Thursday, August 21, 2008

Dangerous Enough

It has always been risky carrying a lot of cash around, but there is no law against it. If you get robbed by a drug addict or strong arm thief then that is a loss. But, now comes the Sheriff Darren White's Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office not to protect you but to also rob you of your money. The story of the man who was stopped for going 67mph in a 75mph zone by a deputy and was then cited for driving slow is astounding in itself. But then after finding a small amount of marijuana, which was apparently prescribed for illness, the officer seized $11,000 in cash from the Californian. So, what do you do to avoid being caught in the same predicament. Well, don't carry cash. Don't drive under the speed limit. Don't carry your prescriptions with you. Don't run into Sheriff Darren White's Deputies.

There is some meat on the bone for the way Sheriff White is running his office. (Martin Heinrich take note.)

All of this comes on the heels of reports of Albuquerque Police Officers responding to a death of an APD's officers wife in Los Lunas which is certainly not in their jurisdiction. Charges of coverups and evidence tampering are now out in the open because of a civil law suit brought against the city. These abuses by officers and departments should concern us all. I give credit to the Albuquerque Journal for reporting on them.

At the same time, given current issues, wouldn't it be great if the Journal had reporters on the energy and environment beats like they used to have. I think the reason that they don't is the general malaise in the newspaper industry right now. It is hard to replace staff when revenues and readership are stagnant or falling.

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