calvo tomsic - Google News

calvo tomsic - Google News

A drug dog in Arizona tagged a package addressed to someone on the on the other side of the country. Cops delivered the package to the address, leaving it on the porch on instruction of the addressee's mother. Later, the addressee's husband arrived home, picked up the package and took it inside. Cops headed for the door, broke it down, shot two dogs, recovered the unopened package, mistreated the residents and so on.

Turns out that the victims' address had been used in a scheme where the drug traffickers used innocent addresses where corrupt delivery people could intercept packages. This time, though, the package had been delivered by the cops instead of being intercepted by the traffickers.

Now the FBI is investigating, prompted by the residents, who turned out to be the Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, and his wife, the addressee, a finance officer for the state. Also prompting the investigation is the NAACP, who pointed out that the victims had experienced police action familiar to many young black men in the county.

I imagine the cops had been salivating at the prospect of keeping money from the sale of the house they would confiscate under civil forfeiture. Civil forfeiture is one of the worst evils in this War on Some Drugs.

This case is made doubly infuriating when coupled with exposure to the viewpoint represented in this piece, in which an apparent right-wing authoritarian dismisses Barney Frank's proposed legislation to decriminalize marijuana use on the Federal level.

Oh, well...