Misdemeanor attempted possession of cocaine.

I was watching LA Detectives on the satellite tonight. The LA County Sheriff’s Dept. set up a sting operation with undercover officers pretending to be dealers and nabbing people who tried to buy. There were at least 20 officers and 3 cars involved. At the end they listed what sentences the people arrested had received.

The most serious charge in the list was “Misdemeanor attempted possession of cocaine.” That case is yet to go to trial, so I better be careful what I say in case I bias a jury or something (I promised to give that up), but it hardly seems worth all the effort and expense does it?

Now, I’m not really surprised anymore by this sort of foolishness, but I am a bit disturbed by the amount of backslapping going on among the coppers. The high-five index was peaking in the red.

These people are not hard to catch. Most people who would discuss drugs on the street, in a “bad” neighborhood, with a stranger…are either desperate or stupid. Either way, they are not at their intellectual best and would have wandered in front of a bus eventually anyway.

A similar thing goes on here in Australia. A young Aborigine man died a few years ago as a result of “huffing” which is inhaling fumes, usually solvents, or things containing solvents like paint or glue. In this case it was a particular type of metal-finish spray paint. Soon other cases made the news and the government felt it must be seen to be acting on this crisis.

Did they fly in counselors to these remote, poor communities? Offer small business loans at low interest to create jobs and a feeling of self worth in the community? Build a better school? Ask the people why THEY thought kids were huffing paint?

Well, you know they didn’t. Instead the Australian government made it illegal to sell that particular brand of metal-finish paint to people under the age of 19. Case closed, problem solved, joyous backslapping and vigorous hand pumping ensued.

I dig being human…but sometimes its hard to defend.

ps. for the sake of accuracy, there were people arrested on the show that did recieve jail sentences, but each of them had outstanding warrants on other charges. The highest charge relating to this particular operation though, was the title of this post.