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800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
800 Maynard Ave S, Suite 200, Seattle, WA 98134
But still... Legalize drugs now, etc., etc.
It seems like more an issue that Wilson had a police issue handgun--both for them, and for police accountability. Many police offers oppose private ownership of handguns since they can be stolen and used in shootings, and random people end up being shot--but are police handguns similarly mis-used?
It never occurred to anybody that flaunting a bunch of minor offenses may attract unnecessary attention to their giant cocaine operation? You would think somebody would choose a less conspicuous front, like an ice cream shop or something.
According to the police report, the investigation of the card rooms started in 2006, but the drug investigation didn't get rolling until April 2009. In order words the SPD was in the card rooms for 3 years and decided they needed something bigger to show for the resources spent on the investigation. They had a guy who was trusted as a player w/a 3-year history in the card rooms -- "he's been coming here for years, no way he's a cop" -- and he put the bug in Rick's ear to gain an introduction to Rick's supplier.
It sure doesn't look from the report like Rick was selling anything himself except occasional "user quantities."
My personal theory is this: for 3 years, the undercover SPD officer tried to get introduced to Rick's supplier, but without success. So sometime earlier this year, the SPD quietly busted Rick for the 7 "user quantity" sales mentioned in the report, as well as numerous liquor & gambling violations, and secured his cooperation in introducing the undercover cop to their source. Thus the SPD got themselves a big fish, where otherwise the only thing they would have had was a 3-year investigation into low-stakes gambling and unlicensed drinking on private premises.
yeah, i thought about something like that, too. but, even though reinsch and wilson were small-time and opportunist (not likely to do these deals if the police didn't push for them, and no one else was), even though... the police were able to get some bigger fish. under current laws, that is kind of their job. no one was shot or beat up in the process... i'd say they did alright. i hope they go easy on reinsch and wilson unless they can get them for something big other than the deals the police set up.
Just for the record, I meant no offense to Rick w/my speculation, although I can see how it would be hard not to take it that way. And I don't for a moment doubt the libertarian cred of anybody who might have operated a speakeasy. Rick has my total support & admiration as far as all that goes.
But cops are cops. They had Rick by the short hairs from the moment he kindly & allegedly hooked up his "friend" Brian, and I would absolutely expect the SPD to bring all the coercive force to bear upon a person that they can muster.
Did anybody else happen to notice in the report how Martin Reinsch claimed he did not even get into the drug business until 2008?
If true, that would mean that for the first 2 years of the SPD investigation, which began in 2006, there wasn't anything to investigate.
Two years would be a hell of a long time for the SPD to run an undercover investigation of a bunch of kids playing poker in zoot suits, in the hope that one of them might maybe someday just happen to lead them to a bigger fish.
I guess in fairness to Rick, I should mention that having read the report more closely I see that the person who introduced the SPD to Marshall is identified as "R. Thompson"
And for the "Hugh Hefner" comment... Don't hate 'cuz nobody invited you to the party. Ricks ideas were based on freedom and social autonomy, not criminal enterprise.
And besides, sometimes reality is just like Miami Vice, so that's awesome. I wonder if the undercover guy has a pet alligator on his sailboat.
Rick has been a boon to the scene in Seattle for years - from Tchkung! agitator to autonomous party impresario. He has my full support and I hope he comes out okay.
This situation would not have occurred if it hadn't been for FBI fueling the cocaine operation. $20K for coke and even more to pay for a new "speakeasy" in Belltown? Your tax dollars at work. I'm surprised there isn't taxpayer outrage at this. The FBI created the coke market by purchasing coke, thus attracting the Hondourans all the way from the south. They wouldn't have been here (and Marshall wouldn't have been selling large quantities) if it hadn't been for the FBI. At what point do people ask the basic question: do the ends really justify the means?
I bet those Hondourans are actually fairly nice people too who come from a very poor country and thought that selling drugs would be a way to get out of poverty for themselves and their families. The fact that the FBI tested and found that the coke was 100% genuine-as-advertised testifies to their honesty if nothing else.
If nobody bought drugs, nobody would be selling them. This includes pharmaceuticals. Not sure how people continue to forget this basic fact. On the radical edge, I don't think that even the Hondourans should be doing time for selling something that other people are buying that is actually plant-based and relatively safe, any more than Pfizer is doing time for selling dangerous mind-altering drugs that are actually destroying people's minds and bodies. Where's the discussion of personal responsibility in all of this?
quick quiz: how many of you knew that the Columbine shooter was on a cocktail of legal antidepressants at the time that he fired on his classmates? In fact, there has been a pattern, a relationship between school shootings and psychiatric drugs. Check it out.