Pubdate: Mon, 17 Mar 2008
Source: Albuquerque Journal (NM)
Copyright: 2008 Albuquerque Journal
Contact:  http://www.abqjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/10
Author: J. Michael Jones, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

TO AVOID MORE NEEDLESS KILLINGS, LEGALIZE DRUGS

TAOS-- Could the collision of the two worlds of Elton John Richard II 
and Daniel Romero have been avoided, and with that avoidance the 
tragic death and pending imprisonment that resulted?

Of course; there are cusps on a reverse timeline where different 
decisions could have produced different results.

Richard could have shown remorse for killing a man for a property 
crime; that may have provided the judge with an opportunity for even 
greater lenience in sentencing.

Richard could have chosen not to shoot Romero.

Richard could have chosen to end his pursuit without confronting 
Romero. He could have chosen not to pursue over a failed attempt to 
steal his vehicle and damage to that vehicle.

Romero could have chosen another target or another way to pay his 
dealer. Romero could have chosen not to use cocaine to the point of 
abuse and becoming indebted to a criminal.

These are all decisions available to the primary participants in this 
tragedy but in each instance the decisions made took the pair further 
down the wrong road.

I do not condone the actions of either, but I have an appreciation 
either directly or indirectly for their individual circumstances. I 
am a Marine veteran with combat experience in Vietnam; I retired from 
law enforcement with experience as an undercover narcotics 
investigator and other assignments, including deputy chief of police 
in Gainesville, Fla.

I have been the victim of burglary and understand the anger, the rage 
that can ensue, emotions that perhaps course more strongly through a 
combat veteran. I have had multiple occasions when I could have 
justifiably taken the life of another and chose not to. I have never 
regretted the decision to allow another to live.

The law is clear about when the taking of life is justified and it 
does not include the simple taking or attempt to take property. The 
outcry to pardon or commute Richard's sentence has no legal basis of 
which I am aware. It is emotional not objective and would produce the 
type of result that laws are enacted to prevent. If it weren't for 
emotional decision-making this incident might never had happened, so 
enough of that.

If we look objectively at the supposed root cause of the incident we 
can see that another decision-making opportunity existed that might 
have prevented this incident. That decision is one for which we are 
all responsible, not just Richard and Romero.

It is said that the attempt to steal was to pay a drug dealer because 
Romero bought more cocaine than he could pay for. Had he never used, 
or overused, he would not have had problems with his dealer. If he 
had not had to go to a drug pusher to obtain a drug for recreational 
use this entire chain of events might never had occurred.

The right or wrong of recreational drug use is not my point, and I do 
not advocate such use. I do, however, recognize that such use is 
deeply ingrained in our society. Recreational drugs, including 
alcohol and nicotine, are widely used with an interesting 
distribution of harm. The two legal recreational drugs are known to 
cause various problems, even death from prolonged use or overdose. 
Often the most harm from use of illegal recreational drugs comes, not 
from the use, but from the prohibition of that use.

Had Romero been able to legally purchase standardized, controlled-- 
and taxed-- cocaine, the pusher would have been eliminated from the 
equation. Had we as a society acknowledged the reality of using 
recreational drugs and legalized-- not decriminalized-- them, 
controlled, produced, taxed and distributed them, there would have 
been no criminals selling them. The tax proceeds could have been used 
to establish educational prevention programs as well as treatment 
programs for those who are unable to use successfully.

Had we done those things then we, as a society, as a nation would not 
bear so large a share of the responsibility for the tragedy these two 
people have experienced.

It is not too late to prevent future tragedies. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake