Houston, Harris County, Texas Marijuana Possession Arrests Causing Unnecessary Jail Overcrowding?
While there is been a lot of talk about building a new jail in Harris County, Texas there has not been much discussion about reducing the amount of people that are in jail today for a low level misdemeanor offense such as marijuana possession. I have stated before that the law in Texas allows for a police officer to cite a person to appear in one of our fifteen County Criminal Court at Law for marijuana possession. The Harris County District Attorney's Office (HCDAO) has openly refused to allow officers to do this for the past two years despite the aim of the law being reduction of jail overcrowding. The HCDAO prides itself on following the law, but for some reason is not doing it in this instance. Meanwhile, people are getting arrested and await a court date while being housed in the overcrowded Harris County jail. Why is the public allowing this to happen if current public opinion is against the policy of jail time for small amounts of marijuana possession? Probably, because the media is not reporting this discrepancy as they should.
It is time that Sheriff Adrian Garcia, all 15 misdemeanor judges, and the Harris County District Attorney, Pat Lykos start allowing officers to write citations for low level marijuana possession like other counties have been doing for a while now. Alternatively, if the HCDAO opposes them on this issue pretrial bonds should be granted for every person that is charged with this crime. A pretrial bond will insure that someone is not jailed for something that the law clearly states may be handled by a citation. In turn, this may reduce the amount of people that sit in the county jail. I can not believe that this is that difficult to implement.
Yeah, the cops here in Texas are still in the stone age. They are so stuck up and ignorant that they cause more harm than help the society (I wish they had education). I am completely legal to smoke Salvia on the streets and trip like I was in LSD or Mushrooms but I am not able with a professional doctor's prescribed medicine to ease my pains, go figure it out why the only drug in 10k years that never killed people illegal. Sometimes I feel like I am living in the middle of senseless Disney cartoon figures and trying to make sense of their ideological illusions of powers and freedom.
Nixon started this drug war in the early 1970's mainly because of free spirited hippies openly smoking pot, taking LSD and opposing war. At the time they thought the hippies would take over making the Divided States of America ripe for the taking by the Soviet Communists. Now 40 years later the Communist Soviet Union is dissolved, half the old hippies are now hypocritical closed minded conservatives trying to hold on to as much money as they personally can and forget other human beings. This country imprisons a higher percentage of it's population than any nation in the world and if it wasn't for Joseph Stalin we would have that title for all of history. Think about that, Apartheid South Africa, the Holocaust and all kinds of countries we try to act more civil and compassionate than. More food for thought, there is only 4 countries that have capital punishment, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and the U.S. It's time this government stopped acting above the rest of the world morally and see itself for what it really is, AN OPPRESSIVE POLICE STATE!!!!
If you spent any time in the Harris County Jail you would see cops abusing their power. I have seen a cop freely beating inmates and having to be pulled off inmates by fellow employee's. I have seen high ranking sheriffs bullying and taunting inmates about to be released. Houston is just one video tape away from a Rodney King situation. Attention Houston Police Officers, Harris County Sheriffs and Constables: WE ARE HUMAN, PLEASE TREAT US AS SUCH.