Oh no! Sgt. Bill!

Corruption and impropriety seem to grow daily with the failed War on Drugs. And more and more hard-working people like you and me are at risk from this high-handed zealotry and sleaze - even if they've never touched drugs in their lives.

I'm not saying drugs are a good thing. Quite the contrary. I'm saying the execution of the drug war has been a failure since day one.

The town of Gerald, Missouri, was recently the site of a colossal crackdown against methamphetamine. It got under way when Sgt. Bill breezed into town. Sgt. Bill told folks he was a federal drug agent sent in to clean up the town Rex Banner-like. He ransacked houses, looked for contraband, and made arrests. Sgt. Bill told the folks that he didn't need a stinkin' search warrant, because he was a federal agent.

This is bullshit, of course. Federal agents need a warrant just as local police do. So that's one mistake you made, Sgt. Bill.

But it turned out that Sgt. Bill wasn't even a federal agent! The 36-year-old was a former small-town cop and trucking company owner who had once been convicted of sexually abusing a teenager. He wasn't a police officer at all when he made the raids.

Oops.

You know it's a federal crime to impersonate a federal agent, don't you?

The aftermath of this bungled campaign? Sixty percent of the town's police force got fired, and the mayor may be impeached.

And numerous pending drug cases are now ruined. They're blown. Shot to hell. All because of incompetence by city officials and Sgt. Bill's lies.

The stigma against the people who were wrongly accused by Sgt. Bill of drug involvement still lingers. One man has been harassed by having garbage (including empty Sudafed boxes) tossed in his yard, even though he hasn't been charged with a crime.

When you stick with failed policies, then sooner or later you're going to end up surrounded by con artists like Sgt. Bill. What's really ironic is how the Sgt. Bill scandal ended up blowing so many drug cases that may have involved people who were actually guilty of what they were accused of.

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/us/01impostor.html)