Strange occurence at work

So I was at work the other day, it was about 9 in the morning when this man comes in. He was short and stalky, you could tell just by looking at him that he was american indian. He asks about a real estate company that he said was somewhere in the area. I looked around for a brochure but didn't have one so I went to my trusty friend the internet. While I'm looking up this real estate company he mentions that his parents are looking to buy a house and retire down here. I agree that it would be a nice place to retire, and tell him that I really enjoy living in the styx, so to speak. "I believe I would prefer to live in montanna or Alaska", I tell him. "It's funny you should mention that" he says "I lived in alaska for over 4 years". I comment that it must have been nice and he agrees. He then went on to talk about how they give land away for free in montanna as long as you do something that makes the land appreciate in value every year for four years.

Then he mentions marijuanna!

He says, (in what sounded like a mix between a latino accent and a northern accent) "Yeah it's legal to own plants up there". I tell him that I read about that and thought it was really cool. He then goes on to tell me a story about his cousin, apparently he had about 3 ounces on him, got pulled over and got a fine of 37 dollars for having to much grass.

He says "yeah I can usually pick out people who smoke" I laughed and said "yeah I don't guess I do a very good job of hiding the fact" pointing at my shaggy hair.

It's right around here the guy tells me he used to be a cop.

"We have just lost cabin pressure"

He tells me about his days on "the force", how he got thrown off for hitting a black man with his gun. He says "yeah you wouldn't believe the things you see," then he says something about the jails.

So this guy seems pretty cool so far, so I decide to lay some of my libertarian beliefs on him. I casually remark "Yeah but you have to wonder how many of them deserve to be there".

This man looked at me like I was crazy "no no no no no he says, I've seen it they all deserve to be there, if not all then at least 99 % of them."

"What about the people in there for pot?" (Keep in mind I'm at work, I could very easily get fired for this) Then he blew me away with this.

"If they hadn't of broken the law they would not be there"





WOW!

I thought that guy was pretty cool up untill that statement. How can you derive your sense of right and wrong from the law? I mean I realize he was a cop and everything, but dancing was illegal for a while, does that make it wrong?

I dunno, I thought it was kind of interesting not just because I basically told an x cop I was a pot head (which I probably shouldn't have done, but I didn't know at the time) but because maybe that's the type of people police officers are. They actually derive their sense of right and wrong from what's actually on the books.