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Monday, March 10, 2008

Winning the War on Drugs

posted by on March 10 at 10:19 AM

This ought to spell the end for drugs in the college town of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Stellenbosch students, their parents and club owners are outraged at what they have described as brutal drug raids on nightspots in the student town on Friday night, and some are considering taking legal action against the police.

Police found only a small plastic bank bag and two joints of dagga [marijuana] and three grams of hashish, at the clubs.

Several witnesses have come forward, describing how the police, wearing Kevlar vests and carrying firearms, burst into Bohemia, Die Mystic Boer and Springbok Pub around midnight and assaulted several students, sprayed them with mace, took their cellphones and ordered them to delete cellphone pictures of the raid.

Police officers also reportedly put their hands in some womens’ underwear to search for drugs.

Willem Coertze, owner of Die Mystic Boer, said he was punched in the face and had his wrists tied behind his back with cable ties after asking a police officer why his club was being raided and whether there was a search warrant.

Nobody was arrested, but that girl thrown on her face at the end of this video sure learned her lesson.

RSS icon Comments

1

Without reason, we are lost.

Posted by Matthew | March 10, 2008 10:25 AM
2

Holy shit. Drugs make people insane -- cops, mostly, and they don't even have to take them to go nuts.

Posted by Dan Savage | March 10, 2008 10:32 AM
3

Screws fall out all the time, the world is an imperfect place.

Posted by Mr. Poe | March 10, 2008 10:35 AM
4

I missed at first that this was in South Africa. I know they could sue like crazy in the US, but what are South Africa's laws about this sort of thing?

Posted by hmm | March 10, 2008 10:48 AM
5

"dagga" sounds like a lot more fun to abuse than "pot".

Posted by max solomon | March 10, 2008 10:48 AM
6

Respect mah authoritah!

Testosterone poisoning is an ugly thing.

Posted by Daniel | March 10, 2008 10:53 AM
7

Oh, those cops are always the life of the party.

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty | March 10, 2008 10:53 AM
8

It's funny how people from other countries base their assumptions on how the law works via what they see from American crime shows.

What a rude awakening to realize that you don't have a right to remain silent, or that a search warrant may not be necessary to bind you up and bash your head in with a rifle butt.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | March 10, 2008 10:53 AM
9

"Die Mystic Boer"?

That's the part of the story that got my attention. A bar called "Die Mystic Boer."

That's the name of my new band.

Posted by Judah | March 10, 2008 11:01 AM
10

Search warrants are not necessary for police to enter commercial property open to the public.

Although damn you'd think there was something illegal about what goes on in that video.

Posted by John | March 10, 2008 11:05 AM
11

John:

[In the United States] Search warrants are generally required before shoving your hand down a woman's panties to look for drugs.

Posted by NapoleonXIV | March 10, 2008 11:24 AM
12

I thought this was in the US at first too.
If it's not in the US, then why are we getting so worked up about it?

Yes, folks, third world countries don't treat their citizens right. We know this.

Posted by Mr Fuzzy | March 10, 2008 11:26 AM
13

@ 12) This may have taken place in South Africa, but it's a result of U.S. policy. The SWAT tactics are out of the American drug-enforcement playbook, and the ferocity that other nations enforce drug laws is largely at the behest of the U.S., which pressures countries to tow the line. Oh, and violent drug raids also happen routinely in the United States.

Posted by Dominic Holden | March 10, 2008 11:53 AM
14

War on drugs =

price support program for the dealers

job security program for law enforcement

royal fuck-over for all the taxpayers who pay for it

Oh, and another thing--no provable impact on either the supply or the price of drugs on the street.

Posted by Westside forever | March 10, 2008 12:04 PM

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