|
Another Person
Killed in the “War on Drugs”
Kathy Lyons
Here's an account of yet
another senseless death in this war on Americans that the authorities call a war
on drugs. Trouble is, the drugs don't die, only people do.
Please lift prayers for this young man's family and for those who killed him.
And please consider this episode as you enter the voting booth on election day.
This is the result of the government's actions. If it weren't for these
trigger-happy police this young man would have continued to be a hard-working,
tax-paying citizen. Friends of mine who traveled to Ohio for a memorial service
for this young man report to me that no pistol was found anywhere near this
young man's body, only a hunting rifle was found in a closet. He was unarmed
and presented no danger to the law enforcement officers.
When you walk into the voting booth on election day, please ask yourself if the
candidate you are about to vote for will endorse the killing of the drug war or
work for its end. Please help end the killing.
Kathy Lyons
Murray, KY
thefarm@apex.net
I'm tired of public servants who seek to be my Master.
> WAR ON DRUGS CAN CLAIM A DEADLY VICTORY
> Date:
> Wed, 30 Oct 2002 20:15:47 -0600 (CST)
>
> WAR ON DRUGS CAN CLAIM A DEADLY VICTORY
> Source: The Columbus Dispatch, October 07, 2002. Copyright: 2002 The
> Columbus
> By: Steve Stephens
> (Dayton, OH) Pot-smoking Ohioans already get off easy, say opponents of
> Issue 1, which would mandate rehab instead of jail for some users.
> For [23-year-old] Clayton Helriggle, however, the penalty was death.
> On Sept. 27, the doors of his Preble County home were kicked in by
> masked, heavily armed men. One shot Helriggle in the chest.
> The intruders belonged to a SWAT team -- "lawmen,'' so to speak, from
> several Preble County jurisdictions.
> They were seeking drugs and found some -- a tiny bit of marijuana. They
> also found a couple of pot pipes and "quantities of packaging items used
>
> in the distribution of marijuana,'' i.e., sandwich bags.
> The shooting is under investigation by the Montgomery County Sheriff's
> Office, which has assigned two detectives full time to the case, said
> Sgt. Ed Copher. He hopes to complete the investigation this month.
> Michael Helriggle said he heard his son's address announced on the
> police scanner the afternoon of the shooting.
> "I only live a quarter mile from there. I was at the scene five minutes
> later.''
> The sight stunned him. More than a dozen officers, in all manner of
> battle dress, stood outside the house, the "battle'' over.
> "I watched the SWAT guys high-fiving each other, laughing.''
> Police said Clayton was holding a pistol when he was shot.
> Clayton owned a gun, as do many folks in rural Preble County, his father
>
> said. But Clayton's best friend, who saw the shooting, said he was armed
>
> with only a blue drinking cup.
> "I'm going to believe his best friend,'' Michael Helriggle said.
> "But even if he did have a gun, he had every right to have it. Those
> guys that busted in there, they didn't have 'sheriff' or 'police'
> written on their shirts. They had on camouflage and black masks. They
> didn't knock. They didn't serve a warrant. They just came in more or
> less like a bunch of storm troopers, kicking down unlocked doors. All
> they really had to do was knock.''
> The marijuana in the house would have netted his son a minor penalty in
> court, Helriggle noted.
> "Clayton would have known there was no reason to worry about what police
>
> would find. The problem was, they sent an unskilled SWAT team into a
> situation they had no business being in.''
> Helriggle said he hopes his son's death spurs a hard look at the war on
> drugs.
> "I'm never going to get my son back, but if I could shut down these SWAT
>
> teams in the name of my son, I know that would be something he'd
> appreciate.
> "This could have been anybody's kid.''
> Clayton Helriggle is just the latest casualty in the war on drugs, said
> John Hartman, director of the Ohio Cannabis Society.
> "Unfortunately, this type of thing is not uncommon in the world of
> marijuana raids,'' he said.
> "The sad reality is that marijuana is a substance that hasn't killed
> anyone in itself. But the whole act of prohibition and the way it's
> enforced --that does cause death.''
> That's one truth DARE classes don't teach: Pot doesn't kill people. Drug
>
> warriors do.
> NOTE: The Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/index.htm)
has
> an
> extensive archive of news stories about this tragedy. You can easily
> access these articles if you go to
http://www.mapinc.org/find and search
>
> on Helriggle.
>
>
> |
