Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jul 2010
Source: New Times (San Luis Obispo, CA)
Copyright: 2010 New Times
Contact:  http://www.newtimesslo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1277
Author: J.L. Osborn

COUNTY SHOULD REPORT RAID EXPENDITURES

After reading about the Pozo Saloon fiasco ("What happened in Pozo?" 
July 8) I don't know whether to laugh or cry: 50 undercover cops--and 
all they got was a couple of DUIs, a drunk in public, four Vicodins, 
and a very few minor marijuana possessions! An operation that was 
such a bust the cops were desperately running around begging for a 
joint and literally forcing these young kids to take money, which 
they refused many times, and then took only to get the narcs who 
pestered them to go away.

In the end most of the felony charges will be reduced to 
misdemeanors. Most, if not all, of these "major" drug busts were the 
result of pleading, cajoling, and outright entrapment. There was no 
meth, no cocaine, just kids with marijuana; a flower. If there were 
any serious drug dealers at the concert, the presence of 50 narcs 
would have been obvious to them. Hard drug dealers as a rule don't 
sell to someone they don't know. What kind of intelligence was the 
NTF acting upon? It must be the equal in quality to the information 
that led us into a war with Iraq in search of non-existent weapons of 
mass destruction.

A county auditor should demand an immediate detailed accounting of 
all expenditures of this operation, from beginning to end. And not 
only those for the night of the operation, but from the planning 
stages to courtroom. Every hour every officer logged, every gallon of 
gas used, every damned dime that was spent in pursuit of these 
dangerous marijuana crazed kids!

We are in the middle of a depression. Teachers are being laid off; 
medical services to the poor and uninsured are being cut; public 
transportation is being cut; potholes are going unfilled. I'm sure 
the money spent for this operation and its aftermath could have paid 
the salary of two teachers for a year. In this county, with its low 
crime rate, what is more important: cops creating elaborate busy work 
like this Pozo fiasco, or teachers?

If the county doesn't demand an accounting then the Grand Jury 
should. This is taxpayer money and the public has a right to know how 
and why it was spent. Heads should roll. The Pozo operation was a 
failure by any standard. But nothing will happen because there is no 
civilian oversight of law enforcement in this county, no Internal 
Affairs, no one to police the police.

Morro Bay

J.L. Osborn
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart