Beneath their flak jackets and blast shields, the super-tough drug soldiers at the DEA are just like everybody else. They have feelings too, and when someone says not-so-nice things about them, it can really hurt:
If you ask me, the DEA impugns its own reputation each and every day as its agents continue to target sick people for using medical marijuana and doctors for prescribing pain relievers to patients in chronic pain.
If DEA agents or police in general are concerned about negative public perceptions, they can begin by rejecting the war on drugs and its infinitely corrupting influence. They can abandon the "Blue Wall of Silence" and endeavor to purge misconduct from the ranks. And on that glorious day when all the crooks, liars, and cowboys have been stripped of their uniforms, then perhaps it will be possible to sue Hollywood for misrepresenting the profession without provoking amusement.
A group of retired federal drug enforcement agents sued NBC Universal on Wednesday, saying the movie "American Gangster" falsely portrayed them as villains in the story of a Harlem heroin trafficker.I have no knowledge of the specific legal issues involved here, but it's a little creepy to see drug warriors turning to civil court in an effort to suppress the well-known fact that police corruption is commonplace in the war on drugs. Will they now sue us for running our "This Week's Corrupt Cops Story" feature each week?
The suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, claims that the movie defamed hundreds of DEA agents and New York City police officers by claiming at the end that Frank Lucas' collaboration with prosecutors "led to the convictions of three-quarters of New York City's Drug Enforcement Agency."
â¦
According to the lawsuit, no DEA agents or New York City police officers were ever convicted as a result of tips provided by Lucas.
"This is absolutely off the wall," said Dominic Amorosa, a prosecutor in the federal case against Lucas in 1975 who now represents the DEA agents. "I don't know what these people were thinking, but they are going to pay for it."
A Universal Pictures spokesman, Michael Moses, said in a written statement that the lawsuit is "entirely without merit." [AP]
If you ask me, the DEA impugns its own reputation each and every day as its agents continue to target sick people for using medical marijuana and doctors for prescribing pain relievers to patients in chronic pain.
If DEA agents or police in general are concerned about negative public perceptions, they can begin by rejecting the war on drugs and its infinitely corrupting influence. They can abandon the "Blue Wall of Silence" and endeavor to purge misconduct from the ranks. And on that glorious day when all the crooks, liars, and cowboys have been stripped of their uniforms, then perhaps it will be possible to sue Hollywood for misrepresenting the profession without provoking amusement.
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