Pubdate: Mon, 04 Jan 2016
Source: Press-Enterprise (Riverside, CA)
Copyright: 2016 The Press-Enterprise Company
Contact: http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/letters_form.html
Website: http://www.pe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/830

JUST SAY NO TO HIGH SCHOOL DRUG STINGS

A disgraceful, unjust chapter in Riverside County law enforcement may 
be behind us.

For the second consecutive year, the Sheriff's Department has not 
engaged in undercover drug stings in Riverside County schools, a 
welcomed development given how frivolous and even abusive such 
efforts have been.

 From 2010 to 2013, the department placed undercover deputies at 
multiple high schools in the county. Posing as students, the deputies 
attempted to buy drugs to set the stage for mass arrests of 
teenagers, presumably for their own good, or something like that.

In total, 85 students were arrested. The locations of the 
investigations were Palm Desert, Temecula Valley, Chaparral, Rancho 
Vista Continuation, Paloma Valley and Perris high schools. Something 
is wrong when our tax dollars and law enforcement resources are 
devoted to setting up students in the interest of our quixotic War on 
Drugs rather than educating them.

Perhaps the most obscene example of this was the 2012 bust of an 
autistic teenager at Chaparral High in the Temecula Valley Unified 
School District. The teenager was reportedly befriended by an 
undercover officer dubbed "Deputy Dan" by other students who thought 
it obvious the "student" was an officer.

The officer pressured the teenager to purchase marijuana on his 
behalf on two occasions, giving him $20 to do it. On Dec. 11, 2012, 
the teenager was one of 21 others arrested at school and expelled. 
Charged in juvenile court, his expulsion was later overturned and he 
only had to do some community service.

But that a teenager could be subjected to any of this calls into 
question the integrity of our policing and educational systems. 
Catherine Snodgrass, the teen's mother, filed a lawsuit against the 
school district. Late last year, Superior Court Judge Raquel Marquez 
determined the district is protected "because they were cooperating 
with police and because California Government Code 820.2 protects 
public employees who are making routine policy decisions."

While this is unfortunate -- those responsible for these setups ought 
to be held accountable for them -- at least the Sheriff's Department 
reports that such efforts haven't occurred since 2013. That such a 
thing could happen in our own communities, with the participation of 
our schools and law enforcement, should be a lesson to the public to 
never put too much trust in government. Given too much power and too 
much leeway, abuses will occur, and harm will be done.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom