SHERIFF PINCKNEY A VICTIM OF THE FAILED WAR ON DRUGS

Cayuga County Sheriff Peter J. Pinckney is being charged by the state
Attorney General's Office in connection with $4,000 worth of missing cash
seized indrug arrests and other crimes involving abuse of the public trust.

No doubt the sheriff's friends and supporters, as well as most people in
Cayuga County, would like to believe that the sheriff is innocent or, at
worst, that he's just "one bad apple in the barrel." What they may not
realize though, is that, in some ways, Sheriff Pinckney is a victim himself.

He is a victim of policies that produce incredible temptation for even
outstanding, award-winning officers, as well as bad cops. How? By making
drugs illegal, we make them highly profitable in the black market so
narcotics officers, who have easy access to the drugs, often become dealers
themselves. In addition, police can legally seize property and cash from
alleged drug dealers before they even are found guilty of any crime.

The temptation to sell seized drugs or pocket cash is tempting to police
who encounter rich dealers daily. In addition to being tempted, they are
frustrated by the fact that every time they arrest a dealer, another takes
its place. There is no end to the war they're fighting and, to make matters
worse, the bad guys are often richer than the cops. So why not take a
little off the top, they often reason.

Similar scandals to Cayuga County's have occurred recently in Buffalo and
Rochester. But we're not alone Upstate. A brief look at police officers who
have succumbed to the temptations and frustrations of our failed drug war
shows that this is a national problem:

a.. Sheriff's department officers in Prince George's County, Md., stole
$45,000 from a drug dealer, then kept their stash secret while lobbying for
laws that would allow them to keep it.

b.. California anti-narcotics agent Richard Wayne Parker was sentenced to
life in prison and fined $16 million for operating a multi-state
drug-running network.

c.. In Cleveland, Ohio, police officer Gregory Collin was charged with
running a cocaine ring out of a topless bar.

d.. Last year, a police detective in Jackson, Miss., who many times had
been named "Officer of the Month," was convicted of charges of "extorting
money from drug dealers to fix their cases."

e.. In Manhattan, Willie Parsons, a decorated homicide detective who once
turned in his own brother for heroin use, was among 13 people arrested by
federal prosecutors and charged with working with a Queens-based Colombian
drug ring to sell heroin and cocaine in several states. The cops were
turned in by one of the drug ring members, who claimed they had stolen
$200,000 from her.

f.. In Coffee County, Ga., Sheriff Carlton Evans, about to be arrested and
charged with conspiracy to grow more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana, ran
into the woods and shot himself.

g.. The Los Angeles Police Department is still enduring the effects of
their Ramparts Division scandal, which placed the department under the
jurisdiction of the feds. Since the scandal broke, more than 20 officers
have been fired, suspended, relieved of duty or have quit amid allegations
they planted evidence, lied under oath, stole money and, in some cases,
shot unarmed suspects. Many face charges, and more than 90 criminal cases
were dismissed. What is most frightening about this last story is that
while it may be larger than many in its scope, it is not unique. When it
comes to the Drug War, there is no shortage of police corruption stories.
Since the inception of the Drug War, the toll of thousands of police
felonies has been dreadful: armed robbery, kidnapping, stealing money,
stealing drugs, selling drugs, perjury, framing people, even deliberate
murders.

As former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara said in a recent article
for the ReconsiDer Quarterly, "We've created a monster that is eating away
at something far more important to the country than drug use, and that is
the integrity of and belief in our criminal justice system. We cannot end
cop gangsters by merely plucking a few bad apples from the barrel. We can
only end it by ending the Drug War policies that breed it."