Mark Tonner laments the fact that a judge did not believe police
officers' testimony in court regarding a drug case.

It appears that judges are starting to realize that cops sometimes
fabricate evidence.

Such conduct on the part of law enforcers has reached the ultimate in
the Los Angeles police department, where hundreds of arrests and
convictions have been overturned, and a judge has allowed attorneys to
use organized-crime statutes to prosecute members of the police department.

Whether or not some of Const. Tonner's workmates really did
manufacture evidence is not the issue.

What is relevant is that in enforcing our drug prohibition laws police
often have to make "furtive movements" to establish probable cause to
search, etc.

Prohibition laws corrupt the integrity of the police -- something
recognized by the late Const. Gil Puder.

That is not the fault of police.

It is the fault of a society that refuses to learn from the mistakes
of alcohol prohibition.

Chuck Beyer,
Victoria