“What’s the benefit to this? I just think it’s a loser,” DiSalvo said. “I really think it’s a bad idea to house and institutionalize in prison people that have a social weakness. To that my answer is, legalize, tax and subsidize these programs. I know there are Pablo Escobars and those guys out there making billons of dollars, but so are RJ Reynolds and Jack Daniels. Why not have one of those mega-companies grow weed and sell coke or whatever it’s going to be?
DiSalvo notes that local law enforcement has no power to prevent the DEA from coming to Aspen and conducting undercover stings, and throws this barb at the DEA:
[the DEA is] trying to protect their jobs, and we’re trying to protect the community.”
Di Salvo was elected in a landslide vote in November to succeed Aspen's retiring, revered Sheriff, Bob Braudis. The battle between the DEA and the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office over drug policy has been going on for 40 years. But now, aided by its vast arsenal of electronic and physical surveillance tools, the DEA is digging in and gearing up for a long fight. The financial resources of the DEA dwarf that of the locals. It's hardly a fair fight, in my view.
TalkLeft endorsed DiSalvo for Sheriff the day he entered the race. Just as it endorsed Bob Braudis in his re-election campaigns ("Vote for the Sheriff You Know and Trust.")
Voters of Pitkin County knew who they were getting when they elected DiSalvo. One of his statements during the campaign:
[DiSalvo said] he had no interest in whether people in their own homes “fire up a joint or do a line on [their] table.”
In this most recent controversy, local elected officials expressed their continued support for DiSalvo, with harsh words for the DEA. In a perfect world, Aspen and its Sheriffs would be able to tell the DEA, "Stay out of Dodge." Of course, that's not the case.
Aspen's law enforcement is not lax, it's honest, and aimed at protecting but not hassling members of the community. As I wrote here:
Crime is not rampant in Aspen. ...[W]hen someone violates the law in Aspen, the Sheriffs, acting as themselves, not as phony undercover agents, arrest them and turn them over for prosecution. Justice is served. [Snooping] is out of place in a small town like Aspen where trust between the community and law enforcement is a far more valuable commodity.
Stay tuned, this battleground is just heating up.
