NRLEA

Harmful marijuana initiative to be on November ballot?

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News, NRLEA

SAVECALIFORNIA.COM NEWS RELEASE
January 28, 2010

Defeat of marijuana initiative is Job #1 for pro-child voters
Pro-family organization speaks out as pot initiative backers turn in signatures

Sacramento, California – A leading California pro-family organization is warning voters not to support the marijuana legalization initiative, which today turned in around 700,000 signatures, likely enough to qualify for the November ballot.
 

NRLEA against marijuana legalization in California

“Voters must rise up and defeat this foolish initiative, which, if passed, would irreparably harm the lungs and brains of teenagers and young adults,” said Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, a statewide pro-family, pro-child organization. “Stopping this harmful marijuana initiative must be Job #1 for every voter who cares about children.”
 
“Four times the strength of marijuana in the late 1970s, today’s pot is more addictive than alcohol, more toxic than cigarettes, and will causing disease, disability and early death in those who regularly smoke it or use it as a gateway drug,” Thomasson said. “Legalizing marijuana means many more DUIs and more Californians dying on the road. It means marijuana can and will be sold in grocery stores, normalizing this unhealthy substance in children’s eyes.”
 
“Good government is supposed to protect the innocent,” Thomasson said. “But legalizing marijuana would victimize people by promoting a bad thing as something good, cause irreversible harm by putting powerful carcinogens and other toxins into their lungs and brains, empower crime organizations that will dominate a much-larger marijuana trade, and deny healthy lives to teenagers who will definitely get their hands on this harmful new marijuana.”
 
“With the proliferation of pot stores throughout the state, Californians now realize they were fooled into approving so-called ‘medicinal marijuana’ on the 1996 ballot,” Thomasson added. “Unless they’re smoking something, voters won’t make that mistake again.”
 
The harms of today’s marijuana is why the federal government has been educating teens about the dangers of marijuana, and is why law enforcement leaders and addiction experts testified against marijuana legalization at a Jan. 12, 2010 legislative hearing in Sacramento.
 
In December, a nationwide study of teen substance abuse from the University of Michigan reported that youth marijuana use increased last year, despite a nationwide prohibition. The study found 27 percent of 10th graders and a full third of 12th graders had used marijuana.
 
Comparatively, the rates for having had any alcohol to drink in the past 30 days are 15 percent, 30 percent and 44 percent in 8th, 10th and 12th grade. When asked how easy it would be to get alcohol if they wanted some, the majority of students in all three grades said it would be “fairly easy” or “very easy.”
 
“The facts show that legalizing marijuana for adults will significantly increase marijuana smoking by teenagers,” said Thomasson. “If something is legal for adults, children can and will get their hands on it. Some very selfish adults are leading young people astray.”
 
“So-called medicinal marijuana was a hoax designed to fool the public into full legalization,” Thomasson said. “Before Prop. 215 passed, patients could receive, and can still get today, prescriptions of Marinol, derived from marijuana without all the toxins and carcinogens, from bona fide physicians. This renders marijuana dispensaries completely unnecessary for those who ignorantly or deceptively claim they need it.”
 
Other states and nations demonstrate the harm done by marijuana legalization:
 
Alaska: After the Alaska Supreme Court legalized marijuana in 1975, teen marijuana use jumped to 51%. According to a 1988 University of Alaska study, the state’s 12 to 17-year-olds used marijuana at more than twice the national average for their age group. This clear harm motivated Alaska voters to recriminalize marijuana in 1990.
 
The Netherlands: From 1984 to 1996, the Dutch liberalized the use of cannabis. Surveys reveal that lifetime prevalence of cannabis in Holland increased consistently and sharply. For the age group 18-20, the increase is from 15 percent in 1984 to 44 percent in 1996. When law enforcement officially turned a blind eye to marijuana, there were three criminal organizations in Amsterdam. Despite marijuana “regulation” in 1996, today there are many more criminal organizations in the city than before legalization.
 
California’s failed experiment with so-called “medicinal marijuana” in 1996 has resulted today in the half-legalization of marijuana, where most adults and even minors can buy and smoke pot. “In Los Angeles County there are more marijuana dispensaries than Starbucks,” said Assemblyman Curt Hagman, a Chino Hills Republican and vice-chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
 
Background from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
Legalization of drugs leads to increased use and increased addiction »
“Medical” marijuana facts »

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SaveCalifornia.com is a leading West Coast nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing children and families. We stand for marriage and family, parental rights, the sanctity of human life, religious freedom, financial freedom, and back-to-basics education.

California State Assembly PSC Passes Measure to Legalize Marijuana

Posted by NRLEA under Latest News, NRLEA

The State of California Public Safety Committee narrowly passes the bill to legalize marijuana similar to cigarettes and alcohol. 

This bill is bad for everyone, it would allow anyone to smoke the marijuana just like cigarettes and the cash-strapped State of California legislator are digging themselves deeper and deeper by trying to justify the means to make it legal so they can tax themselves out of debt.

We say, “stop smoking it”!  It appears that the State legislator is smoking it while in session because the bill is filled with bad language that will cause law enforcement more grief.

“Don’t we have enough trouble with legal drugs and mind-altering substances, as well as the health and public safety impacts of alcohol and tobacco?” Susan Manheimer from the San Mateo Police Chief or CA Police Chiefs Association said.

“It legitimizes the quest for debate, the quest for for discussion. There was a time when the ‘M-word’ would never have been brought up in Sacramento,” Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said.

Governor Schwarzenegger stands by the current law allowing those with a medical purpose to have it, but does not support this bill.

“It’s far better for the Legislature to get ahead of it and respond to voter concerns, but be able to do so if there’s flaws, we can adjust it,” Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said.

The  NRLEA does not support this bill and advises California law enforcement to stand together against this terrible bill.

NRLEA Says No To Senate Healthcare Reform Debate

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

The NRLEA and membership have voiced their opinion that no U.S. Senator should be voting for debate on the health-care reform.  This is a terrible bill and would damage our countries excellent health-care system and is also unconstitutional. 

This bill will cause unwarranted taxes and burdens on all citizens of this country and affects all of us.  S-chip covers many people under the age of 26 and is no excuse for this debate.  This bill should be dead on arrival and any vote for debate is a vote for this bill. 

This vote on Saturday will determine who will be supported and not supported in any future elections and re-elections of  U.S. Senators starting in 2010.  A ‘Test’ vote will equal a ‘Real’ vote from citizens in 2010.

HR3962 – The NRLEA Membership Has Said ‘NO’ To This Bad Bill

Posted by NRLEA under Latest News, NRLEA

The National Rural Law Enforcement Association and all its members has significantly voted NO to this bad health-care bill from Nancy Pelosi and those who sponsor it.  It is bad for America and bad for business and will hurt all Americans who are struggling with money issues, mortgages and making payments let alone having a new tax forced upon them.

Furthermore, most agencies have spoken and said they will not support an unconstitutional law and/or assist in arresting those in violation of any failure to pay taxes or fines on it if they can’t afford it.

We encourage all those who are on the fence on this terrible bill to vote ‘NO’.

NRLEA Announces Limited Grant Funded For Online Reporting

Posted by NRLEA under Latest News, NRLEA

Today the NRLEA and with several other members have announced a limited time and limited amount of grants funded directly for agencies that wish to use a citizens online reporting for their communities.

The grant is for the BobCOP Online Reports Only system.  This system will allow any police agency the capability to add a state-of-the-art sophisticated online reporting system to their current website or other and can start accepting reports immediately. 

All grants are on a first come, first served basis and all interested agencies need to visit www.bobcop.com for further details or just register online at BobCOP.  Amount is 50% of current price.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to decriminalize undermines police

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

California Governor

With a current budget of 26.1 billion dollars and with a plan to reduce 1.2 billion dollars from the California State Department of Corrections yearly budget, the governor wants to reduce the number of inmates going to prison by changing the criminal justice system.

One example is to reduce the amount of a vehicle theft valued from $2500 or less as a misdemeanor.

It makes this crime a catch and release and puts the criminal back out on the streets.  The over-crowding of jails and prisons is already a burden and instead of cutting the fat from legislators who appoint their buddies and term-limited politicians from positions that only require them to show up once a year for one vote and get paid a whopping $280,000.00 and all the other pork feed machines, the real criminals need to be reduced from the Capitol first.

If this passes we can rest assured that crime will increase especially since vehicle thefts have been dropping in the State of California at record numbers.  This plan is a disaster and severely undermines police and their efforts to protect the communities in which they serve.

Some provisions of Schwarzenegger’s plans are:

- making the writing of bad checks, receiving stolen property, and petty theft misdemeanors instead of felonies. The proposed change would mean the crimes will no longer be publishable with prison sentences. This will simply encourage more criminals to pursue identify theft.

- raising the threshold for grand theft from $400 to $2,500 which means the theft of an item valued at $2,300 would be considered a misdemeanor. The end result is no state prison time and minimal time in the San Joaquin County Jail due to overcrowding.

- placing paroles who commit some parole violations to be eligible for GPS supervision outside of prison by eliminating the current law requiring them to be automatically sent back to prison.

- possibly commuting the sentences of illegal immigrant inmates to allow them to be turned over to federal officials for deportation. His plan calls for starting with low level cases and proceeding on an individual basis. Up first on the list are those who have committed just one felony and have never committed violent acts or a sexual offense.

- inmates released who are considered low to moderate risk will not be subject to supervision by parolee officers in a bid to get the case load down from 70 to 1 to 45 to 1 per probation office. They would still be subject, however, to warrantless searches by police.

- allowing some prison inmates deemed low-risk offenders to serve their prison sentence in a home or a hospital treatment center wearing a GPS device on an ankle bracelet. Inmates eligible would be sick, elderly or have less than 12 months left on their sentences. The governor gives no indication of who would monitor these individuals.

This is very bad news for police and their communities and the NRLEA does not support this plan to put criminals back onto the streets.  However, we do support the sending home of illegal aliens and the passing of a law that would send them to prison for an extremely very long time if they return illegally.  Police chiefs will have a difficult time fighting the same criminals all over again.

Announcement: Grant Fund Will Soon End

Posted by NRLEA under Latest News, NRLEA

BobCOP, LLC, The Elkan Group, LLC  and the NRLEA and others involved in the Grant Fund for law enforcement have announced the money will soon be deferred to other areas of greater need and importance  and the opportunity for agencies to purchase the BobCOP Systems at a very low price that is guaranteed by the grant fund to purchase the bulk of the cost will soon end.

Agencies have been slow to act and re-act to the offers since last March and many attribute their issues with their current budgets and time table to for the new year starting July 1.  However, the lack of movement and idleness will cause this to end sooner than later. 

“Either the police chiefs want to take advantage of a community policing tool that no one else offers and has been perfected by BobCOP or they just don’t see the advantage of having any system to help save them time and money for their city,” says Steve Adams, Executive Administrator (NRLEA).

“Over ten million dollars has been set aside for this project and its a shame that agencies are not responding,” says Anderson.  The lack of interest of providing funding for this project is very weak and will cost agencies more money in the long-run for them to perform duties that could be completed online.  One agency already lost bullet proof vests due to their hurry-up-and-wait attitude and city council to get things ‘approved’.  It went to an agency that faxed a letter within 10 minutes with their city managers signature on it. 

It is average that over 90% of law enforcement agencies nationwide do not respond to money that is out there for them.  Why is this?

The NRLEA Releases More Grants To Ohio

Posted by NRLEA under Articles, Latest News

The NRLEA Grant Fund with BobCOP has released a total of 80 grants today to the State of Ohio for police agencies to take advantage of.  This is for the citizens online police reporting system that is designed to save city entities money in non-suspect police reports allowing citizens to submit police reports online.

Total grants released to these agencies so far is $184,000.00.  “We’ve been working closely with the partners of the grant fund that is spearheading this project to put in the hands of police agencies all across the country in order to bring about a better informed police that can handle the calls of its citizens without having to show up in person, instead utilizing the technology instead,” says Samuel Anderson, Managing Partner of BobCOP, LLC.

The NRLEA understands that this saves considerable money and time and the effects of it are almost immediately noticed including being an energy saver.  “We sure hope these agencies take advantage of this opportunity because there can be more for them as time goes on,” says Samuel Anderson.  There is more to come.