A couple of our Houston police officers e-mailed harsh criticisms following the recent account here of a woman who was found by a jury to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. The woman was found incompetent to stand trial, but was taken to jail and held for three weeks until the prosecutor got around to filing paperwork for a criminal commitment to the state hospital, where she was held for about a month. The woman's lawyer said that a supervisor in the district attorney's office has since agreed that criminal commitment was a mistake. Somebody else paid for that rock, she didn't.
Nothing creates, encourages and promotes violence like drug dealing.
There is no crack fairy that distributes these little pearls for harmless little people to use in the comfort of their home. This concept is the foundation of the criminal justice system and influences every other legal principle. She is accused of trying to buy half a rock, not of committing an unknown crime to obtain any money she may have had. She also was not accused of killing a police officer or of committing any other violent act. Yet the second officer's obvious contention is that anyone who buys any amount of crack should be considered guilty by extension of all crimes committed by all drug dealers.