Sunday, November 29, 2009

NASCAR to crown 2009 Champion in Las Vegas; local IMCA and Whelan Weekly Racing series; 4 Officers ambushed and killed in Pierce County, Washington

The world of NASCAR is getting ready to formally crown the 2009 champion, Jimmy Johnson. Johnson’s week will begin on Monday with public appearances in the San Diego area, then on Tuesday in the Fontana area. The festivities will move on to Las Vegas, where there will be activities open to the public all over Las Vegas as well as at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. There will be a “parade lap” on the strip by the Chase drivers, and pit stop competitions for fans using real Sprint Cup cars. These will also be held all over the city. The awards banquet will be at the Winn Vegas and for the first time, a select few members of the public will be able to attend. Even though I was pulling for Mark Martin to win the Championship, I congratulate the #48 Team on their 4th in a row. I believe that after the season Mark Martin had in 2009, he will once again be near the top of the heap in 2010. In his 2nd year with his Hendrick team, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

I’m sure that anybody spending this week in Vegas will not find a shortage of things to do if they are NASCAR fans.


Promote your business with personalized M&M’S®.


On the local racing scene, some awards banquets have already been held and others are coming up. IMCA has already posted the 2010 rules on their website. At the Beatrice Speedway Women for Racing Banquet, it was announced that there were no changes being made in the non-sanctioned factory stock class. The 2010 schedule was not announced yet. The Junction Motor Speedway awards banquet will be held on December 12th, and any changes being made at that venue will be announced at that time. Eagle Raceway located 12 miles east of Lincoln, Nebraska already has a tentative 2010 schedule, having added IMCA Sport Mods to the line-up. Eagle’s awards banquet is scheduled for January 9th, 2010.

After input from fans and participants, the Butler County Motorplex near Rising City, Nebraska will once again race on Friday nights.


JC Whitney Outlet Store!


I-80 Speedway will be holding their awards banquet on January 9th. The last I checked, there was nothing out about schedules, etc for I-80 for 2010.

Dawson County Speedway at Lexington, Nebraska has announced their classes and tentative schedule for 2010, with more discussion planned at their awards banquet on December 12th.

Moving 125 miles southeast of Beatrice, new owners took over Thunderhill Speedway at Mayetta, Kansas. The track was closed before the end of the 2009 season and put up for sale. The Conkwright family from Manhattan, KS, longtime racers themselves, purchased the track and since have been working on it every waking minute they have to spare. It looks like they will keep the same classes they ran in 2009, Modifieds, Sportmods, factory stocks and hobby stocks. They will be racing on Saturday nights, but a schedule has not been set at this time. With a background in Late Models, the new owners would like to get a late model special or two on the 2010 calendar.


Buy Online & Pick-up In Store!


At Beatrice Speedway, there are some drivers switching classes. I’ve heard that Kyle Vanover is selling his IMCA Modified and will be racing a factory stock in 2010. I haven’t talked to Kyle to verify this, but he has a ton of modified stuff for sale and yesterday I noticed a stock car body sitting next to the his garage.

Tyler Phelps will be driving a factory stock for Watts-Pope Racing out of Beatrice. That could prove interesting as Jeff Watts will still be racing. It will be interesting to see how Tyler does against his car owner. Another rumor I haven’t verified yet is that IMCA Modified driver Brent Schlake bought a factory stock. Beatrice factory stock driver Gary Laflin was in an IMCA Sport Mod at the Beatrice Octoberfest and has said he will be racing a Sport Mod in 2010. I haven’t heard where his factory stock went, or if it did go anywhere.

We got our old trailer sold last week. The SCS car is still for sale, either with a floater rear end with no gears or with a metric rear end. It looks like the block of the engine we had problems with will clean up with a de-glazing. I will have to find a new set of pistons and rings and of course the heads need to be fixed. In the meantime, I need to get the 360 out of the “new” car so I can freshen it and go over the rest of the car with a fine tooth comb so it’s ready to go come the 2010 racing season.


Shop for Winter Tires Now!


Before I close, I must once again address the issue of “Officer Down.” At 8:15 AM on Sunday November 29th, four officers of the Lakewood, Washington Police Department were shot and killed as they sat in a coffeehouse working on their laptops. It isn’t clear whether the officers even had time to draw their weapons to return fire. Pierce County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Troyer said the attack was clearly target at the officers, not a robbery gone bad. The officers’ marked police cars were parked outside and all of the officers were in uniform. PLEASE, ALL OFFICERS READING THIS - BE IN CODE RED AT ALL TIMES!! Here’s hoping that the perpetrator of this vicious crime is caught soon. Condolences go out to the family, friends and co-workers of these fallen heroes.



http://www.policeone.com/Fugitive/articles/1970694-Manhunt-continues-motive-unknown-in-Wash-coffeehouse-ambush/

weight loss products



Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Las Vegas Metro Officer killed

Once more we are reminded of the dangers of police work. At this time, this incident is thought to have been a random robbery, but it’s possible that the suspects knew that their victim was a police officer. A little after midnight on November 19th, an off-duty Las Vegas police officer died after being shot in his garage by robbers. Reports from the online edition of the Las Vegas Review Journal say that 30-yr old Trevor Nettleton was a Marine Corps veteran who had been a North Las Vegas Police Officer for 3 years. Officer Nettleton was found dead of apparent gunshot wounds inside his home in the 1100 block of Emerald Stone Avenue, North Las Vegas police spokeswoman Chrissie Coon said.

Coon said the officer was gunned down in the garage of his home during an apparent robbery attempt in which there was an exchange of gunfire. Neighbors called in reports of gunfire at 12:18 a.m.

Clark County Undersheriff Rod Jett said the police officer had just arrived home after his shift with the Bolden Area Command, near Martin Luther King Boulevard and Vegas Drive. Jett said the shooting appears to be a random act. The officer was not in uniform and did not have his patrol car with him. The officer's wife, mother, a 1-year-old son and 2-month-old daughter were at home at the time of the shooting, Jett said. Heartfelt condolences go out to the family, friends and co-workers of Officer Nettleton.

One follow-up story tells us that Officer Nettleton was a 2nd generation police officer. His father, Richard, is a retired Nevada State Trooper. When Trevor told his father of his plans to become a police officer, Richard tried to talk him out of it. When Trevor graduated from the police academy, his father pinned the badge on Trevor.

In another story, we learn that three suspects are in custody. At least two are gang members and one lived in the neighborhood. Kind of leads me to believe that maybe this was not a random robbery after all.



Police officers do a lot of things in their off-duty time to relieve the stress of police work. I know of guys that do carpenter work in their off-duty time. When I was with the Grand Island Police Department, several officers rode motorcycles. I’d have liked to have joined them on some rides, but at the time I didn’t have a motorcycle. Shortly after I started working in Beatrice, I bought a 1980 Kawasaki LTD 750. I rode around the southeast Nebraska area quite a bit and made several trips to Sunset Speedway in Omaha to watch the races. It wasn’t long before I realized I wanted to get a bigger motorcycle. I’d be going down the road and I’d meet Ultra Classics and Gold Wings and always thought to myself “I’ll have one of those one day.”

All told, I put about 10,000 miles on that Kawasaki while I had it. In August of 1992, I saw an ad for a farm sale north of Friend, Nebraska. They had a 1981 Gold Wing Interstate advertised on the auction with less than 19,000 miles on it. I went home with a new 11 year old Gold Wing that day. Before the riding season was over, I’d put almost 3,000 miles on it.

Right after I bought the Kawasaki, I joined the Grand Island Blue Knights Chapter. At the time, that was the only Blue Knights Chapter in Nebraska and we had 12 members. Today, Nebraska I has about 50 members and there are 4 chapters in Nebraska. Worldwide, the Blue Knights have over 20,000 members. I attended my first Midwest Regional Conference, at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, in June 1993. At the time, that was my longest road trip on a motorcycle. It was also the first time I ever had to put on rain gear. As we were going to get on the Kansas turnpike at Wichita, there was a trooper sitting on the side of the road. He told John that there was a tornado warning for Wellington, which is about 20 miles south of Wichita. There was heavy rain, wind and hail. We pulled off the highway and went to a café a couple of blocks east and waited out the storm while drinking coffee and sampling the homemade pies. In a couple of hours, we heard the weather had cleared and took off in a very light rain. A few miles inside of Oklahoma, we stopped and put on the rain gear as the sky was getting darker. We were only back on the road for a few miles when we hit with a real gully washer. It rained so hard that we were going less than 25 miles an hour, and I had a hard time seeing the taillights on the motorcycle ahead of me. Luckily, it only lasted a few miles, and when we ran out of it, the skies almost immediately cleared. We stopped just before the Cimarron Turnpike and took the rain gear off. From there on, we had a beautiful ride.

Since then, I’ve had several different rain suits; some did a fair job and others didn’t help much at all. This particular weekend ended up being sunny and hot the rest of the trip. I made a lot of shorter trips, traveling about a total of 8,000 miles that summer, but didn’t end up using the rain gear for the rest of the season.

The 1993 MWRC Fall Conference that year was at Springfield, Missouri, but I ended up not going. Instead, Nebraska I decided to ride up to the Ft Randall dam just inside South Dakota. I asked Dad if he wanted to go, and he agreed. It had been quite a few years since he’d been on a motorcycle, but we would ride about 100 miles between stops and everything worked out great. At the last minute, the other guys who were going to make the ride backed out, but we had a good time.

I’d never been to that area so I took a camera and over the 2 days took a bunch of pictures. We took Hwy 281 north from Grand Island to Ft Randall. The next day we went back east to Yankton, South Dakota to Hwy 81 and came back south into Nebraska after a stop at Gavins Point Dam. It was well after dark when we got home. All in all, it was a great weekend of riding and sightseeing.


Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Firearms deer season starts; NASCAR Chase for the Championship; IMCA Duel in the Desert; plan ahead for 2010's motorcycle rides

This was the first weekend of firearms deer season in our neck of the woods. Of course, the bow-and-arrow hunters have been out there for a while already. With the harvest in full swing and the deer on the move, this is the time of year to be especially alert when you’re driving. It doesn’t matter if you are on the highway, a country road, or in town, you have a chance of hitting a deer. Thursday evening, I took a call about a car-deer accident in the middle of Beatrice. The car was driving west on Hoyt St west of Runza, When a deer came out of the west ditch and ran into the right front fender. The deer kept on going. The driver checked around and could not find the deer. When I got done taking the report, I spotlighted the area on the north side of the road. I did a double-take when I saw three deer about 75 yards north of me. One of the deer was flipping me off!!!

The deer problem isn’t unique for Nebraska. I got an e-mail from the Blue Knights Yahoo Groups Sunday evening. Larry Talley, a member of Blue Knights VA XIII, hit a deer while riding his motorcycle Sunday afternoon. He was airlifted to Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina where he it was found that his right leg is broken in two places between the knee and ankle with a compound fracture.

Let’s all be careful for the next few months so we don’t end up hitting one of these critters and having the chance of being hurt ourselves.

I had to start a fire in the woodburner this afternoon so I could work in the garage. I got the engine out of the SCS car earlier in the week and took it apart yesterday while watching the Nebraska Cornhuskers on the TV. I finished doing what I wanted to get done this afternoon while watching and listening to the NASCAR race from Phoenix. As much as I’m pulling for Mark Martin to win the championship, Jimmy Johnson will take the big trophy home next week at Homestead. If Mark leads the most laps and wins, Jimmy will have to finish 26th or worse in order to not win the championship. I hate for Mark Martin to have another one slip out of his fingers. He’s finished 2nd in the standings 4 previous times in his NASCAR career.




I got the engine apart that was in the SCS car Satday afternoon, too. The head on the driver’s side has all the exhaust valves bent. The #5 piston started to melt and the #7 piston has a broken ring land. The #4 & #6 pistons also have broken ring lands. The middle cylinders on both sides look like they were running lean. I thought the carb was jetted big enough so I’m wondering if there’s a problem with the carburetor. We had to run the 350 Holley for that race, and we hadn’t run that particular carburetor in the past as it came with the car and trailer we bought at the end of the season. I’ll have to take the block in to NAPA to see if it can be saved. There weren’t any holes or cracks in it that I could see. All the bearings looked like new, even after about 30 shows on them.




Auto Parts Warehouse




Thanks to the internet, I was able to watch the Duel in the Desert races from Las Vegas, Nevada Friday and Saturday night. The races started Thursday night with heat races and qualifying A Features There were 262 IMCA modifieds signed in representing 23 states and 3 Canadian provinces. The Saturday night A Feature paid the IMCA modifieds an IMCA record $7,777.77 to win. Beatrice regulars Johnny Saathoff, Jordan Grabouski and Chris Burk made the long tow to try to take home the winner’s share of the purse. Eagle regular and 2009 IMCA National Champion, Dylan Smith and Rising City and Junction Motor Speedway regular Shane Stutzman were also there. Last year’s winner, David Murray, Jr of Oberlin, Kansas as well as Darrick Klima of Belleville, Kansas were also there. Shane Stutzman qualified for the A Feature by winning his last chance race, passing for the lead coming to the checkered flag and beating out Randy Hall, who made the trip from New York. Murray and Grabouski both missed making the A Feature. Jeremy Payne, who has two Duel in the Desert A Feature wins, drove Jet Racing’s 96p car and made the A Feature. When the green flag dropped on the A Feature, Ricky Alvarado, who has won at Beatrice Speedway in the past, jumped to the point. On the 3rd lap, Saathoff took 2nd place and began to reel Alvarado in. After a lap 36 caution, Alvarado went high in turn 4, allowing Saathoff to get under him and make the pass. Saathoff never looked back after that and took home another Duel in the Desert trophy. Shane Stutzman finished 12th, Klima 13th, Dylan Smith 20th, Jeremy Payne 23rd and Jay Steffens of North Platte finished 24th. Twenty eight cars started the A Feature. Las Vegas officials are hoping for 300 IMCA modifieds next year.

A couple of years ago, when we were in Vegas for the NASCAR weekend, we went to the races at the dirt track at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The track reminds me somewhat of I-80 but doesn’t seem as high banked. It’s a wide track and looks like it would be fun to race on. During the Duel in the Desert, they also have IMCA stock cars. Maybe some benevolent race fan out there would finance a trip for R & R Racing to next years event?? I guess not. The night we went to the dirt track, we only had to go from the Speedway to the dirt track, but no matter which way we turned, we could not get going in the right direction. That is a story for another time.


Shop Advance Auto Parts


We’re going to pass on Vegas this year. Instead, we’re planning to go to Texas for the April NASCAR weekend. If I remember correctly, all three NASCAR series are racing at the track that weekend, so I hope to get my “fix” for a few days that way. Who knows, the weather might even be good enough to make a motorcycle trip out of it.

Looks like while I’m daydreaming about taking motorcycle trips on the Gold Wing next riding season, I’d better be getting my long underwear and stocking cap out. In the meanwhile, I received another link to the Motorcycle Safety Foundation site which gives you tests on road signs and collision trap tests. I’m going to bookmark it and go to it a lot!! http://www.msf-usa.org/riderperception/
Thanks, Fred, for sending it to me.

weight loss products



Monday, November 9, 2009

Active shooter incidents; Officer Down in Seattle

I’ve often heard it said that bad things happen “in threes.” The events of the last few days enforce this saying.

For as long as memory serves, Law Enforcement has been in the business of reacting to things that happened. Yes, there are a lot of things we can do to stem crime and bad behavior. Locally, I’ve had people tell me of an area where drivers seemingly ignore the speed limit. When I have the chance, I will run radar in that area. After making a few traffic contacts, the flow of traffic usually slows down. It’s common knowledge that stepped-up traffic enforcement causes the motoring public to be more mindful of how they drive.

In recent years, Law Enforcement everywhere has stepped up training in the area of responding to an active shooter incident. This is something we all hope we will never have to respond to but if we do, we need to be prepared to respond. Look around at your communities and see where an incident could happen. Schools, churches, malls, hospitals, offices, just anywhere a shooter can go and kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible.

On Thursday afternoon, reports began to filter in over the news services about an active shooter incident at Ft Hood, Texas. How could something like this happen at, of all places, a United States military base on United States soil? Over the next days, weeks, months and even years, we will learn what happened to cause an Army major to snap and kill 13 people and wound 31. Rather than dwell on the shooter, my focus is on the first responders at the scene. In particular, the Ft Hood Police Department police officers who confronted the shooter and neutralized the threat. Sgt Kimberly Munley engaged the shooter and suffered a gunshot wound to her right wrist and was shot in each thigh. Her partner, Sgt Mark Todd, also exchanged fire with the shooter. According to news reports, Sgt Munley started her Law Enforcement career with the Wrightsville Beach, N.C. Police Department as a reserve officer. She later worked as a beach patrol officer and as an officer in the uniform patrol division. Sgt Munley is a U.S. Army veteran who joined the Ft Hood Police Department in January 2008. She is a member of the emergency response team and a department firearms instructor.

Sgt Mark Todd is a retired soldier who is a police officer with the Ft Hood Police Department. He arrived just after Sgt Munley. Sgt Todd related that seconds after he arrived on the scene, he saw a calm-looking Hasan, his gun drawn and his fingers pointing at people outside the Soldier Readiness Processing Center. Todd said he then saw Hasan shooting at soldiers as they attempted to flee. Sgt Todd shouted at the shooter to stop, but he turned and fired at Sgt Todd, who returned fire. The shooter then slumped down against a utility pole and fell on his back. Sgt Todd then approached the downed suspect, kicked his weapon away and handcuffed the suspect.

Both Sgt Munley and Sgt Todd are heroes who did exactly as they were trained. They located the shooter and quickly neutralized him. Because of their actions, they undoubtedly saved many lives.

Shop Advance Auto Parts

The next day word was received of an active shooter incident in Orlando, FL at an office building. One person was killed and five were injured. The shooter was a former employee who was able to leave the building before officers arrived. He was arrested without incident at his mother’s home about three hours after the shootings. He had been fired by the company in 2007 after working for the firm for a year. When a reporter outside of the Police Department asked the shooter why he did it, he replied “Because they left me to rot.”

On Sunday morning the Lincoln, Nebraska newspaper reported on a shooting in a Vail. Colorado bar. A 63-yr old Vail resident is in jail at the Eagle County Jail on a charge of first degree homicide and possibly some other charges.

Witnesses said the shooter was involved in an argument and was escorted out of the bar by staff, police said. Once outside, he began shooting, police said. He then re-entered the bar and continued shooting, police said.

The man who died in the shooting was identified as a 70-yr old man from Carbondale.

The injured victims include a 63-year-old Vail resident who sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was transported via helicopter to Denver Health with “life threatening” injuries, Sheriff Henninger said. A 29-year-old victim remains in the Vail Valley Medical Center with a gunshot wound to the arm, and a 25-year-old was released from the Vail hospital after being treated for a leg wound.

The 29-year-old was a Sandbar employee, while the other three victims, including Kitching, were patrons, Henninger said.

The shooter appears to have acted alone, and there are no other suspects, Henninger said.

The story gave no information as to where the arrest occurred or the response of Law Enforcement.

If there was never another active shooter incident, that would suit all of law enforcement just fine. But with the current social and economic conditions, it will happen again. We just need to be sure we are prepared when they happen.

Auto Parts Warehouse


On Halloween night, two Seattle police officers had cleared a traffic stop and were sitting on the side of the street discussing the stop. A car pulled alongside the stopped patrol car and somebody inside the car opened fire on the officers without warning. Field training officer Timothy Brenton was killed and Officer Brit Sweeney was injured. Hundreds of officers from scores of agencies became involved in the investigation. Through the hard work of law enforcement and tips by citizens, a suspect was developed. When officers attempted to contact the suspect, he drew a gun and officers fired at him, wounding him. He is in a Seattle hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The Seattle Police Department has said the suspect is also suspected in the firebombing of four police vehicles a week prior to the shootings of Officers Brenton and Sweeney.

The senseless attack on the Seattle officers reminds all of us that we never can be complacent. We need to always be mindful of our surroundings. I was reading an officer survival article last summer that was written by an expert who teaches officer survival all across the United States. One comment he made stuck in my mind, and it says volumes about attacks on police officers. He said that as police officers, we should be thinking about how to survive an attack by everybody we meet. In the end, we want to always come home to our families at the end of our shifts.

Wednesday is Veterans Day. Please make an effort to honor all our veterans past and present. Remember, if you can read this, thank a teacher. If you can read this in English, thank a veteran.



weight loss products



Friday, November 6, 2009

Special Olympics Torch Run, Blue Knights trips planned for 2010 and proposed Federal laws

Sometimes I really HATE computers!! I just spent about 30 minutes typing, then one slip of a finger and I lost EVERYTHING!! I do well just to type, and have no idea how to recover what I lost, so I’m starting all over again!

After being hired by the City of Beatrice in late 1989, I found that area Law Enforcement had not yet participated in the Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics, which precedes the Nebraska Special Olympics games each year. In 1990, I went back to Grand Island and participated in that leg of the Torch Run. I was also able to do some networking and in 1991, a leg of the Torch Run was run from Beatrice to Lincoln. I was able to participate in this for several years, and was even able to participate in the final few blocks of the run in Lincoln. At that time, the runners coming in from the west met the runners coming from the south a couple of blocks west of the Nebraska State Capitol . The groups merged and were joined by many Special Olympics athletes and ran the torch the last couple of blocks to the Capitol, running under a gigantic U.S. flag that was suspended over the street. This was a very emotional experience for all involved. I left the Patrol Division of the Beatrice Police Department in 1998 to work on the SEADE Task Force and got away from helping with the Torch Run. Other officers stepped up and took over for me.

The National Special Olympics Games will be held in Lincoln, Nebraska next summer, July 2010. A leg of the Torch Run will be coming through Beatrice leading up to the Games. A note from Chief Lang a week ago asked for a volunteer to help with coordinating the Torch Run with the Chamber of Commerce and other entities. After some thought about it, I left Chief Lang a note and told him I would take the responsibility. I have my first meeting at the Chamber of Commerce on November 24th.

The motorcycle riding season is almost over. We are looking forward to 2010 and I’ve already looked at the road atlas to try to decide the best way to go to the Blue Knights International Convention in Billings, MT in July. We also hope to make it to both the Spring and Fall MWRC rides which will be at St Joseph, Missouri in June and Grand Forks, North Dakota in September. The off season can be used not only for planning your trips for the upcoming year, but riders should use the time to replace worn out parts, equipment and riding gear. We need to take an inventory of our safety equipment to be sure we have what we need during our trips, whether they are only a few miles from the house, or all the way across the continent. I have taken the following from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation:
http://www.msf-usa.org/index_new.cfm?spl=2&action=display&pagename=library Things mentioned are helmets, eye and ear protection, jacket, pants, gloves, boots, rain gear, and even high visibility gear. Late last summer, I was at the Blue Knights Fall MWRC in Lawton, Oklahoma. Ft Sill is also right there and there are some very good museums there. However, in order to legally ride on base, I had to have a high visibility vest.

Be sure your driver’s license and insurance is up to date. I carry year round insurance on our Gold Wing for those rare days during the winter that I might be able to make a day trip. During the off season, look your motorcycle over to be sure it is safe for the upcoming riding season. Change the oil and filters, be sure your tires don’t need to be replaced, drain and replace the brake fluids, be sure the brake pads aren’t worn out. Maintain proper air pressure in the tires. If you have an air suspension system, be sure to maintain the proper air pressure in it. If you will be pulling a trailer, be sure to inspect it, too and repair or replace worn parts on it, too. Be sure the lights work and the tires are good. When were the wheel bearings packed last?

I was just looking through the October issue of the FOP (Fraternal Order of Police) Journal, which is put out by the National FOP. They usually highlight some of the pending Federal legislation that the FOP either lobbies for or against. I see that there are two pieces of Federal legislation being looked at right now. The first, HR 3245, the “Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act,” would remove references to “cocaine base” from the U.S. Code, thereby greatly reducing sentences of offenders convicted of offenses involving crack cocaine. The goal of this legislation is to eliminate the difference between the Federal sentences received by crack and powder cocaine offenders. The FOP opposes this legislation and maintains that the differences in sentencing should be addressed by increasing the sentences for powder cocaine offenders.

The other piece of legislation that the F.O.P. is tracking is S. 714, the “National Criminal Justice Commission Act.” This would create a national commission to examine the criminal justice system in the United States. The concern of the F.O.P. is the narrow and prescriptive nature of the commission’s recommendation - which are predicated at “solving” the problem of the high prison populations and the disparities in the racial demographics of the prison population by weakening Federal drug laws. My personal feeling is that passing these laws as they are written would further tie the hands of law enforcement and endanger the public. Maybe that’s what happens when a person works on a Drug Task Force for over 8 years.

I’ve heard time and time again that “drugs are a victimless crime.” I strongly oppose that statement. There are many victims in a drug crime. I’ve bought methamphetamine from a mother with a newborn baby. She was afraid if she sold me the meth she had, she would not be able to get more, so she took her newborn with her to get more from her source. That baby was a victim with no say in what happened. I bought meth from a guy who had a 4 yr old and a newborn in the house. He had never met me before and did not know if I might be an axe murderer. Those two little ones were victims. I bought meth in a park from a guy whose 7-yr old son sat in the back seat of the car and watched as his father sold me an “8-ball” of meth. That 7-yr old was a victim. Even after coming back to uniform, I still have no use for drug dealers.

Rehab?? Statistics show that 47% of everybody who try meth are hooked the very first time they use it. “Marijuana is harmless.” I’ve interviewed several hundred people about their drug use, and 99% say their road to meth use started with marijuana. I’m not saying that rehab does not work as I know of people it has worked for and they are doing great now. However, as many times as not, it takes more than once in rehab. They need to completely change their lifestyle, beginning with the people they hang out with.