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Drug war corruption deja vu

I had a serious deja vu moment last night watching 60 Minutes' expose on a bizarre case involving a multijurisdictional drug task force in Missouri in which some 20 people were arrested in an undercover drug sting before it unraveled in a web of lies and scandal.Anyone who followed the "Tulia" case in Texas would be hard-pressed not to think of convicted perjurer and former police officer Tom Coleman, whose accusations sent dozens of people to prison before he was proven a liar and his victims were released and pardoned. (That nightmarish episode was also profiled on 60 Minutes a few years back.) A similar drug sting in Hearne, TX has been portrayed on the silver screen in the movie American Violet, which came out last month.The Missouri case added an even more bizarre twist: The main cop in the story turned out to be an impostor, a fake who got a phony badge off the Internet, printed up his own business cards and convinced the small-town cops he represented a federal agency...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on May 25, 2009 (boomark / email).