Why so surprised?

[wombat_socho]

Apparently everyone is SHOCKED that the mild-mannered professor at Cal State Berdoo ran a biker gang and sold meth. Neighbors, co-workers, parents...nobody had a clue.

Think about it for a second. Think about the stereotype drug dealer - skeevy, probably a black or a Chicano or some kind of white trash, the kind of person that couldn't look or act bourgie if their life depended on it. If you were seriously considering getting into the recreational chemicals trade, wouldn't you want to get as far away from that image as possible? What better cover than to be a quiet, home-owning member of the middle class who always kept his grass mowed and his shrubberies trimmed? Who had occasional quiet parties that the cops never got called to? Even belonging to a motorcycle club (if it's the right kind of club) is a respectable thing these days, when lawyers and realtors and all kinds of rich folks ride Harleys.

This guy was just practicing good security - in a bad cause, I'll grant you, but he was doing just about everything he could to stay below the radar. Odds are he's already started a new career in a new town with a different name, and they won't find him for decades, if at all.

(Instapundit)

Comments

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Well, certainly they SAY they're shocked.

Back in the 70s, Dr. Jerry Pournelle pointed out something about drug use: it's not the kids in slums who throw parties with punchbowls of cocaine.

(He did not go on to mention that the people who do that include the makers of movies and TV shows about how all the drug use is by ethnic folks. I thought it worth mentioning.)

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

And he's got a very good point, kids in the slums do other drugs. Certainly the conventional wisdom, which is all wrapped up in a twisted sort of Victorian morality, is that drug use (and sales) is something done by "those OTHER people", and I agree that the entertainment industry, many of whose members are infamous for doing massive quantities of drugs legal and illegal, has done a lot to further that perception.

I think we've both known plenty of Anglos who used illegal drugs of one sort or another. Some of them quit, some of them didn't; some of them screwed up their lives and became wretched messes or died. Others moved up the distribution chain. Like junk bonds or penny stocks, it combines the chance of making serious money with serious risk.

[harvey-rrit.livejournal.com]

Richard Pryor:

"Freebasing is an EPIDEMIC. --That means white people be doin' it."

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

He knew what he was talking about.