By Nathan Barton

I was a bit surprised to not find one of Freedom Net Daily’s usual pointed or sarcastic headlines this morning on a story from the San Francisco Chronicle about an East Bay traffic stop that led to the seizure of 300 pounds of cannabis and $1 million cash.

“A traffic stop by law enforcement officers in the East Bay led to the seizure of more than 300 pounds of marijuana and more than $1 million in cash, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. The drug bust began when a California Highway Patrol officer spotted a driver on Saturday operating a van while talking on a cell phone, officials say. The CHP officer attempted to pull the van over on Interstate 580 in Castro Valley to cite the driver for a cell phone violation, officials said. While the van was stopped, a sedan pulled up and cut off the CHP car, enabling the van to flee the scene, officials said. Both cars raced away, but were stopped in Castro Valley, and the two drivers were arrested. Officers soon learned why the suspects tried to get away. The sedan contained eight pounds of marijuana and the van had another 200 pounds of weed packed inside, officials said.”

First off, does anyone else suspect that the CHP has more important things to do than stop someone for talking on a cell phone while driving? Surely there were people speeding excessively, or DUI (it was a Saturday night), or broken down and needing assistance – or even with burned-out license plate lights – there on I-580. This nanny-state law on cell phone use addresses a single form of distracted driving. Eating a Big Mac, doing your hair or makeup, fussing with the kids (or the dog) are all forms of distracted driving, but only using a cell phone is EVIL enough to be a crime which “requires” cops to disrupt the normal flow of traffic and create obstacles. Which makes you ask if the real reason for this offense being an offense is to give police an excuse to stop and “inspect” the vehicle for whatever the popular current crimes are? To be controllers?

Second, this seizure of cannabis and cash is nothing at all more than theft – “legalized” theft by the thugs of the state. Last time I checked (and as of the 2016 election) BOTH of these are legal in the People’s Republic, thanks to a lot of work and despite continued efforts to make them verbotten. But cops clearly welcome any excuse, and manufacture situations (like this one) in which they can “legitimately” seize such dangerous contraband.

Third, this road chase across large chunks of freeway in the densely populated region, as almost all do (except maybe that infamous slow motion chase of that one celebrity years ago), endanger the public safety far more than 300 pounds of pot or a million of the most highly-contaminated faux money (bills).

And for all we know, the cannabis and the cash was on its way to Nevada or Oregon (where both are also legal) or even overseas, so we have the CHP interfering with interstate or international trade. A clear violation of both due process and freedoms supposedly enshrined in both the California and united States constitutions.

We have yet another example of stupid government tricks. But why didn’t FND do their usual good job of pointing these things out? I hope that they can restore their usual practice of twisting the tail of the state.

A free people don’t need this kind of “protecting and serving” – if indeed we need state-enabled and theft-funded traffic cops at all. Certainly not traffic cops who make it clear that their reason to exist has NOTHING to do with highway safety and protecting people from threats to life and health.

Enough is enough.

(PS: Knowing the ambivalent status of cannabis in California, the stupid law on cell phones, and the greed of the police, I should point out that the two drivers were very stupid themselves. They should have known better. Also, a disclaimer: I do not personally use cannabis and do not promote or advocate the use of it – or for that matter, living in California or carrying large sums of money!)

Mama’s Note: I’ll bet that the “weed,” as well as the money, will just vanish. Probably going to be a high old time at the CHP barracks, and who knows where all else.  Do as they say, not as they do. Hypocrites and thieves. Indeed…