A Few Mistakes Have Been Made

Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia says the drug laws were a mistake.

"It was a great mistake to put routine drug offenses into the federal courts," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal went on to report Scalia's belief that the laws forced Congress to enlarge the federal court system, and diminished "the elite quality of the federal judiciary."

This isn't a new problem. Chief Justice William Rehnquist complained as far back as 1989 that the war on drugs was overwhelming the federal judiciary. In 1995, Kathleen F. Brickley, an academic, found that "the Federal system is strained to capacity due, in large part, to the government's war on drugs."

There also seems to be a quota system that has been strained beyond the breaking point. Which seems to be the reason some cops were fabricating drug charges.

A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.

The bombshell testimony from Stephen Anderson is the first public account of the twisted culture behind the false arrests in the Brooklyn South and Queens narc squads, which led to the arrests of eight cops and a massive shakeup.

Anderson, testifying under a cooperation agreement with prosecutors, was busted for planting cocaine, a practice known as "flaking," on four men in a Queens bar in 2008 to help out fellow cop Henry Tavarez, whose buy-and-bust activity had been low.

Real investigations take time. And sometimes they don't pay off. Sometimes they do and the cops need to find some other people to keep their numbers up.

It is a difficult job and no one should be doing it.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Houston, We Have A Problem

It looks like some police in Houston love pot as much as the people they arrest for it.

Police say Hill told them he was a weed dealer and that he'd just taken delivery of his supply earlier that day.

Three other people in the apartment were allegedly holding drugs, and a thorough search of the apartment turned up a couple of shotguns, an unknown quantity of 'shrooms, around $940 cash, a little more weed, and an assortment of bongs and pipes.

What this official report does not mention specifically is the tray of pot brownies Hill says the cops seized and ate right in front of him and his fellow suspects.

All of this would emerge in Hill's conversations with his lawyers Daniel Cahill and J. Julio Vela. Cahill was disbelieving at first -- although only 19, Hill has a little bit of a precocious record in drug arrests -- but investigated his client's claims nevertheless. And now he says he has what might be a smoking gun.

Hill told Cahill that after eating the brownies and arresting him and two of his buddies, the cops got on their in-car computers and started squawking about how stoned they were.

KTRK's Ted Oberg got a hold of the transcripts:

"So HIGH...Good munchies," typed one at 2:44 a.m.

And why shouldn't they get baked on pot brownies? After all the supply is free to police. As long as they are willing to steal. If they had avoided arresting the kid for dealing pot they could have gotten away with it. Just a cost of doing business. In fact the police could probably have arranged for a regular supply free of charge had they thought the whole deal through.

Regulatory Capture

This is a story of street level crime by officers of various government anti-drug organizations in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

After evidence of the officers’ misconduct came to light, federal agent Brandon McFadden pled guilty to drug conspiracy and testified against other TPD officers. An excerpt from former Agent McFadden’s guilty plea reveals his involvement in the scandal:

From January 7th of — to May of 2008, I conspired with others, including Tulsa police officer, Jeff Henderson, to distribute methamphetamine in the Northern District of Oklahoma. During the time period . . . I used the position as a special agent with ATF to further the drug conspiracy and abused my position as a special agent. During this time, myself and Henderson seized drugs and money which were kept for our own personal benefit, falsified investigative reports, and failed to document events, and obstruct justice through falsely [sic] testimony under oath and persuading other individuals to do the same.

Ah. But it gets better (or worse - depending)

Larry Barnes and his daughter, Larita, have been deeply affected by the Tulsa scandal. Larry and Larita were imprisoned because several TPD officers fabricated a drug buy and coached an informant to lie about the buy. The informant later recanted his testimony and admitted that TPD officers told him to lie. As a result, Larry and Larita Barnes have been released from prison.

However, Larry and Larita were not the only individuals affected by police corruption in Tulsa. Many more were wrongfully convicted based on the lies and false testimony of TPD officers. In fact, since 2009, almost 40 people have been released from prison or had their cases dismissed.

I'm sure this was just an isolated incident. After all, America has the most moral people and the most moral police in the world. Especially in Oklahoma. The Buckle of the Bible Belt. Just a few bad apples. Besides it is probably worse elsewhere in the country. Uh. Oh.

Police Beat Schizophrenic To Death

For those of you who have a schizophrenic male relative it is something you live in fear of. He has a run in with police and doesn't respond to police commands and the police take it personally. Reason magazine has the story, plus video and pictures that are just too horrific for me to repost. But they may have gone after the wrong schizophrenic. His father was a retired police officer. Reason quotes another blogger:

Kelly Thomas, a 37-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, kept calling for his father as police beat and tased him repeatedly.

But his father, a retired Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was not around.

It wasn't until after Thomas slipped into a coma and was hospitalized with multiple injures that his father saw him.

And by then, it was too late. Thomas never recovered. The 135-pound man died five days after his run-in with Fullerton police.

Read the whole thing. And weep.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Two Parties

I brought up the question of abortion and as usual the usual pointless discussion ensued. A couple of my conservative friends chimed in and all they could talk about is philosophy and morality. I, being a more practical sort due to my engineering training, would prefer to talk policing. Or if you will: what can government really do (besides being a criminal organization I mean)?

I'm going to start here with my own bit of philosophy. Political Philosophy.

There are two parties in America today. Those that trust government and those that don't. The trusters are all the Ds and half the Rs.

And then there are the rest of us.

Yeah. The R trusters are different. "We only trust government for some things. Far fewer things than the Ds - that is for sure." Forgetting the problem of mission creep. How did fighting drugs morph into peeing into a bottle for a job? One of those unexpected mysteries of life to be sure.

Back to the morality question.

The morality is obvious. (In rich countries with plenty of food anyway).

What is also obvious is that policing such a ban will get very ugly.

I can't wait to see what the Pregnancy Enforcement Administration (PEA) will look like. It will be staffed with PEA brains to be sure. But will they require women to pee in a bottle weekly for the PEA? The Drug War precedent says yes. I'm not totally against such a move. It will be a great libertarian recruiting tool.

There is only one (so far) Pro-Life Organization I have found that says it is not the business of government to change hearts and minds on this subject. It is theirs:

Rockford Pro Life

I'm hoping this attitude will catch on.

Addressed to my pro life friends:

The government is barely able to keep order on the streets. And you want them to police the most intimate (available) part's of your or your mate's and daughter's anatomy?

Are you nuts?

Well not nuts exactly. It is a mental illness though. Faith in Government.

Again to my Pro-Government friends:

I worry about fellers like you. You have the best of intentions. And then the Democrats get in and use every power you have given government against you.

Idiots.

Or perhaps I should rephrase that. Government lovers. There is some evidence it is a genetic defect. Currently uncurable. My condolences.

And a parting thought. But first a little background. I had been discussing with one of my pro life friends the escalation of the Drug War to the point that SWAT Teams are going after defaulters on student loans. My friend said it was not about vaginas and vagina police (people who believe in government seem to have very limited imaginations).

Of course you are right my friend. It is not about vaginas. But if you get your way it will be.

The scene of the crime will need to be searched extensively by those forensically trained and if not the trained then who ever is available. Murder is a very serious crime and the evidence in this case is the body of the perpetrator. Police will at least need to watch the evidence being gathered to insure the chain of custody. This is some serious s***. You don't stint on murder investigations. Especially with 100 million potential criminals to keep an eye on.

And what happens when police go into the crime prevention mode?

What happens if the woman decides not to eat right and there is nothing where there was once something. There will need to be a law. And watchers. Perhaps a special badge for pregnant women so we can all be our sister's and children's keepers.

===

Are you forgetting what the Drug War has done for SWAT teams? Watch those student loans buddy. You don't want the 3 AM knock followed by the flash bang grenades and possible accidental discharge of automatic weapons just because your student loans are not up to date.

The Government starts with a mission and then the mission creeps. And pretty soon the power you gave to government to protect you is being used against you. Best to give them as little power as possible. The same attitude you would have towards any Criminal Enterprise.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Peace Officers

A free country wants Peace Officers. A country run by a criminal gang needs enforcers.

Inspired by this thread on Talk Polywell. Which refers to this post on Power and Control.

The Status Of Crime

Camden, New Jersey has a problem.

For nine months last year, Ron Mills was locked in the Camden County Jail.

For nine months he held firm to his story that the drugs he was charged with possessing didn't exist.

Last month Mills' story was validated when a former Camden police officer admitted in federal court that for more than two years he and four other officers arrested suspects with planted drugs, carried out illegal searches and wrote false arrest reports.

Mills' story, which was detailed by former Patrolman Kevin Parry in court, is now being laid out in one of a growing number of lawsuits planned against the city.

That is the trouble with status crimes. Only a police officer is needed to give evidence. If you are going to falsely accuse some one of robbery you generally need a civilian accomplice who will testify "I wuz robbed". Somewhat more difficult than just planting evidence and making up stories. A tactic often referred to by police as Testilying.

But haven't we heard that story before?

The Rampart scandal refers to widespread corruption in the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (or CRASH) anti-gang unit of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division in the late 1990s. More than 70 police officers in the CRASH unit were implicated in misconduct, making it one of the most widespread cases of documented police misconduct in United States history. The convicted offenses include unprovoked shootings, unprovoked beatings, planting of evidence, framing of suspects, stealing and dealing narcotics, bank robbery, perjury, and covering up evidence of these activities.

Those Rampart boys sound a bit excessive. Even for out of control police.

But back to Camden.

In announcing the case dismissals for the first time last month, Camden County Prosecutor Warren Faulk described their extent as "unprecedented in the state of New Jersey."

Cherry Hill attorney Michael Pinsky said in his 46 years as an attorney he has "never seen mass dismissals like this."

But the corruption in Camden isn't completely unique, as rogue officers from Philadelphia to Los Angeles have caused thousands of cases to be dismissed.

In the mid-1990s, a police scandal in Philadelphia's 39th District led to at least eight officers pleading guilty to corruption charges. Hundreds of criminal cases were thrown out by judges and lawsuits against the city tallied at least $4 million in settlements, according to media reports.

Say didn't they have problems like these during alcohol prohibition? Yes they did.

Prohibition also fostered corruption and contempt for law and law enforcement among large segments of the population. Harry Daughtery, attorney general under Warren Harding, accepted bribes from bootleggers. George Remus, a Cincinnati bootlegger, had a thousand salesmen on his payroll, many of them police officers. He estimated that half his receipts went as bribes. Al Capone's Chicago organization reportedly took in $60 million in 1927 and had half the city's police on its payroll.

One of the reasons I think police have a need for prohibition to continue for as much longer as is possible is that there are a lot of ugly things that are going to be uncovered when this rock is lifted.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Waste Fraud And Abuse

Remember a few days back when I posted about the trouble with police crime labs? Well I have more evidence.

San Francisco prosecutors told judges Friday that they could not "ethically go forward" with 46 narcotics trials because of evidence problems arising out of the scandal at the Police Department's drug-analysis lab - signaling that the district attorney is likely to dismiss nearly all 750 pending drug cases in the city.

"Based on what the district attorney's office knows about the issues within the narcotics division of the crime lab, we cannot ethically go forward with this prosecution," Assistant District Attorney Nancy Tung told a judge overseeing a case that was serving as a test of how much police and prosecutors had to disclose to defense attorneys about problems at the drug lab.

Prosecutors dropped that test case, a cocaine-sales trial, after having been deluged with 1,500 pages of police files about the lab that a spokesman for the district attorney called "troubling" and said pointed to possible larger problems in the Police Department.

As if you needed more evidence of what a waste the drug war is.

But it gets worse.

The exact contents of the 1,500 pages of police files have not been made public, but Buckelew said the documents hinted at problems with police and the drug lab that go beyond Madden's conduct. Buckelew called the files "troubling."

"At the very beginning this was a case about Debbie Madden and isolated incidents that could have been resolved by retesting," Buckelew said. However, he added, "the face of this has changed."

Bell's attorney said he believed the material included audits of the crime lab at Hunters Point, and its drug-testing section, going back at least six years.

Among the questions raised since the suspicions about Madden were made public is why the Police Department took more than two months to open a criminal investigation into her actions after her sister said she had found what she believed to be a stolen lab vial of cocaine in Madden's home. Documents contained in the files could help answer that question and reveal who in the Police Department knew what and when.

If you have been a libertarian as long as I have you know what a waste government is in general. So what will be the outcome? Most likely the government will ask for more money to fix the mess the government caused. The bigger the screw up the more government will take from citizens. Heads we win and tails we win bigger. You'd almost think the game was rigged.

The government has no interest in fighting drugs per se. That is incidental to emptying your wallet. I can't wait for the marks to wise up.

H/T Pete Guither at Drug War Rant

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Sometimes The Science Is A Crime

An interesting report on bad science in crime labs.

Let us consider something we used to teach our sophomores - lead smelting and refining. Almost all lead occurs as sulfide ores that contain lesser amounts of other metals. Smelting removes the sulfur and refining removes most of minor elements, notably gold, silver and copper. The composition of the refined lead may be easily and inexpensively determined by, for example, spectrographic analysis.

Someone at the FBI decided that if the compositions of two bullets “matched” well enough the two were from the same box of ammunition. Then if the box of ammunition was tied to the defendant, so was the subject bullet.

My reaction to the claim is “HUH?” One crucible of refined lead could make millions of bullets, and the molten lead is not necessarily of uniform composition. A composition match does not prove a darned thing.

This erstwhile expert was clearly working far above his pay grade, but sold the idea to superiors who really should have known better. For the next two decades, thousands of innocent people were convicted on the basis of totally hokum bullet matching. The FBI was the only lab in the country that was using the technique, which should have been a warning that something was wrong.

Finally someone in a high position got the National Academy of Science to address the lead-matching issue. They turned thumbs down and the FBI stopped matching bullets to a particular box.

Recently the Academy performed an extensive study of the nation’s crime labs. Law enforcement agencies resented the intervention of mainstream science in the courts and an arm of the Justice Department tried to block the study. It failed and the resulting report decried the lack of science and the use of shoddy practice.

One thing the labs are really good at is producing convictions because you know - it's science. Good for mystifying the rubes. And you wonder why lawyers don't like engineers and scientists on juries.

Just round up the usual suspects.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Haven't I Seen This Movie Some Where Before?

It seems that some Chicago Police Officers may have gotten themselves in trouble for some little indiscretions at the G-20 summit.

The video apparently shows about 15 police officers in riot gear posing for a photo with a man they detained kneeling in front of them.

Kyle Kramer, the 21-year-old University of Pittsburgh student forced to pose with police, was returning to campus from a pizza parlor when he was detained by police who were rounding up protesters, his attorney Cristopher Hoel told The Associated Press on Friday.

And how did Chicago Police Officers wind up in Pittsburgh? They volunteered.

No doubt we will eventually find out that they were members of the "Skull Crackers Club". Or maybe they just wanted to join the club and needed a war trophy. Or it could be just a figment of my fevered imagination.

Second City Cop had this to say.

Honest to god, the Chicago Police Department could fuck up a one-car-funeral. Who the fuck was leading this expedition of mentally-challenged sorry excuses for police officers? You can see at least one of them holding the camera and another right there in the front row:

And they have the video to prove it.

I also like the way Second City got a good "fuck" in before he was done with the first sentence.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Don't Talk

The speaker in the video is Mr. James Duane, a professor at Regent Law School and a former defense attorney.

Yeah. Don't talk. The Mafia Code of Omerta. Silence. The Video explains why.

Here is Part 2 by a police officer in case you need more reasons.

Which brings up this book:

Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent

Here is what one reviewer said:

This is a very thoughtful and vigorously argued book about the injustices that arise when prosecutors seek to expand the reach of federal criminal statutes beyond their proper field of application. The author has litigated many of the cases he discusses, and is able to translate the complexities of that experience intelligently and without condescension, but also without all of the unnecessary technical details that lawyers writing for a general audience sometimes get bogged down in. Harvey Silverglate is an institution in his own right: a tireless advocate for civil liberties, prolific writer, and astute student of the law, there are few people who have a stronger commitment to illuminating the practical workings of the criminal justice system and their relationship to broader currents in the law. This is a must-read for those interested in criminal law, civil liberties, and the recent history of the Department of Justice, by a writer who has the courage of his convictions and voices them powerfully and well.

Here is an interview with the author Harvey Silverglate.

BC: Then has the common law tradition been abandoned? Does innocence of intention matter anymore?

Harvey Silverglate: The common law tradition has been essentially abandoned in federal law. Indeed, for a very long time the Supreme Court has ruled that federal law is entirely the product of congressional statutes and administrative regulations, rather than of common law evolution. This presumably was -- in part -- an effort to assure clarity. The law was to mean what Congress wrote and intended, rather than follow the long-standing dictums of common law tradition and interpretation. In theory, this should have produced a body of law with more clarity than the typical state law code.

In practice, despite Morissette's admirable but ultimately failed effort to turn the situation around common law notions were abandoned in the federal criminal justice system and clarity suffered, not to mention the moral content and purpose of the law. Now, people who have done things that most normal folks would not consider a crime, can be sentenced to decades-long stays in federal prison. In truth, any criminal justice system that abandons clarity of obligation and proof of criminal intent has abandoned its moral purpose and hence its legitimacy. And, as my book shows, our federal system of criminal justice has long since lost its legitimacy.

How about that. There is much more.

Ayn Rand explains what it is all about in her novel Atlas Shrugged.

"Did you really think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against . . . We're after power and we mean it. You fellows were pikers, but we know the real trick, and you'd better get wise to it. There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted -- and you create a nation of law-breakers -- and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Rearden, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier to deal with."

The upshot of all this: Don't Talk to the Police. Ever.

And while you are at it you might want to talk to your Representatives about what has happened to justice in America. And don't even get me started about Testilying in drug cases.

House of Representatives
The Senate

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Kop Corruption

One of the things that helped end alcohol prohibition was police corruption.

Barry Cooper (Kop Buster) also helped bust a police officer who was soliciting underage boys.

“Within a short time, we hope to have a corrupt police chief in jail for seven felony warrants [for] harming kids,” he told reporters. “I acted as a undercover journalist-informant, they listed me as the informant on the arrest affidavit. I befriended this officer and made him believe that I was his friend and that I wanted to clear his name. The truth was, I was relaying all that information to the Combine police department.”

Cooper continued: “As an ex-narcotics officer, I’ve experienced corruption and seen it myself. My wife suggested that I use my experience to go and start busting corrupt police officers instead of citizens. That’s when we formed ‘KopBusters,’ a reality TV show. We’re hoping to have 13 episodes up on [...] TV very soon. I feel [passionate] about my job, and we’re using these stings so I can win Texas attorney general in 2010, because in that position I can expose police corruption even further, take their salaries and begin paying police officers six-figure incomes … The one’s that deserve it.”

I wish Barry good luck. However, the very best way to end the corruption of drug prohibition is the same way we ended the corruption of alcohol prohibition. Legalize.

And visit Kop Busters

H/T Colleen via e-mail

Duke Meets OJ

The Duke case and the OJ case have a lot of similarities.

I watched the OJ trial from the point of view that the LAPD was a corrupt police department. I knew this because I followed the drug war and saw lots of instances of LAPD corruption in that war. OJ's defence made the point that the police may have corrupted the evidence. Guess what? We found out a few years later in the Rampart scandal that the LAPD was corrupt and had routinely planted evidence. The defence took advantage of community knowledge before it became public knowledge. In othter words it may very well have been a case of the LAPD framing a guilty man.

In the Duke case we have the DA and police framing innocent men.

In both cases the problem is corrupt police and in the Duke case a corrupt DA as well.

The common thread is the corruption of the justice system. I believe this is SOP across the country. Look up testilying. (I wrote about that in Corruption Is Routine.) It is rampant. This is another case of the system's bad habits catching up with it.

I blame drug prohibition for the bad habits.

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The above was inspired by the comments at this post: Durham In Wonderland

Cross Posted at Classical Values