The Scoop: Drug users, welcome to Warren County
I’m still trying to figure out how 24 people got drug charges thrown out of court just because they were going to Bonnaroo. I guess if you’re headed to a big enough event, you’re granted immunity.
Now I’m left trying to determine where we draw the line. There is, after all, an air show taking place in nearby Tullahoma this weekend. And I hear a Bonnaroo-type crowd of over 100,000 people are expected to attend. I guess that means it’s OK for those folks to carry drugs through Warren County. We’ll just dismiss the charges.
Since I’m on the topic of big events, we can’t forget that football season is just around the corner. Yep, those Tennessee Vols will be kicking off at Neyland Stadium before we know it, and every home game is sure to draw a Bonnaroo-type crowd of 100,000 people. And to commemorate every single home football game, Warren County is inviting the drug users of this great state to drive through our county. If you get caught, it’s no big deal. Trust me.
Now before I get too far into this, let me say I know all about profiling. Over the last week or so, I’ve heard how profiling is a bad, bad thing.
For folks who don’t know what profiling is, I’ll explain it like this: Everyone in the county knows the Bonnaroo people are going to drive through town loaded down with drugs. But because we know this, we can’t do anything about it.
That’s because since we know they have drugs, it’s profiling. So if our officers pull over Bonnaroo patrons and — surprise — they do in fact have drugs, we have to let them go. Because profiling means you can’t enforce the law.
If you’re still a little confused, I’ll use another example. Let’s say we know most of the Mexicans who drive in Warren County do so without a valid license. And let’s also say we know a large number of Mexicans drive when they’ve had too many drinks.
Because we know these facts, we simply can’t stop every Mexican who is driving down the road. If we did, we would find a lot of drunk Mexicans and many more without licenses. But then we would have to let them all free because that would be profiling and profiling is very, very bad.
The only question I’m left asking is who exactly is profiling bad for? Apparently, it works pretty well for the folks who break the law. That means it must be bad for all of us who — crazy as it sounds — choose to play by the rules.
That’s why I’m a little disappointed we rolled out the red carpet for the Bonnaroo people to just waltz away from Warren County Courthouse. It is very possible we could have found every last one of them guilty and they, in turn, could have appealed the decision. They could have appealed it until some judge agreed there was an appearance of profiling. That judge would then determine it was OK for the Bonnaroo people to break the law because we knew they were breaking the law and therefore profiled them.
Maybe the 24 people arrested in connection with Bonnaroo would have ultimately gotten off on appeals, but I say at least make it tough. At least send some sort of message that drugs aren’t allowed.
I’ve heard all the arguments about the Bonnaroo people coming to town and patronizing our stores and stimulating our local economy. And hearing that, I couldn’t be happier.
So I’ve decided the best thing for me to do is keep my receipts handy. If I’m ever pulled over by our friendly neighborhood officers, I’m going to show them how much money I’ve spent at Kroger and Randy’s Raceway Market over the last two weeks.
The way I understand it, if you come to town and spend a little money, you also receive a get out of jail free card.
(James Clark is editor of the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)