This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #947)
Drug War Issues

Prison guards go bad on a massive scale in Maryland, a Pennsylvania narc's police station overdose creates problems for his boss, an Iowa trooper cops to stealing pain pills, and more. Let's get to it:

[image:1 align:left]In Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the police chief was suspended last Friday after one of his officers broke through a wall into the evidence room, stole drugs, consumed them, and was found suffering an overdose on the police station floor. Police Chief Craig Foust knew about security problems with the evidence room and failed to act on them, leading to his suspension, the county prosecutor said. The officer who overdosed, William Slisz, is a multi-year veteran and member of the Cambria County Drug Task Force.

In New Britain, Connecticut, two New Britain police officers were suspended last Friday for interfering in a federal drug investigation. Officer Brian Shea and Brian Solek were suspended for 25 days after they engaged a drug suspect in a high-speed pursuit just after he had been involved in an under-surveillance fentanyl deal. The pair were aware of the federal probe and "directly jeopardized the integrity of the investigation," Police Chief James Wardwell said.

In Baltimore, 18 state prison guards were arrested last Wednesday in a massive bust that led to 80 arrests, including guards, prisoners, and "outside facilitators. Most are charged with orchestrating a vast smuggling operation into the Eastern Correctional Institution, the state's largest prison. Guards smuggled heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and suboxone in exchange for cash, money orders, and in some instances, sexual favors from inmates.

In Mason City, Iowa, a former Iowa State Patrol trooper pleaded guilty last Wednesday to stealing drugs from the evidence room. Michael Haugen, 32, admitted taking over $500 in pain pills by removing them from evidence bags and then altering the labels to cover up the thefts. He has agreed to plead guilty to tampering with official records and 3rd degree theft. Prosecutors are recommending a suspended sentence.

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Comments

Mark Mitcham (not verified)

And cops use drugs, too.  War on Drugs doesn't stop cops from using drugs any more than it stops anyone else: it doesn't work.  You're not going to stop people from using drugs, nor is that a legitimate objective.  The objective is Safety, both personal and public.  In order to promote Safety, we must end prohibition and replace it with education.

So let's legalize drugs, for Safety's sake!

Wed, 10/12/2016 - 10:44pm Permalink
Joebanana (not verified)

In reply to by Mark Mitcham (not verified)

By simple logic, declaring a "war" on an inanimate object is clinical insanity. And it just looks silly. The "war on drugs" is a fancy label for war on American's who disagree with absurdly rediculous governmental policy. This is defined in the US Constitution as TREASON, punishable by death. Ironic, that the true enemies of liberty, freedom, and the people, are the ones who make the laws. Horrifying, that those laws don't apply equally to all. After losing a futile "war" for 40 + years, and wasting at least a trillion dollars in the process, jailing untold millions of mostly harmless non-criminal American's, what will it take for the idiots in Congress to finally admit they were wrong? Drug use, abuse, and addiction are a medical condition, not a criminal act. Criminalizing a medical condition, IS a criminal act. Drug addiction is a disease, not a crime. Jailing the handicapped is a human rights violation, and a crime against humanity. Just because a bunch of uninmformed, ignorant beurocrats "declare" something a crime, with complete disregard of truth, facts, and evidence, doesn't make it legal, and/or "enforceable". By FORCING illegal, and unconstitutional misguilded policy to be inflicted on a non-violent populace, is about as third world as it gets. "Laws" are to "punish" people who cause harm to others, no harm, no crime. We have abundant laws for actual crimes of violence, and other social harms that require some people be removed from society for the protection of the law abiding. Drug use alone, doesn't harm others, if the effects of it do, there are laws to address that.

It's human nature to want to alter ones state of consciousness. It's not criminal to do so, it's genetic.

Education, accurate information, understanding, reason, and treatment is the way to deal with a drug problem, not prison. As long as there are people, there will be drug use, abuse, and addiction, it's not going away, no matter how many human beings are put in cages for being human.

Peace.

Sun, 04/29/2018 - 5:27pm Permalink

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