http://www.dailykos.com/...
You know, I'm basically unmoved by all of this.
The crime lab chemist/miscreant/defendant did the dirty literally thousands of times in her career, and we are now, here and now, in 2012 supposed to be "shocked" by such a revelation.
I find myself becoming mentally impotent at the mere thought of trying to recollect all of the instances, over so many decades, when this very same movie (okay, there are at least minor variations on the plot at least some of the times) has played out.
Did all of the instances of claimed crime lab impropriety over modern history play out exactly as portrayed by defense counsel? Of course not! But how many times has this film loop been played since we began our grand and glorious Drug War against ourselves some forty years ago? Or, more accurately, how many millions of times? My own best estimate is that there is no one who has any idea how massive the level of fraud has been, and continues at this moment, even just at the level of crooked drug testing.
And the one about the snitch stealing the buy money, and claiming that "the contraband" came from "the drug sting target(s)? And the one about how the undercover officers faked their way through snorting the lines (or fucking the coke whores, or not really being tied off and shot up, where everyone else knew that they were, or "losing" the copies of the source tapes that would have disproved the content of "incriminating conversations" used to obtain how many convictions, etc.)? Or, just even where the "confiscated contraband" really came from? Or seized drugs/money disappeared to after the search?
Been there, done that! Actually, we've all been all of those places, and done all of those things repeatedly! And if we can't stop now, when can we ever?
So, the upshot of the current/latest "scandal" is "how many of us poor dumb schmucks have been totally screwed by the fact that all of us (really) are just too plain stupid to stop the seemingly never ending destructive behavior of arresting, prosecuting, and imprisoning ourselves, family members, friends, and neighbors for engaing in non-destructive behaviors that are merely normal components of every day life".
Or, at worst, close enough so that the consequences of continuing to pursue "The Global War on Drugs" are far more detrimental than simply waking up tomorrow and saying "nevermind"!