DRUG RAID ACCOUNTABILITY

While the overreaction by Goose Creek police officers during the
controversial Stratford High School drug raid last year generated
national indignation, Attorney General Henry McMaster's decision not
to file criminal charges was all but a foregone conclusion. Legally,
the attorney general was persuasive that there is no solid basis for
criminal prosecution. But he also was right to decry the way the raid
was carried out. At a press conference in Charleston on Friday, Mr.
McMaster described the officers' drawn guns during the raid as
"grossly inappropriate." Further, "such raid tactics are well suited
for a crack house, but not a school house," he said in a statement.

That statement noted that the attorney general determined after months
of extensive legal review, interviews and numerous investigations that
no criminal law had been broken. The law, he pointed out, gives
officers the right to search students for any reason when they are
within the school facility. In this instance, four days of school
surveillance videotapes were cited as probable cause for the raids.

But that didn't, in the attorney general's view, by any measure
justify the scene that shocked the nation -- some 130 students on
their knees, hands over their heads and officers with guns drawn. As
"highly dangerous" as the attorney general said the situation was,
proving criminal intent by the police officers or school officials
would have been extremely difficult. Mr. McMaster said he found no
such evidence.

That, of course, isn't the end of the matter. Civil lawsuits already
have been filed on behalf of some 38 students. At least those who
contend their rights were violated will have their day in court. In
terms of accountability, that's when the final chapter will be written.