{"id":4817,"date":"2009-05-22T06:42:23","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T11:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4817"},"modified":"2009-05-22T06:42:23","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T11:42:23","slug":"corrupts-absolutely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=4817","title":{"rendered":"…Corrupts Absolutely"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minnesota’s Gang Strike Force is temporarily shutting down due to, er, irregularities<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Commissioner Michael Campion also said he will hire a former federal prosecutor and former FBI agent to investigate the agency, and will restart the funding only when he is sure the problems are fixed.Legislative Auditor James Nobles said the missing cash adds up to more than $18,000. Thirteen cars are also missing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing; it shows what happens when government gets too much power.\u00a0 For example – Bill Clinton’s property-forfeiture laws?<\/p>\n

The report found that a member of the strike force sold a seized flatscreen TV to a student worker for $30. The TV had to be recovered when the original owner asserted his legal right to get it back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Joel Rosenberg has a fictional(ized) conversation with Public Safety czar Michael Campion<\/a> on the subject:<\/p>\n

“You<\/em> called me<\/em>, Mike. Don’t interrupt so. As I was saying . . . if I had to guess, a real thorough investigation would exonerate a bunch of guys, and might just convict a few. I dunno. But, either way, it would do something to persuade people that you really want to get to the bottom of this, and not apply a slow-rolled coat of youknowwhat.\u00a0 And cover up your tipping off the perps, and all. ”<\/p>\n

“Yeah. I see your point. Get to the bottom of it, even though we screwed up by announcing the investigation before we preserved the evidence.”<\/p>\n

“Yup. Admit the screwup, do your best, clear the innocent and arrest the folks you’ve got reason to think are guilty . . . and let the system handle it while you move on. Glad you called?”<\/p>\n

“Not really.”<\/p>\n

“Didn’t think so.”<\/p>\n

“Hey, I’m just trying to help, Mike. Really.\u00a0 But, relax, it’s not like there’s any proof <\/em>that they shredded — “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

*click*<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole thing; fictional though it is, it reports the details behind the story better than anyone in the mainstream media…<\/p>\n

\n
<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Minnesota’s Gang Strike Force is temporarily shutting down due to, er, irregularities: Commissioner Michael Campion also said he will hire a former federal prosecutor and former FBI agent to investigate the agency, and will restart the funding only when he is sure the problems are fixed.Legislative Auditor James Nobles said the missing cash adds up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}