Advocating for Marijuana Isn't the Same as Being a Stoner

I'll preface this post by saying that I'm not an advocate for marijuana legalization. I'm also not looking to give people hard time for it, either. I guess I'm kind of agnostic. It's a drug. It doesn't have positive effects, but neither does this glass of bourbon that I'm having right now.

Anyway, the (Interim) Columbia Chief of Police has a Facebook page. I'm not sure why, but whatever. That's not the point. Apparently, someone came on his page and engaged the chief of police.

The threat came in response to a Facebook comment by Brandon Whitmer, who was unimpressed by Santiago's announcement of a local pot bust. "Maybe u should arrest the people shooting people in 5 points [a Columbia neighborhood] instead of worrying about a stoner that's not bothering anyone," Whitmer said. "It'll be legal here one day anyway." To which Santiago replied:

@Brandon whitmer, we have arrested all the violent offenders in Five points. Thank you for sharing your views and giving us reasonable suspicion to believe you might be a criminal, we will work on finding you. 

That post quickly disappeared, creating the impression that the author had thought better of threatening critics of the drug war with arrest. Not so! Santiago later posted this:

This is Interim Chief Santiago posting. I was just notified that one of my staff members deleted my post. I put everyone on notice that if you advocate for the use of illegal substances in the City of Columbia then it's reasonable to believe that you MIGHT also be involved in that particular activity[. T]hreat? Why would someone feel threaten[ed] if you are not doing anything wrong? Apply the same concept to gang activity or gang members. You can have gang tattoos and advocate that life style, but that only makes me suspicious of them, I can't do anything until they commit a crime. So feel free to express yourself, and I will continue to express myself and what we stand for. I am always open to hearing how our citizens feel like we can be effective in fighting crime.

My only point in posting this is that advocating for something isn't "reasonable suspicion" that you're committing a crime. It may be identifying yourself as sympathetic, but it isn't a crime to advocate for anything. Maybe I decide to be in favor of legalizing marijuana. That doesn't mean squat as far as "reasonable suspicion".

The Interim City of Columbia Chief of Police needs to calm down. There's plenty of work for him to do, but the whole You don't have anything to fear if you haven't done anything wrong is a little too Germany in the 1930's for me.