Arkansas Blog

That is Representative Tommy Dickenson's son. Please keep them in your prayers.

1st - Get well soon to the two men injured.

2nd - It's supremely ironic that two men risk death to eradicate a plant which has never killed anyone.

I'm with you YNWA and I am not a pot smoker, I'll be 47 next week and haven't seen any in decades.

What a waste of public money.

They were successful at "eradicating" 43 "plants" per hour.
(1000 hrs/43,000 plants)

What a waste of resources.

To justify the expense the authorities count every plant the same.

A seedling of a few inches is counted the same as a 8' full bush.

So in weight, that "43,000 plants" could be a couple pounds.

The real waste of time comes when the chopper finds some plants. Now we go to a judge and get a warrant. Then we go sit for days to see if we can catch someone coming to water the crop.

After many wasted manhours we give up and pick them then go burn them in a barrel next to the sheriff's parking lot.

A bigger waste is when we do catch some hippie coming to water the plants.

Now we bust him for "manufacturing" illegal drugs and tie up the courts and then throw the fellow in prison and pay $20,000 a year to keep him there.

He gets out after a few years and can't get a job since he has been in prison and either goes on welfare or worse has to resort to crime to get food money.

While he was in prison his family ended up in government housing and on assistance.

His wife got tired of him when in prison and left him so now his kids are being raisedd by a single mother. The kids have few opportunities in life and hang with a bad element and end up dropping out of school and repeating the cycle of the father.

And all of this cost and ruination of lives is because a fellow wanted to grow a little pot for him and his buddies or to make a few bucks.

WE COULD HAVE STOPPED THE WHOLE TRAJEDY JUST IF WE HAD NOT WASTED THE MONEY FLYING THE CHOPPER AROUND LOOKING FOR POT!

Damn fine sensible, logical post there CITIZEN.

Looks like the pilot was able to set up autorotation and taked the ship in intact. Good job!

Excellent points, CITIZEN. How in the world can we afford a helicopter to fly around looking for pot?

DITTO CITIZEN !!!
unfortunatly the carroll county government and its public servants are very corrupt and there is no such thing here as the citizens having federal constitutional rights".just go to a few criminal trials here and watch and listen and you'll see what i mean"
the good old boy system is alive and well in the law enforcement/judical system community here.just like madison county some years back..."NO MONEY PAID TO THE RIGHT PERSON AND WE FLY OVER".
carroll county law enforcement isn't about law enforcement its about how much money can be obtained for the county and it's "public servants" and "their programs thru eradication of marajuana".you see,the judical "good old boys" are gonna get their money wether its from us,the state and/or the feds.
when the military can invade the air space of property owners,leasers and renters it smells like WACO all over again.so in my opinion and my opinion alone its good to see an invading government aircraft downed by its pilot and/or mechanical failure and even tho i see them as an enemy and invaders of "we the people" i'm glad to hear no one got hurt bad and they didn't crash land on some poor chicken/turkey farmer or their family.
I do hope whoevers property they crashed into files criminal and civil charges against all partys concerned.
BOTTOM LINE:
the feds need to be eradicating the corrupt good old boys in this county so the corrupt will no longer pray on us.................."we the tax payers" or a few stoners.

First, Thank God nobody was killed.
Secondly, Citizen made a good case. Heck, I haven't smoked any pot in 30 years, but I know people in their 40's, 50's and 60's who still indulge once in a while.
Dangerous drugs like meth should be the focus, and yet precious resources are being wasted every day in the attempt to catch marijuana growers / users.

Amen all the way around here. I personally think pot should be legalized. Hell, if booze can be legal, there's no good reason pot shouldn't be.

Think of how much money and how many lives would be saved in the name of enforcement, litigation, and penalization, not to mention support for the families left behind.

A good start would be a separate drug court system. Incarcerating people who really have a drug problem does nothing to solve that problem. Incarcerating people who smoke pot recreationally is just ridiculous.

And if pot were legal, just think of how happy everyone would be!

All the same, I hope the two guys in this crash come out okay. They were just doing their job, albeit one that shouldn't exist.

Now wait a minute...you just wait a minute!

Where is that light coming from?!

It's funny...these comments still bring out..."I never...or I haven't in so many years..."

It's just pot, man...

Rosso, did you just do a fattie, bro? LOL

You pot-heads are pathetic.

As a proud 30%er when it comes to fighting wwIII, but in disageement on many fiscal matters, I too am against the so-called war on drugs. It has lasted much, much longer than our Middle East conflict and has cost more in money and lives -- for what purpose? The math doesn't add up. You can't legislate morals. Only by personally witnessing the carnage from drug abuse will individuals decide that life isn't for them. The Red Chinese method of executing all uses is the only effective way to limit illegal drug use, but is too harsh.

Yep, ditto on the post by American Trucker on the corruption aspect. He is surely correct that the same thing went/goes on in Madison co. Ironically, the land my house sits on is the result of a Madison Co. grower not greasing the right palms. He was forced to sell half his land to pay lawyers and probably bribes to stay out of the pokie. Turned out to be a mighty fine neighbor, and could grow some damn good pot!

After many wasted manhours we give up and pick them then go burn them in a barrel next to the sheriff's parking lot.

Now that is not true. At least in our county, they take its picture every time they arrest a bunch of marijuana and run it on the front page of the weekly paper. It seems to me the value of the pot goes up with every picture. and then, of course, they go burn the plants in the parking lot.

We at gozarks.com interviewed Col. Moore two years ago in Shirely Ark regarding their snoop helicopters and vaunted drug interdiction practices. Col Moore told me then Major Dickenson had already lost one chopper. Now he's done it again! Or was he shot down? I asked the Col. if they were ever shot at then and he laughed. We dont think he thinks it so far fetched or funny now. As for the cops in the chopper, you play you pay boys. No sympathy from us. Read our interview at gozarks. M. Kelley http://www.gozarks.com/editorial/wasteandcontradiction.htm

If the pilot would have had his mind on what he was doing instead of yolanda this might not have happened. you're an old man and she is still just a young thing to play with. you know this might have been Gods warning to you to leave other guys woman alone. you will get yours in the end and so will she. you can't play with fire without getting burned.

The Nat'l Guard is going to go broke trying to keep little Timmy in the air if this make chopper #2. Sounds like he really didn't have his mind on his business or maybe he had been tokin a little or hitting the foil.

Watchfuleye.....You can burn in HELL you S.O.B. I grew up with tim and joined the Army with him. He is a damn good man and if he took your woman then she was never yours to start with. I tell you what tough guy until tim gets back on his feet I'll cover his back so if you have the Balls sack up and give me your address and I'll gome to you and shut your mouth... Now everyone is watching what will you do..

GOD BLESS out TROOPS

P.S> Mike Kelly.. You can kiss my ass as well

I know its very late in the game to post a comment but I was there and now going to IRAQ so I have some time to talk.

For those of you who actually give a crap, Tim is doing better but will always have pain, so will officer Wiley. They went through alot protecting the citizens of this state and country no matter what the mission was, they were doing as told and did it well. For the gentleman that lost his women, well you must not have been doing your job very well. Could be the POT.

I would agree with those who support the legalization of Marijuana if it was the same Pot that we had in the 70's, but it's not. Today's pot is stronger, much stronger and chemically grown to produce a much higher THC. Plants today are seven times higher than those in 1970. With such a high THC, POT is causing many medical problems that it did not in the past. In some cases it is "re-wireing" the brains of young children and can lead to deformaties and death. Marijuana is the drug we refer to as the "gateway" drug as it is easy to obtain with young children from either their parents or friends. Once their body becomes used to the drug they have a higher sense of "withdrawls" and need a stronger high to conteract this. This leads them to meth, heroin etc.
I have a 28 year old step son who has no job, talks and thinks like he is 14. I came into his life a little to late.

If some of you would get off the crap and pay attention you would see that the money is not just spent on "eradicating" a illegal plant but to also teach the young minds of our children not to follow in YOUR foot steps. You should step back and look at your own lives, look how you live, think about what you really wanted to be when you grew up. Set a better example for your kids, leave something good behind besides a bad attitude because you don't amount to much or your worried the Government will spend all your wellfare money eradicating what makes you think you are someone.