Whenever I come home to Utah from school in Vancouver I tend to forget about the quirks, problems, and abuse that occurs in the state. The main issue being the immediate shift from law enforcement officers in Canada who are present to help and protect you while working to solve prominent problems that face the society and community where they exist. To Utah where the police are under the pressures of making quotas and thus spend the majority of their time seeking out prominent but overall useless infringement of laws that are flawed to begin with. In other words, they try to find as many underage drinkers, minor drug users, and misdemeanor crimes as possible without doing any actual police work.
Some of the highest
rates of meth use and production exist within Utah’s state borders and gang violence is far from on the decline. But on a Friday night you won’t find twelve squad cars and two K-9 units out trying to help resolve these pressing issues. You’ll find them chasing a bunch of high school kids from their parent’s house as they leave the keg and a plethora of plastic cups in their wake. They might get one or two kids who will end up with a misdemeanor offense of Minor in Possession (carries a small fine on the first offense), but in reality nothing is solved. In fact a couple thousand dollars of tax payer’s money just went down the drain so a couple kids would have to move their party to a park some five minutes away. This is a constant game of cat and mouse in Utah where preventing underage drinking is so important that they have devoted an entire task force to the ‘problem’.
In nearly every other state, country, and continent they have realized the futility of this pursuit and instead have chosen to socialize the practice of drinking, and the result. Not surprisingly, more responsible drinking. Once the practice becomes acceptable and not taboo, the tendency is to respect alcohol far more and not abuse or fear it as often happens in areas like Utah where such extreme restrictions are prominent.
But you have to give these officers some credit, because once in a blue moon they will manage to actually find and prevent a major distribution of drugs from occurring. Maybe it was the posters plastered across the city, the massive website devoted to the event, the guest list of over 3000 people, or the secluded location, but somehow they managed to find out about one of the largest raves to ever occur in the Beehive State. Such an event occurred in the summer of 2006 when over twenty members of Utah’s SWAT team teamed with an already extensive police force to break up the colossal party. Massive amounts of alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, mushrooms, and cocaine were confiscated and numerous arrests were made. Unfortunately all of these arrests were of security guards who had already confiscated the drugs from people coming into the party, anyone who had anything to do with the actual distribution or sale of the substances was quick to get rid of any and all of it when the helicopters and dogs showed up. The result? A lot of dismissed cases, wasted tax dollars, and actually a surge in demand for the drugs as a vacuum was created after everyone lost their personal stash.
Utah SWAT Team arresting a security guard at the outdoor rave, video here
Even the day to day practices and attitudes of the police in Utah are so obscene that dealing with them for even the most trivial offenses can soon become a question of jail time and abuse. Whether it is questioning a traffic ticket, talking back, or even putting your hands up to surrender, all can quickly result in a swift beating and the addition of resisting arrest to any offense they try to pin you with. The reason, a pure and simple power trip, in a place where you are taught to be hyper-obediant and subservient from the day you are born, the slightest bit of authority can cause some of the worst power trips ever witnessed. Jumping a fence? Tasered. Want to get you handcuffs loosened? Tossed over the banister. Skateboarding in the street? How about a nice side swipe from a squad car. Whatever the offense they will find away to take the repercussions too another level, but in the end that’s just the Mormon way. Violence and excess for your own good because remember, Jesus loves you.
WWJD?