Here's good law enforcement. A poker club is holding a tournament at a local restaurant in a small town near Colorado Springs. The owner of the restaurant has checked it out and thinks it's all legal (the gambling laws are often quite vague and opinions can differ). The police find out about it, and disagree. But rather than go down and talk to the folks there, the police just decide to bust in with guns drawn and put to people's heads, shouting and screaming. These were officers from the Colorado Springs Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Unit. They just seemed to have forgotten the part about intelligence.
And there is reasonable evidence to surmise that 90+% of these officers were members of the various hard core evangelical and fundamentalist christian communities in Colorado Springs. Damn that gambling thang!!
Here's the part that gets me:
""We were uncertain whether it was legal or not," he [Officer Smith, the local Police officer who referred it to Metro Vice] said. "That's why we referred it to state liquor enforcement." "
So, EVEN THE POLICE aren't sure if it's legal or not, but they bust in with weapons drawn anyway...
... and conveniently take over $3000 cash, which the police themselves know came from a legitimate, unrelated source (read the story) - let's see if the poor victim gets his money back!
(And the reference to "hardcore fundamentalist christian" groups was both unfounded and gratuitous... just saying, at least avoid logical fallacies [ad hominem] when possible, OK?)
Thanks for the heads-up on this one. I've posted a piece on my blog about it as well. I found my way here from Overlawyered.