Dwai

Yeah? Have you hugged your assault weapon today? :toetap05:

 

Of course!
lol

 

I am against most everything that America stands for, and many Americans who so dumb-shittedly, criticless and proudly represent that. Same goes for my own country, but at least most of my countrymen aren't so strongly patriottic.

That being said, I generally do not have anything against people. I (brace yourselves) met some wonderful Americans.

 

I have issues with patriotism as well. I also find there to be nothing wrong with being "anti-American." I myself am anti-American, and I live here.

 

Being patriotic means wanting to make your country great, and right it's wrongs.

Not pretend that they don't exist, or that they're acceptable.

I fancy myself a great patriot. This is why I hate the patriot act, obama, bush, their cronies, most federal agencies, the current powers that police and the military have been given and use and abuse, as this thread is about...

You can be a patriot for something that's not built yet, or that's not complete yet. There where patriots that fought for the US before there even was a US, and we can keep fighting for a better US, even if it's pretty grim right now.

Just sayin'.

 

Patriotism is simply the love and devotion to one's country. It can be for all the right and wrong reasons since these are generally subjective.

 

I stand corrected

 

“TO BE HOPEFUL in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.
What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places—and there are so many—where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”
― Howard Zinn

 

You don't just live here.

You are an american.

Stop pretending you're not. There's good americans, and bad americans, and in-between americans.

It's more convenient to stand against everyone and see no good. But that's not how it is, and pretending that it is only makes things worse.

 

Mr Zinn is missed.

 

Perhaps there is a 4th category that just lives there. Which indeed also happens to make them american but not necessarily patriots. Maybe they are counted as inbetween americans as well. What about americans that want to change the country for the better but do not have any devotion for the actual nation. They do not have to be patriots either.

 

I have a devotion to the people, and the land, but not to the nation.

Americans do not have to be american patriots. But PR was born here (I believe) and he is a member of an american culture (no matter how much disdain he has for it. In fact, he's a member of an american culture of distrust in, or dislike of america). People who just live here could be born elsewhere, or in the act of learning a new culture for the purpose of emigrating, or something like that. But even when he talks of emigration, it's to another part of america, and not only that, but other areas of america that are under US hegemony. Maybe going to columbia and lending your knowledge of the US to cocaine cartels, or something like that, would be going against US hegemony (and I am NOT saying that it would be a more moral alternative, to do that)... but just moving to canada or some poor area of central america where he could either work in a US way, or live on his over-valued US money, would not be breaking free of anything, it would just be helping the US in that hegemony, like it or not....

The revolutionary patriots, our poster-boy patriots, had a devotion before there even was a nation, or much idea what form it would take.

 

Patriotism only seems to precipitate where a nation is in peril....

 

Yes, history has made them patriots. It depends from the perspective how we can label those people.
Anyway, I agree with you but despite all that you can also just live there, want change and not be a patriot

 

Yes, I thought the same. But I also wondered what if they already smell the marijuana through the window? They will not let that go I reckon? Of course it sucks when you get nervous and admit to things you shouldn't but if the cop would know anyway because of the smell...

 

But a confession is evidence, especially because it's probably on tape (maybe several tapes, cops often have personal recorders, and the car will have a camera -- And of course, I do think it's good that they're documented this way, although shitty for PR).

Smell may be probable cause in some states or situations, but is not evidence that can be used for a conviction, in more than the smallest supporting role. He can take the stand and say "I smelled marijuana, so I reached into his pocket, where I found marijuana, and here is that marijuana", but he can't say "I smelled marijuana, so I arrested him for marijuana". Likewise, he can say "I smelled marijuana, so I asked him, and he said that he smoked marijuana", and I arrested him for driving after smoking marijuana".

Of course, the more recent use of DUI/PI type laws to go after pot is an attack on the fact that it's not illegal to be high. It's become less legal to be drunk, and so they've pushed it over onto weed, which is obviously not the same, but that's irellivent once they've got the law. It circumvents the fact that it's not illegal to be under the influence of drugs, that having them in your bloodstream is not "possession". Just another way to take the civil war and class repression/witch-hunt to the next level.

 

I mean, to me, people are people....I guess I would have to say I am just anti-people for the most part, sometimes it seems. But at the same time I also detest putting people into categories. But maybe most people do that to themselves, true. So I guess there are some "typical Americans" but as long as it is realized there are some *shocK* indviduals within the country as well, just like anywhere else. I never want to be pigeonholed, myself, personally.

 

That's bad advice, you can still be arrested based on judgment/field sobriety. Which gives them the ability to drug test.

 

As I understand NY state law, a DWAI (alcohol) is a non-criminal infraction. A DWAI-drug (drug other than alcohol) is a criminal offense, a first-class misdemeanor. To achieve a criminal conviction for DWAI-drug, the burden is on the plaintiff to prove that a drug was what caused the impairment. For marijuana it can be a more difficult claim to prove compared with that involving alcohol, depending on the state laws and the expertise of the officers at the scene of the arrest.

I'm not familiar enough about NY law to know if there is a statute in NY that establishes a legal limit for marijuana content in body fluids for DWAI-drug. I've read that Washington State has a 5 ng per mL legal limit. If there is in NY, then results of a drug test can be used as evidence and affect whether the alleged offense was an infraction or a criminal offense. If there isn't, then the evidence hinges more on the judgment of the officer or officers at the scene and their expertise. There are some officers who are known as drug recognition experts who have more clout in court because of their training in determining whether impairment was the result of a drug.

The more favorable scenario for the defense in a marijuana DWAI-drug case is if there is no statute establishing a drug percentage limit and if no DRE was present at the scene of the arrest to help establish impairment due to drugs. A less favorable case for the defense is if there is a statute that establishes a limit, the drug test showed that the legal limit was exceeded, and a DRE was present whose assessment at the scene of the arrest corroborates the results of the drug test. I would expect DWI checkpoints to be the most risky for defendants compared with random stops as they are likely to be fully configured with DRE and apparatus.