Drug War Issues
There may be something rotten in the dope squad in Philly, something definitely was rotten in Beantown, and yes, another jail guard goes down. Let's get to it:
In Philadelphia, the city District Attorney's office announced Monday in was opening a probe into a city police narcotics officer accused by a former confidential informant of falsifying evidence to make cases against suspected drug dealers. Officer Jeffrey Cujdik, 34, a veteran of nearly 12 years with the department, has turned in his gun, and the FBI is about to join the department's internal affairs unit and the DA's office in investigating the case. Suspicions about Cujdik and his informant, Ventura Martinez, were first raised more than a year ago by a suspicious defense attorney in a drug case. Martinez lived in a house owned by Cujdik, an apparent violation of department rules for keeping snitches at arms' length, and had been earning $200 or $300 a pop for turning up drug or guns cases for his handler. But Cujdik ended the relationship and threw Martinez out of the house in December, and Martinez is saying Cujdik regularly fabricated evidence to make drug busts. Now, Philadelphia public defenders say they are reviewing the cases of people jailed in cases involving Cujdik, and so are prosecutors.
In Boston, a former Massachusetts state trooper pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to distribute the prescription pain reliever OxyContin and using extortion to collect drug debts. Former trooper Mark Lemieux was one of four people, including a retired state trooper, arrested in May 2007 on OxyContin conspiracy charges. The retired trooper, Joseph Catanese, had worked with Lemieux on a drug task force. He pleaded guilty last fall to using extortion to collect drug debts and conspiring to obstruct justice. Two civilians in the case have received three-year prison terms. Catanese and Lemieux have yet to be sentenced.
In Jamestown, California, a Sierra Conservation Center jail guard was arrested February 2 for allegedly selling drugs to inmates. Jail guard Matthew McCollum, 27, faces charges of possessing drugs in prison, bringing drugs into the prison, selling drugs to inmates, and criminal conspiracy. He had been employed there since August 2008.
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Comments
PRiceless
If they were smart enough to run their own business, would they have become police and prison guards?
Whut it is...
On the street police are known as "Losers" because they are unmotivated unachievers. Commonly civil servants are those that can't make in the private sector.
It's your tax dollars at work, folks.
In reply to Whut it is... by Anonymous (not verified)
cops and civil servants
I have never heard such libertarian bull@#%T. I'm deffinately not in favor of the drug war. To insinuate however that cops or any other public servant can't make it in the private sector is outrgeous and assanine. I have several public servants in my family. All are the very best people one could hope to employ or know. My brother served a s a superintendant of public works after twenty years in the private sector. He was dedeicated to his job and worked long hours to achieve truly great things for his community. I have a nephew in the patent office who achieved nearly perfect scores on his SATs. He attended Brown University and graduated with Honors. he now Holds Two advanced degrees and performs a critical function for U.S. industry. My uncle who served as police chief in my home town was a decorated veteran of WWII. He served in that capacity for nearly thirty years without corruption or suspicious incident. He was able to run a successful realestate business at the same time and made a couple of million dollars at it before he died.
there are certainly some idiot cops out there. There's some dangerous criminal ones as well but you should be more careful of how you refer to our public servants. You probably wouldn't last two minutes doing their job.
And I thought I'm hard on the government, well okay I am,but....
Yeah there are some "good "cops, granted, and some honest cops, but the ones that are both are usually bailiffs.
And, don't even try to convince me that the DEA isn't a terrorist organization. Uh-uh. There the epitome of terrorist.
Jackbooted thugs that just bust in doors, kill family pets, in front of the children, kill 92 year old woman, for trying to defend herself. Arrest sick people for trying to get relief from ailments, bust up dispensaries, take cash, without giving a receipt, or even counting it, taking medication, smashing surveillance cameras, stealing computers, without leaving receipts. And the SWAT terror group are just as bad if not worse, these warriors got the garb, all matching paramilitary stormtrooper jump suits with surplus military helmets, and fully automatic assault weapons, including pyrotechnic explosive devices, military battle vehicles, friggin GI Joe, ya know? A few years back they took it so far that, well, lets back up, okay, back in the 70 or 80's don't remember, lots of drugs , but the LA police department(that's LA Calif.) got this tank/ battering ram/ house eater/how do you steer this thing, toy. The whole idea was to drive this thing right into the living room, through the picture window of course, and every one would jump out and yell "surprise", and they lived happily ever after, until the big bad wolf in cops clothing drove through the wrong window and parked on a pregnant woman. oooopppppsss. They got their toy took away for that one. But, now they got a new one, in case Usoma bin laden comes to California, they can just drive right in there and capture him. And then we can bring the troops home to fight the terrorists we have right here. But that's alright, we'll wait, we've been dealing with them for years, what's a few more, but we have weapons of mass destruction over here, if that's what your looking for. And our evil tyrannous terrorist government has destroyed our economy, and inflicted great poverty upon the mass's, with the big banks taking peoples homes and putting them out on the streets, while stealing their retirement savings, at the same time government is shoveling money into these black holes, that caused the crisis in the first place. As the hard working American, that fed these money machines during the good times, looks for work, just to feed the kids, at least. We're bigger, we can go longer without food. It's just the cold, and the wind, I think the young one has something wrong, but we cant afford to see a doctor. If we could just keep the blanket dry, it might help, but with it bein frozen and all at least it blocks some wind, ya know that breeze right before the sun comes up, boy that'll freeze ya right to your sox. The wife should be getting out soon, they always let her keep her left over sack lunch from the county, one time she brought us a bolognie samach, and cookies, we made the samach last all week, but the catering truck behind the Korean fish store has some good stuff sometimes, ya just got to get it before the fly's are there too long, but if ya eat it before they hatch you;ll be all right.
Just some of the skills of enjoying this great country of ours, yep, best damn country on the planet, yepper, land of the free, that's what I like to say. yep, liberty, and all that crap. Democracy, yeah, that's it, that's what they call it, yep where 51% of the people control what all people must do, yep, democracy, that's what we must inflict on the world, the whole world will be controlled by a democracy, Democracy for all, all hail democracy. Pledge your allegiance to democracy, let someone else spend your money for you. Democracy, hey do you smell something, check your shoes.
no such thing as a 'good cop'.
good cop?
no such thing.
there may be good people who have chose to become police officers. but the requirements of the job prevent anyone who chooses the job from remaining 'good'. to be a cop is to choose to be a corrupt cog in a corrupt system built on illegitamate authority. authority so illegitamate that these thugs spend their whole shift, and maybe day, afraid and ready to violently enforce their false authority on anyone who does not sufficiently recognize it. might makes right, and all that. to choose to become a cop is to choose to become an asshole, an oppressive asshole at that. these people, these officers, do not deserve our respect or our honesty. however, at times, they just might deserve our pity and sympathy.
Bad cops Bad government Really bad private sector
Okay folks lets stop all this mindless government and cop bashing.Well no we do not,and can not rightfully do that,because the fact of the matter is that the government and the cops are indeed corrupt ! However,the gov and the cops are so corrupt not simply because they are government,but because they have been taken over by vastly corrupt private and corperate enities who are using our government ,and the forces of our government to further their own agendas.In all likelyhood if it were not for the few good guys in government the private criminals would have already reintroduced us to slavery.
I keep hearing conservitives talking about cutting government down to a size so small that it can be drowned in a bucket, or something along those lines.Think about it for a moment;just maybe what we need to do is take back control of our government and streaghthen that represenitive government so that it has the power and ability to represent all the people and not just the private corperate thugs who want to make damend sure they have accsess to a labor supply which is roboticaly productive ! Hint Hint ,this is actually one of the justifications given by the powers that be to legitimisize the drug war and prohibition.It is likely that a truley represenitive government would in responce to the will of the people''many of whom enjoy various mood altering substances''put the private bosses in their rightfull place. Personaly I resent anyone,private or otherwise who takes it upon themselves to dictate to me what subtances,''even natural substances at that'',I can or can not put in my own body.It is very true that each and every one of us must share this planet we call earth,''so be carefull about bashing those enviromental rules.'',but by God absolutely no one has to share their body with another citezen,therefore drug prohibition is truly an unwarrented curtailment of personal liberty.Remember that conservitives !
In reply to Bad cops Bad government Really bad private sector by Anonymous (not verified)
The only way to change congress
"We need to make government small enough to fit within the Constitution" --Harry Brown
Nothing else has worked, so far, so we need to threaten them with something we actually can do:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/reader_blogs/2009/feb/15/second_amendment_rights_and_cong
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
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