A Complete Lack of Accountability in the Criminal Justice System

Radley Balko has a disturbing piece about the recent horrific anal probe case in New Mexico: Anal Probes And The Drug War: A Look At The Ethical And Legal Issues

Oddly, according to constitutional scholars and medical ethicists I’ve consulted, the indignities imposed upon Eckert and Young were both illegal and unethical. And yet it also may be that (a) none of the law enforcement officials or medical personnel responsible for the violations are likely to be held accountable in any way, and (b) they could probably do it all again tomorrow, and still wouldn’t likely be held accountable.

Our system is so corrupt, largely due to the drug war, that the rule of law has become a joke. Public officials can break the law and violate human rights without consequence, while average citizens have to plea bargain to avoid massive sentences for minor drug charges.

This is another huge motivating factor for ending the drug war. A chance to clean up the criminal justice system.

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37 Responses to A Complete Lack of Accountability in the Criminal Justice System

  1. claygooding says:

    They may become the gay masochist vacation hot spot for the next millennium.

  2. claygooding says:

    Judge to sentence U.S. border cops who made smugglers eat marijuana

    http://tinyurl.com/oq476fz

    You have to read it to find out that the forced marijuana eating is the least part of the crime but by mentioning marijuana and not attempted murder it doesn’t sound so criminal,,after all they were just making them eat their own drugs.

    • John says:

      Some cops are forcing drugs in one end, and other cops are trying to force them out the other? WTF has happened to this country and why are the citizens allowing it?

  3. allan says:

    wow… no real surprises, but wow.

  4. Duncan20903 says:

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    Headlines containing the phrase “anal probe” and a lot of them. Definitely an indication of a civilized society. But I did appreciate finding out that in Zambia they send gay men to prison and give them an anal probe to use as evidence against them in the trial. Sorry, I didn’t try to figure out what kind of evidence they gather by doing that. That’s definitely in the “too much information” category. I’d have never Googled the phrase but for those headlines.

  5. War Vet says:

    “When judges issue orders like that, they need to be told that they’re effectively practicing medicine without a license.”

    Yep, we’ve got our work cut out for us for sure. Me thinks the turbulent 60’s was the best time to sleep in when compared to today and what we’ve got to fight. If we don’t nip this in the butt, then we’ll look back at this time as moment full of rights and freedoms in America.

    • DdC says:

      They can always buy a judge… Or fabricate one as a pup. Raise it on free Falwell college or Robertson U. Groom them to follow orders. Filling county and local seats in all 50 states. If the History books were accurate we wouldn’t be surprised about much a judge can or will do. Or cops, doctors and especially politicians.

      The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments

      Ganjawar Youth League ecp

      I do raise my eyebrows and wonder if all prohibitionists are closet sodomites. Anal probes for the message it sends the kids, like their UFO inhabitants seem to like doing to them. Prison gang rape deterrents are just part of why you shouldn’t break the law, to them. Way too over zealous to be straight and comfortable with heterosexuality. You know what they say about converts…

      The Asshole Police ecp

      Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible’

      Absolutely NO, I say NO medicinal value in marygwanna,, . None…
      the gubmint

      â–º10 Pharmaceutical Drugs Based on Cannabis http://bit.ly/ga60qK
      ProCon.org ‏@procon_org

      Homegrown, that is..That’s Value with a capital $$$

  6. Duncan20903 says:

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    Well it appears that Dennis Romero of the L.A. Weekly-Throwaway has gone off the deep end. I must say that neither the parasites nor the sycophants are dealing with their sudden reversal in fortune very well. Not well at all.

    NAACP Supports SoCal Racist’s Pro-Marijuana Bill

    I’ve got to admit that Duncan Hunter gives me the willies.

    • kaptinemo says:

      The more they lose, the nuttier they’ll get, and publicly, and it will be hard for even the dimmest bulb in the electorate’s box to overlook it.

      Out of sheer desperation – or because they’ll be overpowered by their more extreme members for insufficient DrugWar piety and have no choice – the more ‘moderate’ of the prohibitionists will be forced to allow the more radical of their lot out of their usual lodgings in the looney bin and rave and rant away.

      In which case, the public will finally see what has been carefully hidden from them in the bureaucratic mad-house, and will eventually vote for the mad-house’s de-funding. Either that, or make the mad-house into a zoo for specimens of Homo Assholius Prohibitus.

      I read once that in the infamous mad-house Bedlam, the visitors were offered sticks they could rent and poke the inmates with to provoke them. In the above scenarios case, that latter one might not be such a bad idea…

  7. Servetus says:

    ‘Lack of accountability’ is the judiciary’s middle name. If judges, prosecutors and law enforcement personnel were held to account for crimes that ensue as a result enforcing unjust laws, there might no longer be any judges, prosecutors, or law enforcement officers. That was the dilemma faced by the Allied forces at the end of WWII. Give amnesty to the German courts and its officials, who acted under Nazi domination, or lose the ability to preserve a judicial structure, even as it now was forced to operate under a different set of laws. It didn’t excuse criminals like Adolf Eichmann, however, who was hanged for making the trains run on time.

    State lawmakers in New Mexico, and elsewhere, must examine what they allow under their system of search and seizure laws, and fix it now. The feds need to fix themselves as well. Neither state nor fed can fix each other at this point. A little neutering on both sides will go a long way. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits castrating the government.

    The anal assaults perpetrated by the New Mexico authorities come too close to being torture. Just as the Fifth Amendment doesn’t allow torture to extract information, it shouldn’t allow torture to extract drug evidence. One reason the Fifth Amendment exists is to eliminate torture being used as a tool in interrogatory proceedings. Colonial justification for the Fourth Amendment’s search and seizure clause argued that confiscation is a form of mental torture.

    Pursuing the New Mexico human rights violations as a torture case, in addition to its being a search and seizure case, puts events into a whole new arena of human rights law. With torture, you’re no longer in Kansas, or New Mexico. We’re talking Geneva Conventions, and the future possibility of being sought for trial in The Hague’s International Criminal Court.

  8. allan says:

    Well, I’m not sure what it’s a measure of, but Eckert’s anal probe story made Jay Leno’s opening monologue. Didn’t mention him by name but the audience reaction was a unanimous groan of disapproval.

    The punch line? “When a cop pulls you over and asks to look in your trunk, just say NO!

  9. DdC says:

    OT?
    NJ Weedman ‏@NJweedman
    Edward Forchion “Medical Clemency” request – (read below) – who must re-report to Jail on 11/15

    NJ Weedman asks Gov. Christie to waive staggered prison term so he can receive cancer treatment

  10. Jean Valjean says:

    We’re in “Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely” territory with this anal invasion fetish by some L/Es… it goes back a long time too; remember the charming officer Justin Volpe in New York in 1997?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Louima

  11. crut says:

    The “Noble Ship” USS Prohibition has run out of lifeboats, half of the ship has already broken off and is sinking to the unfathomable depths. Yet still, people refuse to believe that it’s time to abandon ship. Cases in point:

    http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1584959

    and

    http://www.providencejournal.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/20131113-carol-formica-protecting-young-from-marijuana.ece

    What must it be like to live in a world filled with such scary straw men…

    • Nunavut Tripper says:

      “Marijuana’s historic reputation as a benign recreational drug, or more recently, a pain therapy doesn’t square with the facts,” says Dr. Ghorbani. “While I appreciate Dr. Gupta’s candor, legalizing marijuana would have unknown public health consequences. There are safer pain treatments available, including natural remedies, that are just as effective as medical marijuana,” he continues.

      Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1584959#ixzz2kZD2kmwK

      How would legalizing marijuana have unknown public health consequences ?
      We have known that for decades .

      Safer pain treatments available including natural remedies….WTF is marijuana but a natural remedy.

      Gotta love prohibs…so enlightening.

      • claygooding says:

        I haven’t checked yet but before I do is Dr Ghordini a doctor like Sabet is a doctor?
        Doctors with PHD doctaterchips should stay away from health issues,,they are not trained to recognize health issues.
        No comments allowed but he is a pain management doctor,,have we cut into his pill pushing so much he is kicking back?

        • darkcycle says:

          Hold on there. PhD’s in health, biology, physiology, Psychology, etc, are certainly trained to recognize those things… While folks with pedigrees in, say, PUBLIC POLICY (Kleiman, et al) should probably stick to circle jerks.

      • Jean Valjean says:

        “Dr” Ghorbani sells a “cure” for pain on late night info-mation slots. It is called Noxicare and has turmeric in it. A 3.5 oz tube costs $26.95. Not surprisingly he does not support the medical use of cannabis.

      • strayan says:

        Bahahahahahahah.

        Oh lordy.

      • Duncan20903 says:

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        The we can’t re-legalize because “we just don’t have enough studies (read: studies with results we like) to know” has been a long term, very reliable workhorse piece of propaganda that the prohibitionist parasites have been exploiting for more than 4 1/2 DECADES at the least. Combine it with “we don’t have a pot breathalyzer so we just can’t tell if a driver’s impaired and if the citizenry continues to allow these excuses we’ll still be hearing them in the year 2058. Well maybe not the breathalyzer. That excuse will die after the introduction of driverless motor vehicles.

        You may have seen this one before but for the people that haven’t the June 28, 1968 (nineteen sixty eight) edition of Time magazine had an article called “The A.M.A.: Marijuana Warning which is the oldest reference to that very lame piece of propaganda that I’ve found. Unfortunately you need a subscription to read the entire article but you can see an equally old example of the prohibitionists’ denigrating the comparison of drinking alcohol to cannabis. The more things change…

        **********

        You know recently I heard a sycophant arguing about how the FDA hasn’t approved cannabis as a medicine and how it means that we don’t know the long term risks and it struck me that it’s true for every single bleedin’ new drug that the FDA approves. How do we know that using Viagra for 25 years won’t make your pecker fall off?

  12. US Attorney Defies White House http://tinyurl.com/ny86o9t

    A Complete Lack of Accountability in the Criminal Justice System seems to be systemic. Maybe it starts at the top right here.

  13. Daniel Williams says:

    No longer are they just metaphorically shoving the drug war up our ass.

  14. allan says:

    oh my:

    4 Reasons Why Ending the War On Drugs Would Be a Huge Mistake

    1. The Government Spends as Much on Therapy for Legal Drugs as It Does On Containing Illegal Drugs

    2. Recreational Drug Use Would Mean Less Educational Attainment and Lower Productivity for Users

    3. Drug Legalization Would Severely Restrict Workers’ Rights

    4. Legalizing Drugs Would Make Low Income Individuals More Vulnerable

    • kaptinemo says:

      The prohibs are always sending messages, never actually listening, because they think they don’t have to. So, when people ‘talk back’ with the truth to their lies, they just double-down on what they’ve been doing, which only alienates them all the more. Their mental gears are losing traction with reality’s clutch, and they’re about to have those mental gears stripped by what’s coming.

      Like I keep saying, they’re heading for a full-on public meltdown. All they have is lies and emotionalism, and that only worked on the ‘cannabis naive’ portion of the population…which is rapidly dwindling.

      Those taking their place didn’t drink the ideological kool-aid when young, they only faked it. And now the DARE Generation can vote…and in WA and CO, they have made their sentiments clear. And will continue to do so until the madness ends. And that will partly happen courtesy of the prohibs going all-out in a final, nova-like blaze of irrational glory, and revealing to a previously indifferent public just how bleedin’, bug-house crazy they are.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
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      I often wonder if the parasites have one of those lottery number picking machines with the ping pong balls and turn it on to pick various pieces of hysterical rhetoric when they feel a need to regurgitate some propaganda.

  15. Nunavut Tripper says:

    “giving more autonomy to local law enforcement; legalizing marijuana for medical use; considering compelling criminal justice options like corporal punishment for minor infractions; and hunting down drug kingpins with fewer federal officers and more bounty hunters.”

    Wow is this guy off the wall Allan.

    Public flogging for pot ?

    Bounty Hunters ?

    • kaptinemo says:

      This is just what I mean. The prohib crazies who think that Reefer Madness is a documentary, the ones that heretofore have been kept out of the public eye, will erupt into the public’s awareness…spouting authoritarian crap like that.

      And spouting it to people they thought they had properly propagandized into sheep-like nodding at their mad pronouncements. They didn’t; they failed.

      They’re still in inertial mode, coasting along, refusing to admit the reality of the changing demographics and their logical, wholly predictable result. Which will make their final flame-out all that much more enjoyable. It won’t compensate for all the lives they needlessly destroyed, but it will be satisfying…

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