MORE ON ISAAC SINGLETARY

Police are now conceding that Singletary was completely innocent. The
Jacksonville sheriff describes him in this article as an "honest
citizen trying to do good."

Which means that two undercover officers trespassed onto Singletary's
property. They then invited criminals onto his property to engage in
criminal activity with them. Mr. Singletary, recognizing the
trespassers as drug dealers, then properly demanded they leave. He
brought a gun along to defend himself, not an unreasonable action,
given the circumstances. For this, he was shot to death.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist visited Jacksonville yesterday , and
when asked about Singletary's death, referred to the "challenges" of
keeping a community safe.

No, governor. Singletary's death isn't a "challenge." It's the
inevitable, predictable result of a stupid policy whereby politicians
attempt to control people lives. With guns.

In my previous post on Singletary's death, commenter "John" suggested
that while Singletary's death was wrong and unnecessary, it wasn't
directly related to the drug war. I couldn't disagree more. It is
inextricably tied to the drug war. The police in Jacksonville were
doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing (save perhaps for
the trespassing). They were arranging undercover buys, one of really
only two ways to police consensual crimes like drug distribution (the
other being the use of informants). They were confronted by a man
with a weapon. They fired to defend themselves.

Barring further information that these officers fired too quickly or
didn't attempt to announce themselves, this wasn't a case of police
misconduct or excessive use of force. It was the direct result of
government attempting to enforce a policy it has no business
enforcing, and that it can't capably enforce without effecting
tragedies like this one.

But Governor Crist is wrong, too. This wasn't a "challenge." Let's
call Isaac Singletary's death what it is: collateral damage. Like
collateral damage victims of military wars overseas, Singletary's a
victim of living in close proximity to the government's intended
target. In this case, drug dealers.

And like the civilian casualties of military wars, his death won't do
a thing cause the people who run this war to rethink their
methods. Because for them, the ultimate goal is more important than
the innocent lives they may take along the way. Like Governor Crist
said, Singletary's death is really little more than a "challenge" on
the way to a drug-free Florida. A few innocent bodies are the
sacrifice we pay for the privilege of allowing the government to stop
us from smoking pot.

The difference between a foreign war and the drug war, of course, is
that in a foreign war, the goal is (usually) to defeat a foreign
aggressor that poses a threat to U.S. security. In the drug war, it's
to stop people from getting high.

His death itself is tragic enough. More depressing is that it
doesn't appear to have made any newspaper outside the state of
Florida (though it does appear to have made cable news). Which
suggests that this kind of thing isn't even much of an outrage
anymore. It's nearly routine.