I want to see this episode of COPS

Via Balko and Joel, a rollicking tale of someone beating a group of law-breaking cops at their own game.

This one's really good.

A group (admittedly advocating the legalization of marijuana, and how to avoid being arrested for using it) is contacted by the father of a woman who accuses the Odessa, Texas Police Department of forcing an informant to plant drugs on her, causing her to be incarcerated:

"The informant testified in federal court he planted the drugs on her and he passed a polygraph confirming the same. Yolanda [Madden] also passed a polygraph along with a hair follicle and urine test. Our broken criminal justice system ignored the evidence and railroaded her through court sentencing her to 8 years in prison."

The group, outraged by the situation, subsequently decides to set up a little "drug" sting of their own:

"KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house.

The trap was set and less than 24 hours later, the Odessa narcotics unit raided the house only to find KopBuster's attorney waiting under a system of complex gadgetry and spy cameras that streamed online to the KopBuster's secret mobile office nearby.

The attorney was handcuffed and later released when eleven KopBuster detectives arrived with the media in tow to question the illegal raid. The police refused to give KopBusters the search warrant affidavit which is suspected to contain the lies regarding the probable cause." (all emphases mine)

Now that would be some quality television right there. We're going to have to request a copy of that warrant for its entertainment value alone.

It's about time that someone began calling shenanigans on how police routinely manufacture evidence in order to justify their mistaken SWAT-style raids on peoples' homes, which then usually end up causing all sorts of collateral mayhem, injuries and sometimes even death to innocent people and their pets.

The fact that some police departments feel justified in falsifying evidence and using illegally intrusive investigative techniques to effect arrests for small amounts of narcotics is just another sign that "The War on Drugs" is an absolute failure. And no, I've never used an illegal drug. I just want my community's limited law-enforcement resources to not be wasted on the local potheads.