PLAYERS INVENTED THE GAME

Many of us share the responsibility for the shooting of Kenneth Walker.

Law enforcement has our collective approval to thwart drug trafficking
whenever and however it sees fit. And that approval can be factored into
what resulted in the death of Walker on Dec. 10, 2003.

If we look at the way the Metro Narcotics Task Force came to be in 1989, we
can see the good and the bad.

Drug investigations were brought under one roof, no matter which side of
the Chattahoochee River or in which county they began. Metro agents were
trained in the laws of Georgia and Alabama, and sworn in as law enforcement
officers with jurisdiction in both states and all participating counties.
And they were provided up-to-date training on investigative techniques and
use of modern equipment, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

That's the good part.

But, the bad part is Metro also had aggressive property-seizure laws
designed to target people law enforcement struggled to handle.

And typically with our blessings, the bad got worse: "A motorist caught in
possession of illicit drugs suddenly faced not only a drug charge, a likely
fine and possible prison term, the owner faced forfeiture of the
automobile," the Ledger-Enquirer reported.

People whose lives have been touched by the illegal use of drugs, have one
set of reasons for wanting drug trafficking stopped. But another group of
people are crying out because they are jealous of the sums of money drug
dealers make and spend.

For them seizing property was all about getting even.

And worse than that was the fact that taxpayers were not funding Metro.

"Metro had no budget," Maj. Russell Traino told the newspaper. "We worked
on whatever was seized. The salaries and original equipment of the officers
were paid for by each department. Other than that, the drug dealers paid
for everything."

Taxpayers loved that.

From Cadillacs to a Jaguar, undercover Metro agents rode the streets in
the confiscated vehicle of their choice, the Ledger-Enquirer reported. Even
a vintage 1941 Ford was confiscated. And when the vehicles were sold at
auction, the proceeds were added to the Metro budget.

Too much of a good thing paves the road to a bad end. Metro is elite. It
can legally cross all sorts of boundaries that could not under other
circumstances be crossed.

The thought of having property seized and sold made some of us uneasy for a
moment or two. We, however, didn't dwell on those thoughts because we
weren't drug dealers. We believe drug dealers deserve whatever they get.
And as long as we believed law enforcement was protecting US from THEM, law
enforcement had our permission to get the job done by any means necessary.

We didn't care about the details. And by extension, we didn't care about
the Metro agents sworn to do our dirty work.

Rules don't always mean much when the players invented the game.