Man’s Death in Drug Raid

I am appalled at the actions of the L.A. Sheriff’s Department and the DEA, which resulted in the death of Don Scott in a mistaken drug bust.

We have all seen the enactments of these raids on television and they are intentionally terrifying. The tactics used by the police are designed to create confusion, supposedly to keep the suspects off balance and to keep evidence from being destroyed. But lately it seems that all too often the wrong door has been knocked on, the wrong people brutalized and, embarrassingly, the occasional innocent citizen killed.

It may be hard to blame the adrenaline-pumped officers on the scene for reacting with deadly force to a man suddenly appearing with a drawn revolver, but I am very concerned about the political strategies that set these raids into motion. There was tremendous incentive for law enforcement agencies to stage the raid on Scott’s home even if the evidence leading to the action might have been a trifle tenuous. The sheriff’s office and the DEA knew that if they could find even one marijuana plant on Scott’s property they could seize the entire 250-acre ranch. The parcel could later be sold and the proceeds split between the feds and local law enforcement offices--250 acres of prime Malibu real estate! Many careers have been built on less.

The federal asset forfeiture laws are an insult to the spirit of the Constitution and a threat to our entire system of justice. With these laws in place every police agency has been put into the business of using the force of law to gain wealth for its organization.

ROBERT E. METZ, Simi Valley