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Please, it's a podunk middle-America state, full of ignorance and local Republican governments who are control freaks when it comes to this sort of thing. This

by cmurf 11y ago

Please, it's a podunk middle-America state, full of ignorance and local Republican governments who are control freaks when it comes to this sort of thing. This is precisely the expected outcome of having such a state and local government. That's why I don't live there anymore. And it's not just simple ignorance, it's prideful ignorance, and active resentment of people who question the local politics, status quo, religion, and anyone liberal. And the judge in the case? George H.W. Bush appointed him. So yeah, this story is not a surprise to me at all. Now in defense of podunk, they're incentivized by our militaristic culture to behave this way. Not merely the violence, but also the money and arms the Feds have thrown at them in pursuit of "drugs" without respect to the drugs' relative risk factors. And these dense states who pay less in taxes than they take in are more than happy to lie through their teeth like in this story to get more Federal drug war resources.

someguydave 11y ago
Every single branch of the US government jealously guards its ability to keep secrets from the general population. Not holding the individual civil servants to account is a Republican and Democrat failure of the highest order.
seandougall 11y ago
An acquaintance of mine was recently arrested on suspicion of stealing a double bass from in front of a conservatory of music. Evidently, a bass was reported as stolen, and a complete description of the instrument was provided to police. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the conservatory carrying a bass, and that was sufficient to obtain a search warrant for his home. Never mind that he's a bassist, and the footage showed him carrying his own instrument. There can clearly be only one bass in existence, and the one on the surveillance tape must be it. Upon searching his apartment, the police found not one, but two double basses in his possession. Never mind that he had documentation to show that they both belonged to him, and never mind that neither one fit the description of the instrument that had been stolen. There can clearly be only one bass in existence, and these ... two ... basses, somehow, are ... it? I dunno, these aren't the same maker, and they don't have the same identifying marks, but hey, they have four strings! The one that's missing has four strings! Good enough, he must have just hidden the stolen bass under a rug or something. (They're easy to hide, right?) Let's just make an arrest and go home. So they arrested him, and (again, despite having conclusive proof that neither was the instrument in question) seized both basses, along with his cell phone, and held him on $100,000 bail. Astonishingly, charges were ultimately dropped for lack of evidence. This was in San Francisco -- about as un-podunk, un-middle-America, and un-Republican as you can get without showing a passport. Lazy police work is everywhere. It has nothing to do with politics or ignorance, and it doesn't really even have to do particularly with the war on drugs (although that certainly gives the police more opportunities to brandish their laziness publicly). It's a combination of pressure to show action by making arrests and an utter lack of accountability when those arrests turn out to be specious, and those two factors exist everywhere in this country.

by cmurf 11y ago

someguydave 11y ago

Every single branch of the US government jealously guards its ability to keep secrets from the general population. Not holding the individual civil servants to account is a Republican and Democrat failure of the highest order.

seandougall 11y ago

An acquaintance of mine was recently arrested on suspicion of stealing a double bass from in front of a conservatory of music. Evidently, a bass was reported as stolen, and a complete description of the instrument was provided to police. Surveillance footage showed him leaving the conservatory carrying a bass, and that was sufficient to obtain a search warrant for his home. Never mind that he's a bassist, and the footage showed him carrying his own instrument. There can clearly be only one bass in existence, and the one on the surveillance tape must be it. Upon searching his apartment, the police found not one, but two double basses in his possession. Never mind that he had documentation to show that they both belonged to him, and never mind that neither one fit the description of the instrument that had been stolen. There can clearly be only one bass in existence, and these ... two ... basses, somehow, are ... it? I dunno, these aren't the same maker, and they don't have the same identifying marks, but hey, they have four strings! The one that's missing has four strings! Good enough, he must have just hidden the stolen bass under a rug or something. (They're easy to hide, right?) Let's just make an arrest and go home. So they arrested him, and (again, despite having conclusive proof that neither was the instrument in question) seized both basses, along with his cell phone, and held him on $100,000 bail. Astonishingly, charges were ultimately dropped for lack of evidence. This was in San Francisco -- about as un-podunk, un-middle-America, and un-Republican as you can get without showing a passport. Lazy police work is everywhere. It has nothing to do with politics or ignorance, and it doesn't really even have to do particularly with the war on drugs (although that certainly gives the police more opportunities to brandish their laziness publicly). It's a combination of pressure to show action by making arrests and an utter lack of accountability when those arrests turn out to be specious, and those two factors exist everywhere in this country.