When will City Council and the concerned citizens of Mountain View stop ignoring the rampant criminality amongst single-family home dwellers? Every time I walk past a single-family home, I hold my children close to me, fearful of the dangerous element lurking within. Why do we tolerate people living in single-family homes, that clearly encourage such antisocial and criminal behavior?

I hope Margaret Abe-Koga and Lisa Matichak will ban these breeding grounds of criminality.

Maybe they are renters. 500 block of Church Street. The mushrooms might be a religious thing. In their 60's. Must not have qualified for government pensions. Republican, Democrat, Independent or not registered to vote? That's what I want to know.

I came here to read dumb comments blaming the left for a crime problem or the city council.

I was not disappointed.

What? Ban single-family homes? So we all get to live in high-rise apartment complexes, or what? I live walking distance from the home in question; in fact, I walked past it this morning, and had no fear of anyone lurking within ready to pounce. I've owned a single-family home on Latham Street for over 20 years, and I can assure you that neither I nor any of my single-family home owning neighbors are anti-social criminals. Neither is the one renter on my block.

O my dear sweet God, save us from the evil denizens of the single family home dens of iniquity! Breeding grounds of criminality! Vice! Women in slacks! Men with earrings! People <gasp> drinking home-made lattes!

Are you extremely ignorant or merely paranoid?

I certainly hope your children don't grow up warped.

Good that you are keeping track of "one" renter on your block! The first two comments on this story did not blame "the left" or the "city council" for anything. Those comments were plainly meant to be sarcastic or funny or both. Lighten up.

That any of you take "Dwellers" seriously is a sign of how far we have fallen.

Great commentary ("Gary" too) - keep it up, humor is all we have left as we head towards 2020.

Guess this proves that people who live in houses do illicit things, and we aren't asking them to move. This is the second time in several years this house has been busted, and multiple people arrested. Make note when you vote for the RV issue.

What is funny about this thread is that the house in question for years and years had a beat-up RV parked in the driveway!!

Anyone who lives nearby knows exactly which house this is. There are cops there all the time, the busts have been regular over the last 20+ years we’ve lived in the neighborhood.

Why is it always a drug "den"? Seems to me most of it ends up in the kitchen.

Incredulous,
Apparently you cannot detect sarcasm/irony....

Single family homes - Dens of Iniquity!

Trying to understand the logic behind the snark. What, because someone in a house was cooking meth, we should allow hundreds of RVs to illegally take over the streets?

That’s like saying it’s useless to push for gun control because even lawful gun owners can do bad things. Which is an argument the snarky virtue signallers on this section most definitely would not agree with.

Meth and Shrooms? Sounds weird, but Ok Boomer.

Really, MV Voice? This term "drug den" is a holdover from the 1920's reefer madness days. Two things can be inferred about this arrested older couple:

1. They seem to have a meth habit. Methamphetamine is a quite addictive drug that's very popular all around the country. It isn't chemically all that different from amphetamines like Adderall, which is routinely prescribed to our children. So let's not mislead gullible readers into thinking this older couple are some sort of drug fiends. The criminalization of one type of amphetamine and the rampant promotion of another similar type is the kind of hypocrisy that's baked into our War on (some) Drugs.

2. They like psychedelic mushrooms, which are important and non-addictive healing fungi currently the subject of numerous medical studies for their anti-depressant effects as well as their ability to regenerate brain cells and mitigate PTSD. Psilocybin mushrooms are widely, if illicitly, used all over the country, including amongst many Silicon Valley elites, for their ability to reprogram our brains out of destructive patterns, to enhance creativity, and to help people feel a greater "sacred" connection to the world around us. The criminalization of psilocybin mushrooms is a historic-scale crime against humanity that will be looked at in the next 20 years as one of the most mind-bogglingly destructive policies ever put into place.

Maybe get some journalists who are qualified to parse the meanings of stories rather than just repeating police press releases?

So you want to get more serious? Ok. The article states the house was a hub for the sale of illegal drugs. Is the last poster defending meth sales or just magic mushrooms? I cruised the 500 block of Church earlier today. I did not see an RV. Was it removed? Were the drug dealers renters? I ask because owners can lose their homes if used to manufacture or distribute illegal drugs. When I say "illegal" of course I mean without a prescription for a medical use. Why did it take so long to catch these dealers (if they were dealers)? Traffic to a house on that block would have been very apparent. Where are the suspects now? And finally: have all of the mushrooms been sold to a steak house and, if so, which one?

To clarify:

1. The War on Drugs creates a class of criminals consensual behavior. Otherwise law-abiding members of our community who don't victimize anyone face being locked in a concrete cage for engaging in consensual behavior with other consenting adults. ("Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes... A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." - Abraham Lincoln)

2. In the specific case of methamphetamine, the law contains a built-in hypocrisy in that chemically very similar amphetamine drugs are promoted heavily and sold by for-profit pharmaceutical companies for use by children.

3. Asset forfeiture laws like the one Gary cites are particularly heinous in that they create an even larger incentive for law enforcement to go after people involved in consensual behavior -- not to create a safer community but for their own financial benefit. Commodifying law enforcement is hardly an ideal model for good or restrained policing.

4.These are just a few pieces of the way the War on Drugs is a crime against humanity. Along with the drug war's racist and classist underpinnings, it is very profitable for a small number of organizations and industries and a disaster for America and the world. In a free country, people who are not bothering others should not face criminal penalties.

Some good points. But you did not explicitly respond to whether dealing meth should not be a crime. Do you contend that no drug should be criminal to use or sell? Or just to use or sell to a "consenting" adult addict? Current law does "discriminate" or distinguish between prescription drugs prescribed for a medical purpose or purpose or non-prescription drugs. Would you make all prescripton drugs legal (or not criminal) for use or sale by any adult? And how about for use by one's own daughters and sons or others under 18, 16, 14, 12, 10? You can be king for the day. Change drug laws. What would you write?