The drummer for the Meat Puppets (random, I know) posts old newspaper clippings on his blog, and in this batch from the 1980s, there are a couple of articles from West Virginia that cracked me up.
The first one is about a “new wave” program of providing coupons for citizens to report suspected drug users and dealers to the State Police. A pilot program in Williamson generated almost 700 coupons listing the names, addresses, and/or license plate numbers of drug suspects, which lead to 46 arrests and six convictions. The program was then launched state-wide, with coupons available at State Police offices and from troopers, and even distributed at a state fair.
Though the coupon promised tipsters “Your confidentiality will be guarded,” the state ACLU pointed out the Constitutional flaw in that guarantee:
If the State Police issue a search warrant on the basis of one of these coupons, then the person at trial has the right to confront his accuser under the 6th and 14th Amendments. So the person who makes one of these tips, if he signs the coupon, has a real likelihood of having to show up in court.
Weird. I assume the program was phased out.
The other one is a story about a city councilman in Wheeling who apparently took the phrase “Drug War” literally. He believed that anyone found to be using drugs or driving under the influence should be immediately shot, so he proposed a resolution asking the federal government to implement his plan. The councilman is quoted in the article:
It is time we get tough and show them what war is all about.
Again, I assume the councilman’s resolution was not successful.
0 Responses to “Retro West Virginia News”