Police Raids

The DEA raided another California dispensary Thursday, marking the first raid on President Obama's watch. Obama vowed during the campaign to end them, and activists are hoping it's just Bush administration holdovers at work. What is Obama going to do?

Pennsylvania housewife Christine Korbe heard what she thought were robbers breaking into her home at dawn on November 19. She opened fire from a stairway, shooting an FBI agent serving a drug arrest warrant on her husband before calling 911 to report a break-in. Now, in the latest example of overly aggressive drug raids gone bad, the FBI is dead, and Korbe is facing murder charges.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr uses the raid on the home of the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, to issue a broader critique of drug law enforcement.

A Lima, Ohio, police sergeant who shot and killed an unarmed woman and wounded her infant son during a SWAT raid was acquitted on all counts this week. He only faced eight months, anyway. But this story isn't over -- relatives have now filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and the shooter.

Federal prosecutors won another conviction against a California medical marijuana dispensary operator this week. It's easy pickings when the defense can't mention medical marijuana, and it raises issues about how to deal with local law enforcement officials who work with the feds to get around state law.

Drug user activists handed out brochures called for the legalization of drug use in some of Jakarta's most notorious dope-dealing hot-spots this week. It was the second user demonstration this summer in Indonesia.

County police near Washington brought marijuana to a local mayor's home, then sent a SWAT team in because of the marijuana. Now the family's two dogs are dead. Another day in the drug war.

Hashish growers on the Greek island of Crete ambushed police on Sunday. They also did it last fall. Once again, a manhunt is underway. And once again, the Greek media is talking about "Greece's Colombia."

A Chicago SWAT raid of a social club and the killing of a homeowner in a Florida SWAT raid that netted less than an ounce of marijuana are the latest incidents to put heavy-handed police tactics in the spotlight.

The DEA agent helped police in a Missouri do some COPS-style raids earlier this year. There was only one problem: He wasn't a DEA agent. Now the people busted are suing.