(CNN) — A coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version of the Senate economic stimulus bill.

Senators worked late into the night to trim billions from the original stimulus bill.

CNN obtained, from a Democratic leadership aide, a list of some programs that have been cut, either entirely or partially:

• $300 million for federal prisons
• $300 million for BYRNE Formula grant program
• $140 million for BYRNE Competitive grant program

What are these BYRNE grants and why do they matter to us?  Radley Balko explains it quite well at The Agitator:

Byrne Grants, meanwhile, are often tied directly to drug arrests, warping police department priorities by encouraging low-level drug busts to juke up department arrest statistics . . . so they can apply for more grants. We have Byrne grants to thank for the civil rights disasters in Tulia and Hearne, Texas, and for the continuing problem of out of control multijurisdictional drug task forces.

It’s the economy, stupid.  They just can’t afford the luxury of playing drug war like the old days.  Add that to how the public will react to other cuts, like:

• $200 million from Environmental Protection Agency Superfund (original bill $800 million)
• $98 million for school nutrition
• $2 billion for broadband

We can’t afford to borrow to spend money on protecting the environment, feeding kids school lunches, or spreading broadband across the country.  How eager will the public then be to see money being prioritized on flying helicopters to eradicate marijuana plants?

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As my British friends say, “spot on!”  Radley Balko at The Agitator has nailed it with a sledgehammer:

Dear America,

I take it back. I don’t apologize.

Because you know what? It’s none of your goddamned business. I work my ass off 10 months per year. It’s that hard work that gave you all those gooey feelings of patriotism last summer. If during my brief window of down time I want to relax, enjoy myself, and partake of a substance that’s a hell of a lot less bad for me than alcohol, tobacco, or, frankly, most of the prescription drugs most of you are taking, well, you can spare me the lecture.

Go read the whole thing, it’s brilliant, especially the “let’s see you rationalize in your next lame ONDCP commercial how the greatest motherfucking swimmer the world has ever seen . . . is also a proud pot smoker” part.  The comments are pretty good, too, especially this one from Eric Ogunbase:

You know who I feel bad for? Everyone who competed against him in the pool.

“You mean I’ve been training my whole life for these events and I STILL got my ass kicked by a dude who smokes the chronic?!”

Also, my diary at DailyKos could use some comments and recommendations.  Let’s bump this one up!

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Senior Editor Radley Balko at Reason Magazine has done another one of his incisive pieces on the militarization of the War on Marijuana:

Cops Employing Robbers: Did police misconduct lead to another fatal marijuana raid? – Reason Magazine
Ryan Frederick, the 29-year-old Chesapeake, Virginia man facing capital murder charges after shooting and killing a police officer during a nighttime drug raid on his home, was back in court for a preliminary hearing earlier this month. What came out at the hearing may be the beginning of the unraveling of the state’s case against him.

Frederick has said he was asleep in preparation for an early shift when police raided his home at 8:30 p.m. on January 24. According to search warrant affidavits, officers were acting on a tip from an informant that Frederick was running a major marijuana growing operation in his garage. The raid turned up only a misdemeanor amount of the drug—about a third of an ounce.

Frederick has said in interviews and in letters to his family that he was awoken by his dogs barking at the intruders, then heard the sound of someone breaking down his front door. He says he grabbed his handgun and ran to his living room, where he saw that the bottom panel of his door and been busted out and saw someone reaching up through the broken panel toward the door handle. Frederick says that’s when he fired, striking and killing Det. Jarrod Shivers. Police and prosecutors counter that Frederick fired through the door, hitting Det. Shivers as he was standing on Frederick’s front lawn. Police say they announced themselves before attempting to enter Frederick’s home. Frederick and at least two neighbors say they heard no announcement.

Frederick’s case is only one recent example of the inherent danger and disproportionate absurdity of using violent, forced-entry police tactics to serve nonviolent drug warrants. This raid on a man with no prior criminal record left a police officer dead, his wife widowed, and his children without a father, while effectively ruining Ryan Frederick’s life. He’s facing one count of capital murder for the shooting of Shivers, a felony drug distribution charge, and a charge of using a weapon during the commission of a drug crime.

Now, disturbing new questions have emerged about the quality of the police investigation and the way the Chesapeake Police Department’s narcotics officers may have been using confidential informants in their drug investigations.

“Confidential informants”, a.k.a. “snitches”.  I’m not talking about people reporting a crime – that’s not “snitching”, that’s being a good neighbor and citizen.  I’m talking about the people, usually repeat crimanl offenders, who are bribed with lenient sentences in exchange for the dirt on somebody else.  This can be a good thing in the case of capturing a mob informant who gives up bigger fish, but it has been misused in the Drug War to pad arrest totals and manufacture criminal charges where no crime has been committed.

These “snitches” have incentive to lie.  An acquaintence with a baggie of weed becomes a “major marijuana growing operation”, the bigger the fish given up, the better the deal for the “snitch”.

Then there’s the militarization of our domestic police.  Our SWAT teams were originally intended to cope with violent situations in our cities, not to create them.  I find it especially ridiculous when it comes to these “major marijuana growing operations”.  What’s the big rush?  Afraid the “perp” is going to flush all the evidence… all those big leafy plants, pots full of soil, huge lights and ballasts?  And what’s with the guns?  Are you really afraid that if you knock on the door of the big bad marijuana grower and say, “Police, we have a warrant,” that he’s going to come out guns blazing?

The guns and the shouting and the breaking down doors aren’t about subduing the alleged indoor pot grower.  It doesn’t even matter if the person subdued isn’t really growing pot indoors.  It’s about subduing and terrorizing the neighbors, the other people not involved with pot, to convince them that marijuana is dangerous and its users are violent.  Because otherwise, most people get along just fine with their pot smokin’ and growin’ neighbors.

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