and good-natured ones who I believe make up the majority, have to be authoritarian and somewhat bullying in the streets; they have to intimidate, because that is mostly where their power to enforce laws comes from: fear on the part of citizens.
In other words, they cannot tolerate any disrespect, lawful or unlawful, or even the appearance of such disrespect, because it makes them look bad and hinders their ability (or at least, they believe it does) to deal with the population and do their jobs. That's why you don't even talk back to a cop, why you run when he tells you to move along, why you don't dare question him when he seems to be violating the rights of another citizen.
...It's the subtly superior and almost punitive attitude I sense whenever I have to deal with any government bureaucracy whatsoever, that I object to.
If you've ever gotten a sense that cops are something like a semi-benevolent armed gang out there, yet one with official sanction and endless reach which you dare not cross (even though 'crossing' a cop is not equivalent to committing a crime), you know where I'm coming from."
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