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1. I am a law and order conservative, and I generally respect and support the police, but that doesn't mean my support for them is unqualified. And it doesn't mean I always support strict laws. Drug laws, for example, are often not worth the enforcement.
2. When I was at Grand Valley State, a student, Derek Copp, was shot by police officers while raising his hands to shield his eyes from a their flashlights. His crime? He had sold 60 dollar worth of weed to an undercover cop weeks before. https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/2009/03/grand_valley_student_shot_whil.html
3. The police found a little bit of marijuana in the apartment. Is smoking a lot of weed a great idea? Probably not. Is it worth police raids to stop people from selling it or from getting high? No. Thankfully Copp survived. And he won a settlement. http://lanthorn.com/61953/news/former_laker_receives_settlement_after_shooting/
4. Breonna Taylor was not so lucky. Police executed a no-knock search warrant on her apartment because they thought that Jamarcus Glover and Adrian Walker were there, and they were suspected of selling drugs in a drug house 10 or more miles away. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/30/us/breonna-taylor-police-killing.html
5. There are conflicting accounts of what happened next. But Kenneth Walker appears to have thought the house was being robbed, and armed himself (he was licensed) and shot at what he thought was an intruder. The police opened fire. Taylor was shot at least 8 times.
6. Even if the details are wrong, this was an avoidable tragedy. I'm not a fan of drugs. They can cause great misery. But, we always have to weigh the cost of enforcement against the cost of higher use. You can't make laws that *aren't* ultimately backed by deadly force.
7. Policing is hard enough. We shouldn't make it harder. I think we should all agree that there's no reason to break into an apartment to apprehend a marijuana dealer. It's like blowtorching an ant in your kitchen. Law and order requires good laws that command consensus.
8. More laws create more chance for division and less trust. Law and order conservatism thus doesn't mean we should want to crack down on every stupid behavior. It means we should enforce smart and simple laws. Support the police. But scrutinize them as well.
9. And rely more on norms than on police officers to shape society. Police are irreplaceable, of course. But the best ways to keep people off drugs will likely involve less policing and less despair and more hope and more treatment and better cultural norms.
