This is your War On Drugs:
Obama administration officials and lawmakers are calling for greater accountability and tougher disciplinary procedures at the Drug Enforcement Administration after the agency imposed only light punishments on agents who forgot a San Diego man in a holding cell, leaving him without food or water for five days and nearly killing him.
Daniel Chong, a UC San Diego student, was detained in 2012 for what he was told would be five minutes after he was swept up in a drug bust at a friend’s house, where he had been smoking marijuana. Instead, agents forgot about him. Chong, who was 23 at the time, drank his own urine to stave off dehydration until he was found, delirious and suffering from severe breathing problems, according to a report last summer by the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General.
(Phelps)
This has been going on for decades. The reason it continues is because nobody really cares. But we need to keep in mind that there are two sides to this debate. That is, to the one, there is the question of whether the administrative response to this accidental forgetfulness is sufficient, while, to the other, there are plenty who snort derisively at the proposition that this was any sort of an accident.
When they tell us that not all cops are bad, this is most likely true. However, not a single person working for the Drug Enforcement Administration is covered by that pathetic excuse. That is to say, if I knowingly go to an organized crime outfit and ask for a job, there simply isn’t any presupposition of good faith sufficient to erase that decision. Nor is there any excuse for anyone presently working for the DEA.
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Phelps, Timothy M. “Officials criticize DEA’s light punishment of agents who forgot man in cell for 5 days”. Los Angeles Times. 5 May 2015.
So … right. I happened across this detail that I set aside on a different hard drive, for some reason, a couple years ago, and never posted. Or something like that. Never blogged, at least.
This Is 