http://www.tribune242.com/sports/01282010_drughaul_news_pg Found this today one of three drug busts in the area yesterday.
They absolutely broke the law, but I hope someone considers the utter desperation of the Haitian people in this horrific time.
Its hard for me to understand your comment. These guys broke the law and deserve their punishment. Yes Haiti is in dire straights but that doesn't change anything relative to these criminals. Haiti brings alot of their problems on themselves IMHO.
Drug dealers were not affected by the current Haitian situation. They are oportunist ****tards who deserve every piece of justice handed down to them. Let;s face it the two worst problems we have in this world (besides disasters like Haiti) currently has got to be drug trafficking and terrorism. Hangem all !!
Actually, I'd say the biggest problem facing the world today is poverty, and desperate situations bring desperate acts. These are not drug dealers they are transporters. If your family was starving on the streets of Haiti and someone offered you a few bucks to run a boat you'd do it too before you watched you children die. This is not Pablo Escobar. These are not the Mexican drug gangs. These are not the poppy growing warlords of Afghanistan who were supported by the US government through the last administration. Yes they committed a crime. Yes they have to pay for that. Justice needs to be tempered with mercy though.
I think poverty is a symptom of the real problem. The real problem might be corrupt government ... much like we are currently experiencing in our own country. As we watch our middle class disappear, I suppose we too should have pity on the criminals. Sure wouldn't want to do anything about the corrupt government.
Heard on the news that the corrupt officials at the Port au Prince airport were trying to tax the relief material coming in. I lived in the Bahamas for a short time and the Haitian illegals have been a problem for decades.
I hope you guys aren't telling me that politicians and government officials can't be trusted. Sure, next you'll say there's no Easter Bunny.
For anyone traveling to the vicinity of Haiti read this. http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/NEWSMMIX/2010jan00280.html
These people chose to run drugs and are criminals and should be prosecuted as the criminals they are. I find it very interesting that in the same article how they captured two boats landing immigrants and they jailed all of the illegal immigrants for 6 months. If the Bahamas does that, why can't we do something to deter our illegal immigrants?
You really need to move away from Las Olas for a while and look around. The neighborhoods to your west are traps flooded with crack that makes people unemployable felons by the time they are teenagers. Is it lazy to get onto an inner tube for a 90 mile trip through the Florida Straits or a 30' boat with 50 other people for the pleasure cruise from Haiti? Is it lazy to pay your life savings to a coyote hoping he'll lead you through the desert from Mexico and not leave your bones baking in the sun? Is it lazy to walk from Guatemala to the US trying to avoid the militias and gangs that will massacre your family? Is it lazy to live with 60 people in an abandoned shack for the opportunity to mow people's lawns for minimum wage? Yes we need to shore up our borders because we just can't afford to help the entire world. But lazy? My mother was lazy. When her lazy father (a constable) was murdered in the riots her family faced starvation with the rest of her country. Luckily, the US was still letting those lazy Irish come here to fill our slums. Is it right that the poor will steal from the rich? No. But it will happen more and more as the disparity between rich and poor grows. People aren't poor because they choose to be. We may not be able to feed the world, but we can at least show compassion.
Guys, Let's keep the slurs and accusations, particularly the ignorant ones, off these forums. I just tidied up this thread the best I could without deleting the substance of the conversation, but really... there's no room for some of what was said on these boards. We're here to talk about yachts and yachting, not bash governments (no matter how richly deserved that may be).
I'm actually trying to delete as little as possible so as not to completely censor the forum. I did my best to remove only the most inflammatory or derogatory comments and left the rest for our members to take care of themselves.