POLICE CORRUPTION

The U.S. is experiencing the worst wave of police corruption since alcohol
Prohibition put law enforcement on the skids in the 1920s and '30s. During
the alcohol ban, bootleggers with an abundance of cash corrupted the police;
now our lunatic drug prohibition programs provide irresistible temptations
to a new generation of cops.

Virtually every police department in the country has been touched by a
police scandal in the last few years. Invariably the cause of this
corruption is a failed drug prohibition policy that supplies limitless
amounts of cash to pervert and corrupt law enforcement. Before long it will
be the same as when Al Capone bragged, "Half the cops in Chicago are on my
payroll."

It's time to end a drug prohibition scheme that accomplishes nothing useful,
while destroying the integrity of the police and every other agency that
comes into contact with it.

Redford Givens, San Francisco