Pubdate: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel (CA) Copyright: 2009 Santa Cruz Sentinel Contact: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/submitletters Website: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/394 Author: Walt Froloff THE ECONOMICS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT Thanks for the front-page story on the marijuana raids that took 55 officers serving warrants across the country on those enterprising home growers to net a whopping $22,000. It took officers from DEA, BNE, NET, ATF and several sheriff's departments, "investigating" for who knows how long or breaking who knows what laws to do this, to put these heinous pot growers behind bars. Compare that with the Madoff story, an old fellow who made off with $50 billion. There was only one agency peripherally involved and I say peripheral only because the SEC claims they just don't have the money to police all the crime they are mandated to police. And of course, the police didn't solve this crime; Madoff's sons turned him in. I am still waiting for the story where the two sons of a wealthy marijuana farmer turn their dad in for growing pot that hurt thousands of people and charity organizations. OK, I'd settle for the pot grower's son turning dad in for hurting even one person. We spend millions more police dollars enforcing the law on folks not wearing seat belts than we do on crime that hurts society 50 billion times more. Maybe the law-enforcement business is more like investment banking than I thought, and our laws aren't really safe and are way overleveraged. Walt Froloff Aptos - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake