On Mon, 31 May 2021 12:04:32 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:
On 5/31/2021 11:31 AM, wrote:
On Monday, May 31, 2021 at 9:21:53 AM UTC-4, Mr. Luddite wrote:
On 5/31/2021 8:59 AM, True North wrote:
On Monday, 31 May 2021 at 07:12:26 UTC-3, Mr. Luddite wrote:
My grandson just returned from a 3 month deployment aboard a
Canadian coastal defense ship searching for and capturing
drug runners in the southern Pacific.
It's a USA/Canadian joint operation where specially trained
US Coast Guardsmen deploy aboard Canadian ships (as well as
American ships). The Coasties are the USCG's version of
special forces and have law enforcement and arrest authority.
The reason the Canadian ships have USCG personnel aboard is
due to US and Canadian laws. Canadian law does not allow
interception of vessels in international waters whereby
US law does.
Anyway, this "Mob Reporter" video was recently released
showing parts of the three month deployment. At the very
beginning of the video a USCG person in tactical gear is shown
clearing his firearm. This guy is my grandson, Erik.
He's shown in other clips preparing for boarding of
drug runner's boats and in the rigid hull boats they
use to intercept, board and arrest the drug runners.
Last bit of news: He has been selected for the Coast
Guard's version of Officer Training school and will
end up receiving a commission. Sounds like a lifer
to me.
Here's a link to the video. Pretty cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6K3pLaLhQ
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Good for him. That's dangerous work and glad that people are willing to do it.
I see he's on a Kingston Class vessel built right here in Halifax. There's a new one right from the assembly line sitting on the wharf waiting to be launched. Sure looks stubby sitting high and dry.
Our shipyard is waiting for Ottawa to get it's game together so we can also start building the new class of destroyers.
We won the competition fair and square but the usual politics rears it's ugly head with Quebec demanding a bigger and bigger share for their shipyard.
What is the "class" name of the new Canadian destroyers?
One of my "to pass the time" is reading about all the various warships
of different nations. As an old destroyer vet the newer ones are
very impressive.
===
Congratulations to your son. However, I'm not sure that the war on drugs really makes any sense other than as a feel good exercise. Clearly we are not winning, and vast resources are being expended. As long as demand is there, and it obviously is, supply will find a way just like during prohibition. We need to find a better way to fix this issue.
Grandson actually.
I pretty much agree with you however you also have to consider how much
more would be getting into this country if these patrols weren't made.
I know from following his activities over the past three years the
USCG has intercepted hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars worth
of drugs destined for the USA.
I suspect demand is the only thing limiting supply. There certainly
does not seem to be any shortage. When supply gets too big, the
cartels cut back to maintain prices, just like oil companies.
I agree with Wayne, the only reason we still wage this stupid drug war
is there is too much money in it to quit. It pumps an extra $300-$400
BILLION into the economy, mostly at the tax payers expense. (More
cops, more prisons, more asset forfeitures).
It also tends to corrupt the police and erode personal freedoms. Most
troubling SCOTUS decisions involving search and seizure, came from the
drug war.
We have certainly never even made a dent in the availability of drugs.
If we seize more, the cartels produce more so it is money in their
pocket and the loss to the transporters is just the cost of doing
business. It gets passed on to the customer meaning they just have to
steal more.