Chumps

Billy has the skinny on the unbelievable story of an entire town administration, from the mayor and aldermen all the way down to the street cops, that got bent over and done dry by one man who showed up in town claiming to be a Federal agent. The doofuses cheerfully helped the imposter blatantly violate the civil rights of many of the residents.

For five months.

"They said the agent, a man some had come to know as “Sergeant Bill,” boasted that he did not need search warrants to enter their homes because he worked for the federal government."

Not one of these clueless burghers ever thought to question someone claiming to be from the mighty Federal Government, and who operated in such a clearly improper manner. It took a good old-fashioned investigation from a reporter at the local newspaper to finally out the bozo wannabe. It took her less than an hour to expose him as a fraud, once she had his name.

The fallout in the town is enormous, as well it should be:

"The strange adventures of Sergeant Bill have led to the firing of three of the town’s five police officers, left the outcome of a string of drug arrests in doubt, prompted multimillion-dollar federal civil rights lawsuits by at least 17 plaintiffs and stirred up a political battle, including a petition seeking the impeachment of Mr. Schulte, over who is to blame for the mess."

Good. If the cops and the mayor can't figure out what's proper police procedure and what isn't, they don't deserve to have their jobs. Actually, in my view what they did absolutely rises to criminal acts, if they can't figure out when someone's civil rights are being trampled right in front of them.

"Of the firings, Mayor Schulte said, 'Nobody wanted to, but the city’s lawyer recommended it.'"

Oh, Good Lord. Hauling people out of their houses at gunpoint without a warrant, locking them up on false charges and leading their neighbors to believe that they're meth dealers isn't really something that an "I'm sorry" is going to fix.

Question Authority - If nothing else, it keeps one out of messes such as this.