According to the justice department 4,291 arrests were narcotics related.
Could this be abuse of the Patriot Act?
Naaah, just general treason and abuse of power.
The point of the exercise was to steal 900,000 bucks in a week and waste it having a good time.
The funding they had already was more than adequate to round up the suspects.
Why didn't they grab Ken Lay or Henry Kissinger?
General Speedy Gonzales rides again!
"Federal And Local Cops Organized Nationally"
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050415/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/fugitive_roundup This is bad. Here's a few quick examples.
Waco. Had the Texas Rangers been federalized in their investigation, it would never have been discovered that it was the government that murdered the people there, along with all the other federal government lies on the Waco massacre.
California Proposition 215. Growing medical cannibis is legal under state law, and (so far) courts have ruled the feds have no jurisdiction to interfere in intrastate matters with regard to prop 215. Now suppose the feds come in and make up some statistic like "95% of cannabis grown in
Humboldt County leaves the state of CA (yes, they make this stuff up as they need to like so many nonexistent WMDs). Using this basis, US Marshals federalize Humboldt County and CA State police, and uses them to round up
all medical cannabis users they have files on who might be growing. Right now in CA, local, county, and state police do not harass medical cannabis users per state law. Kiss that goodbye.
Then there is the even more chilling possibility of using local police to round up dissidents, protest organizers, etc. for bogus federal crimes like free speech. Yes, there are rare bits of US history where state police and local police have acted to thwart reckless federal law enforcement.
Basically, anyplace we thought of local law enforcement being our last line of defense against a totalitarian federal police state--poof!--no more local protections. These police now work for the federal government, NOT our local towns, counties, and states. Where might this come into play? Recall the hundreds of cities and counties that have passed various versions of resolutions opposing the Patriot Act, and how their local law enforcement refrain from working with federal police on Patriot Act related matters. Poof! Federalize the local police and they're suddenly on
board with enforcing the unconstitutional Patriot Act.