So Jacob Frost Took a Plea…

The war on “terror” will never be over, it will just change locations. Like the war on drugs, prostitution, pornography, and the many others that will follow, it is a war on humanity. These wars will never be won; the State will just keep creating new boogiemen to frighten us with. The sheep will anxiously anticipate the next fall guy the State offers up as a sacrifice for the war on whatever happens to be next. Be careful, the next pawn could be me or you. – Mike Wasdin

On November 21st we posted here at CopBlock.org a write-up by Eric Freerock, Ohio Cop Block Admin Jailed For a Shipping Error, which communicated that Jacob Frost, plead “no contest” to a watered-down agreement of guilt in a situation that involved personnel from from “homeland security” and a substance some claim is “illicit”.

From Freerock:

Frost, has been sentenced to a ‘community-based corrections facility’ after pleading no contest to a charge of ‘attempted possession’ for having been shipped the banned substance methylone.

The kicker?

He didn’t actually order methylone.

To be clear – Frost did not order methylone. He ordered another substance (synthetic marijuana) that – as adverse to it as many have already commented they are – is not deemed “illicit.” Thus, he did not violate arbitrary man-made dictates conflated to be law.

Shouldn’t then, Frost’s receipt prove from his online purchase show that the substance shipped was an error on the vendors side? Yes.

Another component of this story that too negates Frost’s guilt was that the chain of custody for the shipped substance was totally compromised. Prior to Frost receiving the package it had been accidentally delivered to the wrong address, and the person there opened the package.

Shouldn’t then, the case against Frost have been thrown-out due to this factual inability to account for the contents of the shipment? Yes.

But Frost took a plea deal. He plead “no contest” because the alternative he faced – four or more years in a cage – was not for him worth the risk.

Frost is now housed at the Western Ohio Regional Treatment and Habilitation Center – or Worth Center – in Lima, OH.

This text is from the Worth Center’s stated mission:

Prison is only one sentencing alternative. Other alternatives, less expensive to the tax payers, are possible and provide a more measured response. . .

W.O.R.T.H. will address positive values such as self-esteem, self-reliance, and human dignity, and make an effort to create a sense of belonging as if in a family structure, to promote stability so that an environment is created where the individual can internalize positive change.

As residents progress through the W.O.R.T.H. Program, privileges will be earned as individuals become more responsible for their lives. Conversely, if negative behavior warrants, more controls can be imposed and privileges can be restricted in a progressively intrusive manner to the point of probation revocation and sentence to long term incarceration in a state prison institution.

Frost called me on Wednesday, December 5th from the Worth Center.

My recount of our conversation, first shared with his friends in Ohio Cop Block, is below:

 

We’d only ascertained Frost’s whereabouts a couple days prior thanks to his bud and fellow Ohio Copblocker Kane Newkirk, who tracked down that info.

Two days prior to receiving that call from Frost I’d called the Worth Center, after which I shared this update with those in Ohio Cop Block:

 

First off and most-important – should Jacob in that situation? Should he have his choices and freedom of movement restricted?

Nope. There was no victim.

It’s clear to anyone familiar with this situation that Frost’s treatment has nothing to do with “justice.” He harmed no one. He’s just a number, another case, to be run through the system by his captors.

Those who targeted Frost acted according to the perverse incentives inherent in the top-down monopoly for which they work. They have an incentive to create criminals where there are none.

Those responsible – the men and women with badges who kidnapped and caged him, the “prosecutor”, “judge”, those who transported him, and those now supervising every aspect of his life – likely went about their interactions with him as a matter of routine.

Looking throughout history, when institutions are created that by their very existence make more-likely the subjugation of the rights of another individual, it doesn’t lead to good outcomes. Instead, unthinking individuals cause real harm, all the while assuaging their own conscience by saying, “I’m just doing my job.” (Apparently though, for many such folks, their conscience is never completely muted as the “profession” of law enforcement suffers from the highest or one of the highest rates of alcoholism, domestic abuse, and suicide).

While I personally don’t have interest in smoking synthetic marijuana (and in fact I encourage people not to use it per a negative experience I had myself back in 2010 when in Vegas), the fact that Jacob smoked it or at least in this instance, ordered it, doesn’t make him a criminal.

I favor free trade in drugs for the same reason the Founding Fathers favored free trade in ideas: in a free society it is none of the government’s business what ideas a man puts into his mind; likewise, it should be none of its business what drugs he puts into his body.
– Thomas Szasz

Even if all readers of CopBlock.org, or all those supposedly controlled by a gang of people who collectively dub themselves the “State of Ohio”, agreed that synthetic marijuana was harmful, that still doesn’t preclude Frost’s right to ingest it, or any other substance he chooses.

If I don’t have the right to tell you what you can or cannot ingest I can’t suddenly gain that ability if I was part of a larger group who advocated as such. Rights are not created by groups. The same is true were I to add a badge to my attire or have a fancy title.

If Frost harms himself, that’s his fault. If he harms someone else, he’s responsible. That is true whether one is sober or not. Synthetic marijuana is not the issue.

The real issue is ideas, and specifically, the fact that so many people actively or tacitly perpetuate the bad idea that a stranger has the right to dictate one’s life.

That bad idea gives credence to flawed legalese (conflated to be “law”) and absolves personal responsibility for those men and women who actually acted in the wrong (who tracked Frost’s package, which again, was a consensual interaction he had reached with another party), and who broke into his residence, stole his property, kidnapped, caged, and threatened him.

Those factors, again reliant entirely on a bad idea, meant Frost was confronted with a situation in which was on the defensive. Rather than risk his chances in legal land (which, as anyone who has been entwined there knows, is the epitome of arbitrariness) he essentially threw-up his hands and plead no contest. He saw the threats levied at him – wrong as they are, and knew that they could be implemented since so many have yet to ignore the claims made by self-described “authorities.” It’s simply been peddled so much through gun-run (public) indoctrination and mainstream  media. Thus, Frost opted for a lesser “punishment.”

Was that the right choice? Perhaps you or I would have pursued another avenue – maybe pointing out that we hadn’t in fact ordered methylone or that the package had been intercepted – but it was Frost in this situation and he acted as he best saw fit.

And unfortunately, other individuals (you? someone you care about?) will continue to be harassed for non-violent, non-victim actions until we each conclude that such treatment is not ideal, and we change the way we think and act.

The surest way to make that happen is for us each to really consider the structure of the failed criminal injustice system and conclude that we can do better.

Safety can never be had through people who first steal your money. Security will never be gotten when there’s no recourse for accountability or check on claimed abilities. Those admirable goals will happen only after we each reject the bad idea of external arbitrary authority.

Ideas have consequences.

Being intellectually honest means exposing yourself to different ideas and allowing yourself to modify your own when presented with those better.

For some potentially paradigm-shifting ideas, see:CopBlock.org/Knowledge

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Hopefully each of us can draw from this our own lessons.

If you’re so-inclined, please write to Frost, I’m sure he’d love to hear from you:

Jacob Frost
Worth Center
PO Box 5305
Lima, OH 45802

In a recent Adam Vs the Man episode, Cop Block’s own Ademo Freeman joined the conversation, which after a call from Luke McKellar, touched-on Frost’s situation (23:00) and later on plea deals (24:33).