The same old story

Why is it always like pulling teeth to get information from police departments when their officers are found to have abused their authority or otherwise gotten themselves in trouble? You'd think they would want to get the information out quickly and clearly to show that they were a professional organization, and that they were doing an excellent job of self-regulating, but I guess that's not the case.

I wrote back in March about a couple in Anoka County that were the innocent victims of a drug buy/bust gone bad. I won't recap the whole thing again; just pop over and read what I wrote then, if you need the backstory.

Today's St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that the couple's claims were indeed validated, and that the officers in question did behave like your average jack-booted thug during the incident, screaming profanities and shoving guns in the homeowners' faces, then joking about it being "Miller Time" while they were leaving after discovering that they had screwed up. Oh, and they didn't bother to apologize, either.

Even though the article reports that the officers are facing reprimands from their respective departments, the couple still doesn't know who the officers are, what possible punishments they may receive, or any other information about the incident that day. Apparently the Anoka County Sheriff's Office has clammed up tight:

"She said they were notified of the ruling in a two-sentence e-mail Wednesday from the sheriff's office - but only after the couple and their attorney had repeatedly e-mailed and called asking for information."

That's not being particularly helpful to your public, Sheriff. And really, it seems all along that all the couple really wants is an apology from the actual officers in question, not just a department flack:

"'But those people weren't here," Nicole Thompson said of the apologists. "We've gotten zero communication from the guys who actually did it.'"

It seems reasonable to me that guys who are man enough to go swinging their authority (and their guns) around like that should also be man enough to knock on the couple's door and apologize for their actions, and that would probably go a heck of a long way towards making this situation go away, but don't hold your breath. As Chief Shellum of the Robbinsdale Police Department showed us recently, police administrations tend to cover for their guys, no matter what they did.

Now, to ask a broader question, is getting some pot off the street worth these types of Gestapo tactics? Not to me. Prohibition doesn't work, and it's never going to work. All it gives us is events such as this one. And no, I've never used an illegal drug, so I don't have a dog in this fight, save for my dismay at the ever-increasing loss of our civil liberties.