Pubdate: Sun, 26 Nov 2000
Source: Denver Post (CO)
Copyright: 2000 The Denver Post
Contact:  1560 Broadway, Denver, CO 80202
Fax: (303) 820.1502
Website: http://www.denverpost.com/
Forum: http://www.denverpost.com/voice/voice.htm
Author: Ed Quillen
Note: Ed Quillen of Salida is a former newspaper editor whose column 
appears Tuesdays and Sundays.

AREN'T THOUGHT POLICE WORSE THAN DRUGS ON THE STREET?

Nov. 26, 2000 - When I was a schoolboy, we were taught to be thankful that 
we lived in America because, among other things, we had a First Amendment. 
In other countries, you might be arrested for speaking or writing against 
the government. You might be imprisoned for possessing forbidden literature.

But not in America.

That was 40 years ago, though. Now your reading matter is the government's 
business, and if you purchase the wrong sort of literature, it could be 
used as evidence to put you away.

Granted, that isn't quite how the North Metro Drug Task Force spins it.

On March 14, they raided a mobile home in Adams County and found a 
methamphetamine lab. However, they couldn't determine who among the six 
people known to frequent this place was actually running the lab.

Did they figure, "Well, at least we shut down this shop, thereby getting 
some drugs off the street, and so we'll move on?" No. Among the spoils of 
the raid were two books: "The Construction and Operation of Clandestine 
Drug Laboratories" and "Advanced Techniques of Clandestine Psychedelic and 
Amphetamine Manufacture."

The raiders also found an invoice from the Tattered Cover Book Store.

The raiders theorize that if they could examine bookstore records so they 
could compare invoice numbers to account numbers, then they'd know who 
bought the books and, presumably, which one of the six people to charge 
with operating the meth lab.

Since the lab was in Adams County, the raiders first asked the Adams County 
district attorney's office to ask a judge to issue a search warrant for the 
Tattered Cover.

That DA's office refused, partly on the grounds that it was bad public 
relations, a process that I am happy to assist in.

So the raiders shopped for a jurisdiction that had no sense of shame, and 
found the office of Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter.

Ritter's office prosecuted Lisl Auman for felony murder, even though she 
was in police custody at the time of the murder.

It was in Ritter's jurisdiction last year that Denver police kicked in the 
door of the wrong house on a no-knock warrant and killed Ismael Mena; the 
only charge to result from this homicide was a misdemeanor.

It is Ritter's office that lists two priorities on its Web site:

- - Prosecuting criminals to the fullest extent, and

- - Protecting the rights and interests of innocent victims.

They certainly protected Mena's rights, didn't they?

Note also that there's not one word in Ritter's mission statement about 
"justice" or "upholding the Constitution."

The raiders found the right venue when they went to Ritter. One of Ritter's 
minions requested the warrant. When the raiders arrived at the bookstore 
with the warrant, attorneys were on hand. The search was delayed for a 
hearing before Denver District Judge Stephen Phillips.

Phillips didn't give the raiders everything they wanted, but he did give 
them the right to search for the bookstore records relevant to the invoice 
for the two books.

In other words, the books you purchase can be used against you in court. 
And that's just fine by Lt. Lori Moriarty, commander of the North Metro 
Drug Task Force, who said: "If it only takes one or two records from a 
bookstore to help us eliminate drugs on the street, then so be it."

For one thing, the drugs quit reaching the street from the lab in question 
when the raiders hit it on March 14.

For another, this effort to get drugs off the street by repealing the Bill 
of Rights has been under way for 30 years and, by all accounts, drugs are 
cheaper and more accessible now than at any time since Richard Nixon 
declared a War on Drugs.

Book purchase records won't make one whit of difference in the quantity of 
drugs on the street, but it does expand police power.

Well, we've lost one reason to be thankful that we live in America. But I'm 
still hopeful that it will someday dawn on Americans that there are worse 
things than "drugs on the street," and that Thought Police like Moriarty 
and Ritter are at the top of the list of what should be terminated.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager