NO MARTYRS

Two men killed; their own actions appear to blame.

There will be those ready to make marijuana martyrs of the two men who
were killed this week in a standoff with authorities at the property
known as Rainbow Farm in southern lower Michigan. They will say the
pair died for what they believed.

It's the kind of tale that can quickly escalate into legend as it
flies around the Internet. Plenty of people still cling to discredited
beliefs that the government was somehow responsible for the awful end
of the 1993 standoff at Waco, Texas, in which 80 people died.

But Rainbow Farm appears to be more a matter of two people who were
trapped outside the law and out of options. While the investigation is
not yet complete, evidence indicates this was a situation in which law
enforcement acted with considerable restraint until faced with
life-or-death choices.

The two men died not for anything they believed but because of what
they did. They weren't arguing principles of freedom or debating
marijuana laws when they raised their rifles in the direction of armed
law officers who had been trying to negotiate a surrender. It's
doubtful the FBI agents or state police who fired the fatal shots were
thinking about anything much larger than self-preservation. But it's
likely, given their history, that the two men who were killed had a
definite idea of the outcome their actions would produce. They were
inviting a reaction.

The Cass County Prosecutor's Office, which had been overseeing an
investigation of drug use at the farm since 1998, owes the public a
full report on the standoff and deaths. While there's no indication of
malfeasance or misfeasance by Prosecutor Scott Teter, the credibility
of such a report would be enhanced by the use of an independent
investigator, perhaps a private attorney or a retired judge.

More than two years ago, when undercover police began recording open
drug use during marijuana festivals at the farm, owner Grover Thomas
Cosslin wrote to Teter that he was "prepared to die on this land" if
authorities tried to seize it because of the numerous drug violations
there.

In the end, it appeared that he forced the law to accommodate him.