Drug-fighting task forces may be tarnished by another's troubles

When Sgt. Joe Leko's officers collared a recent suspect, a methamphetamine addict, the cops were the ones who left her Farmington home emotional.

[Oh OK]

"The county drug task forces are eager to show that they are not running loose operations. For instance, the Metro Gang Strike Force had one employee to maintain inventory records, serve as custodian of the property room, oversee two checking accounts, control funds for paid informants and maintain case files while also answering phones and performing all the clerical work.

The Dakota County Drug Task Force, in contrast, has a full-time technician who does little else but log evidence. The technician is a retired police officer, Leko said. "

Yep, that's WAAAAAAY different. They are so busy nabbing loot in Dakota County, they need someone to work full time just to log it all. Great...

We'll put your money in our bank accounts for safe keeping. It will be much easier to get back that way, right?

Didn't the recent case decided by the MN Supreme Court involve the Dakota County Task Force. The case involved a woman who they served a warrant on and found very little in the way of drugs, but they counted the liquid in her bong as a controlled substance. Instead of a $300 fine and petty misdemeanor, that took her to a felony punishable up to 7 years in prison. But they are just "looking out for everyone real neighbor-like."

Backstrom alert. When there is money to be seized or witnesses to intimidate, he's johnny on the spot. Why, here he is again.

End the war on drugs. The surveillance of America has gotten out of hand.

[They are all the same]

Half of them steal people's stuff and the other half shut up and cover up about it.

[Truth Missle]

Drug enforcement is good when it's outcome is treatment, but when enforcers are the 'bad guys' as was the case with the Metro Gang Task Force then everyone loses. When are we going to see the trials for these crooks who 'shook down' it's citizens they were hired to protect?

[LiberalBuster]

Don't worry any more, obama will legalize drugs soon.

[BEARING]

ok okay I object to your innings with police departments and to make irrational statements in the publics eyes. you do not work for the police department and never will. If you ever had a connection I am sure you were fired immediately. You are just an idiot

[jerry person]

As long as police , district attorneys and judges are rated on conviction rates there is no such thing as drug task forces. There are castopes terrorising the good people for personal gain. We have witnessed they are drug addictive theives just like the metro task force. As long as we have criminal justice systems instaed of peoples justice systems. Justice is never produced, Terrorism and extortion is a violent crime in civilized coutries. It is policy in America. To end drug problems they must end probition like mexico did. It ended the violence in the first probition and ended the police crime waves. Police create crime waves just like they did in the 1930`s. This gives them authority to murder anyone they want. Police no longer solve crimes they create them. Proffesional exaduraters making cases out of nothing for personal gain and advancement. People who harm children for personal gain. Is there any lower for of life than ameber of a criminal justice system? I think not. The largest reason for homelessness in America. Thugs harming the masses for gain in the criminal just us systems. To restore democracy in America all in the just us systems must be incarcerated and start fresh with honest honorable people. Why do you think gangs must arm themseves. Because murder by cop is legal. Definition of a judge is child predator in America.

[jerry person]

Cops are cops. They are all carrier felons harming the children for generations for personal and agency gain. As long as our criminal justice systems are lawless criminal enterprizes. Cops , judges, and district attorneys will continue to be perverts. Perverts lie and mislead for personal gain. Theiving perverts hiding under the cover of the law. When will someone attack America and bring some democracy here. America the land of the greedy harming the needy. What to here real horror stories. Look into the life of any cop. They are horror stories themselves. They do not pick and choose who they harm. They harm everyone they touch. It is called perversion.

[jerry person]

BEARING wrote:

ok okay I object to your innings with police departments and to make irrational statements in the publics eyes. you do not work for the police department and never will. If you ever had a connection I am sure you were fired immediately. You are just an idiot

Who is the idiot. Police are all child predators. To say a good thing about any crimainal justice system membver just shows your a part of the criminal enterprise or a flaming idiot.

[jerry person]

Beraing sounds like you are a member of the criminal enterprise or a flaming idiot.

[Bootsontheroad]

jerry person wrote:

Beraing sounds like you are a member of the criminal enterprise or a flaming idiot.

Five posts in a row. What happened, get caught doing something you should not have been doing? That makes all Officers the bad guys. People read you like yesterdays news paper.

There are good Cops, and there are bad Cops. Just like any other career. I want the selection process changed so there are more good Cops. Also, the Union had better start policing their own.

[vetinwbl]

LiberalBuster wrote:

Don't worry any more, obama will legalize drugs soon.

You must have the PRESIDENT confused with RUSHBO.

[RainbowBrew]

Yes distrust, after they put in protocola and reviews teh strom will die down and it will happen again.

Asset forfeiture is merely stealing yes stealing by the blue gang. We support the blue gang but they sure make things hard when they can not even live up to the laws of the land.

Sure continue stealing from the community and continue demonstrating that this war on drugs is really a war on people. yes an internal conflict some have likened to a civil war.

What a waste of peole, money, time and peoples lives. They have killed in the name of drugs, they have stolen in the name of drugs and they have ruined peoples lives in the name of drugs.

there really needs an enlightenment by the people that this is a health issue, as long as the police have a say they will continue to go for the stealing, it helps their power base.

[felix]

the only help she needs is to be locked in a cell for a year and maybe then she will see the light !!!

[Used to be Really]

jerry person wrote:

As long as police , district attorneys and judges are rated on conviction rates there is no such thing as drug task forces. There are castopes terrorising the good people for personal gain. We have witnessed they are drug addictive theives just like the metro task force. As long as we have criminal justice systems instaed of peoples justice systems. Justice is never produced, Terrorism and extortion is a violent crime in civilized coutries. It is policy in America. To end drug problems they must end probition like mexico did. It ended the violence in the first probition and ended the police crime waves. Police create crime waves just like they did in the 1930`s. This gives them authority to murder anyone they want. Police no longer solve crimes they create them. Proffesional exaduraters making cases out of nothing for personal gain and advancement. People who harm children for personal gain. Is there any lower for of life than ameber of a criminal justice system? I think not. The largest reason for homelessness in America. Thugs harming the masses for gain in the criminal just us systems. To restore democracy in America all in the just us systems must be incarcerated and start fresh with honest honorable people. Why do you think gangs must arm themseves. Because murder by cop is legal. Definition of a judge is child predator in America.

Drugs are still illegal in Mexico, and just like here, your considered a "bad" person if you do drugs, sell drugs, etc. We have a love affair with the media hype that comes out of the word "cartel" , just like our "mafia" stories.

I'm all for legalization, but I don't think cops are bad people because they go after druggies.

You sound like a freakin wacko that got caught, and now you're all hopped up on meth and writing about it.

[Mexico decriminalized]

Used to be Really wrote:

<quoted text>
Drugs are still illegal in Mexico, and just like here, your considered a "bad" person if you do drugs, sell drugs, etc. We have a love affair with the media hype that comes out of the word "cartel" , just like our "mafia" stories.
I'm all for legalization, but I don't think cops are bad people because they go after druggies.
You sound like a freakin wacko that got caught, and now you're all hopped up on meth and writing about it.

Mexico de-criminalized personal amounts of drugs. The U.S. mainstream media did a wonderful job distracting people with "Swine Flu" and the like so that not much was mentioned of this.

[YoMammy]

Let these people do all the meth they want, the problem will take care of itself.

[Carbon Bigfoot]

jerry person wrote:

Cops are cops. They are all carrier felons...

Is that anything like a carrier pigeon? what are they carrying?

[Joel Rosenberg]

It's entirely possible that none of the other task/strike forces are nearly as bad as the MGSF was, even though many of them draw their membership from the same pools, are subject to the same lax oversight, and have gotten the same glowing reports from the BCA.

But how can they possibly demonstrate that without showing their homework?

[Time for change]

23 drug task forces?!?! Really? Do you know many states don't even have one?

We should be able to see how much these task forces cost us in equipment, training, and investigation of low level crimes like Marijuana posession; which is the legal equivalent of jay walking - both are petty misdemeanors.

Then there's this "With some persuasion, that suspect can be turned into an informant, sometimes in exchange for money or a lighter court sentence."

Yeah, what kind of persuasion? Threats? This type of action just creates a separate class of criminals, those that can keep on doing crime and making money from the police in the process.

Paid informants may be legal, but they shouldn't be. It's as much a conflict of interest and it is having the police fund themselves with seizures.

I wish the papers would stop printing these pro-police state fluff pieces and do some real investigative journalism.

[Vast Majority]

The "Bogeyman" that is illegal drugs... has it really affected most people? What percentage of society wants to stick a needle in their arm, snort a line, or partake in drugs like meth that absolutely destroy the body? The vast majority of Americans, myself included, want nothing to do with them. So why, I ask, do we spend BILLIONS each year to protect this very small percentage of people FROM THEMSELVES?? The cost of one year of incarceration far exceeds that of treatment, and the "scarlet letter" of being a convicted drug user/dealer sets up a scenario of being "un-employable" upon release. More expensive, more apt to repeat offend, and more lucrative and VIOLENT due to the artificially inflated prices that prohibition creates. The more these task forces clamp down and reduce supplies and increase the risk, the more lucrative and dangerous the drug trade becomes. The demand side of the equation is greatly INCREASED via intensified efforts in the drug war. This social policy "experiment" is 40 years old, and this is clearly enough time to determine that prohibition is not effective, and in fact, makes the situation worse. We cannot afford to keep locking people up and turning them into WORSE criminals with our present approach to drugs in this nation. Worse yet is the proliferation of people as commodities by the prison and law enforcement industries. Prisoners are profitable. How did we get to this state of being?