Video: Drug raid turns into 9 hour Wii bowl-a-thon
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Sep 23rd 2009 9:03AM
posted Sep 23rd 2009 9:03AM
[Thanks, Maurice]
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Gaming on taxpayer time is less outrageous than the Fourth Amendment violation. The warrant probably didn't specify that they were allowed to search the Wii.
I'm sure if they thought he was a dealer, the warrant specified all electronics on the premises. Worse though, is that if the guy was just a pot dealer, they should've just moved along to someone that was actually causing problems.
Not sure how anyone can play the Wii for 9 hours without the batteries drying out at least 3-4 times a piece.
"Drug dealers are drug dealers, doesn't matter which drug it is. Personally I think they should just be carried out into the street and shot."
Really? I don't think the act of selling drugs requires such grave consequences. The other crimes that drug dealers commit, then, yes. But as for dealing, they're only catering to a market that exists, regardless of how high your horse is.
Besides, that kind of stupid thought allows law enforcement to waste your tax dollars doing stupid things like this. Can you really name an instance when the war on drugs has worked for you?
@barry99705: "doesn't matter which drug it is. Personally I think they should just be carried out into the street and shot." -- I take it from your alias that you are male? Are you manufacturing an illegal drug, or are you a eunuch? If you are not a eunuch, have you asked the DEA to carry you out into the street and shot?
(Testosterone is a controlled substance.)
@barry99705
Except pot is less dangerous than tobacco and alcohol, both legal substances. At least raiding a heroin or meth dealer actually helps society.
And as for your prudish comment about shooting them on the spot, how about you start with Pfizer and other Big Pharma, work your way down to Big Tobacco, and slowly move down the ladder, mkay? Besides, this is a gadget blog - bigotry has no place here.
@barry99705 We should shoot all pharmacists as well as the doctors that give the prescriptions for drugs (In CA, that includes pot that's distributed at dispensaries)?
"(Testosterone is a controlled substance.)"
It is not controlled when it's secreted by your own body, you dumb-o.
Looking at the belly on these guys I conclude that if they were there 9 hours they also drank a few gallon of beer, unlikely that they could go all that time without, and I wonder where they got that.
@giuliop: "It is not controlled when it's secreted by your own body" -- I was making a point about barry99705's assertion "doesn't matter which drug it is", to show how stupid his absolutism was.
@barry99705
Seriously get a clue a do your research. Pot was made illegal due to oil, medical and fabric companies not wanting competition. Not because it is harmful to you in any way. No one has died from pot let alone from an overdose of pot. Yet cigs kill millions a day but thats ok. Alcohol kills also kill people but yet it still more legal than pot. Yeah smart. If pot was made legal the tax number would out weigh our countries debt. But if we pay our debt other countries wouldn't have a reason to keep us around. We could actually be surviving this recession. But nooooo.
Watch Pen and Teller's Bullshit- War On Drugs- before you go and judge someone habits that arent killing them selves with alcohol or cigs. This country would be so much better off. Less crime- pot heads are too lazy to go rob someone for pot, money, jewelry, etc. Taxes would go down, because of the high taxation (tax it like cigs) that will come when legalized. This could keep going you rpobably stopped listening to me and turned on the news. Yeah thats more real than the truth.
@John Stracke
THC is excreted by your body too, naturally. Its an endocannabinoid, something you brain makes every day to help the connection between endocannabinoid receptors. Smoking pot increases this connection rate, durability, function etc. But its not THC thats illegal its the pot plant itself.
@Brdystyls: "Yet cigs kill millions a day but thats ok." -- Anything that killed two million people per day would be killing about 10% of the Earth's population per year. The number in the US is more like 400,000/year. Still too high, of course.
Gotta love it when the dope heads show up and "drop science" on people. They know everything there is to know about pot and what it does to your body. That and the menu of their local Taco Bell. Maybe if we could all get off our high horses and realize that dope is neither the "wonder drug" or the "great evil" and just relax a little, then worry about the fact that our judicial system is clogged with these petty criminals who haven't really done anything wrong?
@Fred
Yes I am a pot head. I have never smoked cigs nor do I drink more than once a year (new years eve and just campaign). Also yes I love Taco Bell, but hey we are just helping the recession along. I also never said its a wonder drug. It has many many many uses. Pain relief, Stress relief, Helps cancer and IBS and other chronic problems. It can be use for a cheap (more efficient) fuel. Fabric softer and last longer than cotton. Stronger, lighter rope. Better cheap (laytex and car friendly) lubricant. But we are just dope heads to you. Yet most of us don't touch alcohol nor anyother drugs.
Everyone has their habits. Whats yours? Habits include- sex, food, alcohol, oxygen bars, bottled water, speed, movies, everything can be seen as a habit. If it elevates your mood (eg raises serotonin levels) then you feed off a drug and it habitual. Get over yourself.
Here's the difference in why cigarettes and alcohol may be legal and pot is not. If I stand next to you while you drink I do not get drunk. Cigarettes are bad for you, but they do not induce any psychological behaviors. Imagine if pot were legal and you were standing in a bar with a bunch of people smoking pot. Now, while I don't smoke anything myself, I could care less if you do it in your own home, but to legalize it... tell me how you control a pot head from not smoking it around his kids, or around anyone else?
@Don
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicotine
Nicotine acts on the nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, specifically the ganglion type nicotinic receptor and one CNS nicotinic receptor.
In other words a psychoactive. Get your crap straight.
Also you will control it just like you would drinking around YOUR kids. It can't. If they do it they'll do it. Regardless of type of drug (see previous comment on what a drug is)
Legalize it, tax it, license people to grow. The only time weed has side effects other than hunger/dry mouth/red eyes is when it's laced. That's a bad time. Other than that I don't see how a hit from a bong can be any better or worse than smoking a cigarette.
The crack about potheads knowing "everything there is to know about pot"; I'd hope so, I wouldn't trust a eunuch to tell me everything about sex.
More on topic; is it sad that I'm not put off by this "revelation"? I am surprised though, that they stayed there for NINE HOURS playing a damn mini-game...
he was a meth dealer. Funny to see your home town on engadget though! WOOO GO FLORIDA.
*cough*fail*cough*
@ytilanigiroon
+100 points
@Brdystyls
Smoke a cigarette. How do you feel? Are you laughing at everything? Did your window on reality get any smaller? Can you drive? What effects are those around you feeling from you smoking this cigarette?
Now, smoke pot. How do you feel? You probably don't care enough to respond to this thread. You probably shouldn't get in a car because you are impaired. How are those around you who didn't smoke it? Are they feeling a little like you?
My point is the effects of the second hand smoke from pot. How can you argue that? I'm not saying that second hand cigarette smoke isn't bad for you, but what effects does it have on your, your sense of reality and your ability to function? And, if you say "I actually feel more alert when I smoke pot" well, then sir you smoke a little too much of it. Don't use the alcohol argument either, because it still doesn't answer the questions about those standing around you while you are doing it.
Like I said, if you want to do it in your home then go for it. I don't care.
@ Don.
- Just imagined myself in a bar where everyone is smoking pot...Awesome.
That being said, Do you realize just how much pot would need to be smoke in a bar for you to get high enough to matter? A bar would be an interesting feat to hot box.
Taco bell anyone? I'll drive.
@Don
Smoke a cigarette. How do you feel? Are you laughing at everything? Did your window on reality get any smaller? Can you drive? What effects are those around you feeling from you smoking this cigarette?
Now, smoke pot. How do you feel? You probably don't care enough to respond to this thread. You probably shouldn't get in a car because you are impaired. How are those around you who didn't smoke it? Are they feeling a little like you?
My point is the effects of the second hand smoke from pot. How can you argue that? I'm not saying that second hand cigarette smoke isn't bad for you, but what effects does it have on your, your sense of reality and your ability to function? And, if you say "I actually feel more alert when I smoke pot" well, then sir you smoke a little too much of it. Don't use the alcohol argument either, because it still doesn't answer the questions about those standing around you while you are doing it.
Like I said, if you want to do it in your home then go for it. I don't care.
I used to smoke cigs. I can honestly say those commercials and tv shows you get your information from. Obviously you never smoked pot. This never happens. You do not laugh uncontrollably, those who do usually have personal self worth issues. People who smoke pot regularly never have this feeling of uncontrolled anything. No my reality never gets "smaller" whatever you mean by that. I feel normal just in a more careless mood. I drive "high" all the time and if anything I drive MUCH more carefully than I do pist and sober from all of the stupid people in traffic.I have felt more when chain smoking cigs than chain smoking pot. Pot stops getting you high after a while. While cigs can in intoxicate you even kill you if you try to smoke a pack in one sitting. My sense on reality doesn't change while smoking pot either. Why do you think people get it for chronic problems. If it was such a change in reality it would be a thing called medical pot.
And I have never had anyone get a contact high from pot. Its a myth. There's more THC in your natural system. And more toxic material in the natural air, mind you, than THC. But you choose to breathe that. Trust me you chose to breathe it because wait a minute you drive. Every time you drive you release more toxic material in one day than a pot head will do in a life time.
@ Don
"Imagine if pot were legal and you were standing in a bar with a bunch of people smoking pot"
Even if pot were legal, why would it be legal too smoke pot in a bar? It's illegal (in California and many other states) to smoke in public areas. Some of which include parks and beaches. Why would pot be any different? Unless they were serving edibles, which of course is smokeless, I can't see pot becoming a public phenomenon even if it were entirely legalized. The most you would likely see in public is people smoking it on sidewalks or in their cars.
Listen all your crazy crackpots above! You are all forgetting one key thing! THESE COPS WERE PLAYING WII FOR 9 HOURS?! Ridiculous! Not to mention, they probably used up some of his batteries. Is that destruction of property?
@gamechld
Sorry forgot. You know that...um... short um.... memory thing. Yeah that's it man. Short memory.
J/K
No just not new, news. COPS suck, they abuse power, ruin lives, etc etc etc. Cops usually become such because of lack of power growing up. As in Douglas Adams (ad lib'd of course); Those in want of power already have too much. And should never ever become in power. Only those who wish not to be in power (or crazy) should be placed in power.
And there's me thinking that weed isn't smoked along with tobacco in the same blunt.
@Brdystyls
You obviously only smoke a small amount if you smoke it at all. Because if you do smoke a lot in a small time you do start laughing uncontrollably especially if you haven't smoked in a long while and then smoke a lot lot. This has nothing to do with self worth issues or anything. It's the natural effect of smoking very much of it.
It's like it is with alcohol, if you drink only a little bit then you get more social but if you really drink a lot in one evening you stop being social and start puking and passing out.
gotta remember there's different kinds of pot out there too. Indicas and sativas, mixes of the two, and whatever the hell schwag is. Some kinds make you feel more alert and focused, others make you feel sleepy, they all give you the munchies. From my uh, professional..experience..there is a point where a person can smoke too much, just depends how their body handles it. I've seen my friend matt throw up and pass out from smoking multiple times, but usually only after smoking at least half an ounce. Other people are fine with it, they just go into a sort of half coma and watch tv or play xbox or somethin
@byrdstyls
Wow, way to be an idiot. Really? They abuse power, ruin lives, etc etc etc? If you don't wanna get in trouble with the cops and have them "ruin lives", then stop doing unlawful shit. LOLOL HARD TUE UNDURSTAND AYE NOE!
I've had to deal with cops for speeding, and my life seems to be just fine... yeah, it sucks they gave me a fine and some points, but they're protecting the other people from having to worry about getting hit by some jackass going way too fast on the highway. Funny, though, that the pothead decides that cops suck. (stereotypical, right?)
Plus, I'm willing to bet good money that you don't hate cops as soon as you need 'em. You're in a car accident, and you need a legal witness to say you're not at fault so you can collect your money. I bet you don't hate cops then! Your house is robbed and you need someone to investigate so you can get your shit back. Probably gonna call the cops for that, too! Oh, and what about if you happen to be one of the very few unlucky people who gets held up in a store? Who ya gonna call? COPS!
Stop grouping all cops together just because you're afraid of them coming and taking your roaches. If you don't wanna get in trouble, stop breaking the law. I'll agree, a lot of cops out there aren't exactly model citizens themselves, but to make a gross generalization like that is stupid. Many many cops are hard working, and many of them are in their positions because they have a desire to enforce the law so they can protect themselves and others.
@kihaki
I smoke medical marijuana for my IBS this shit is way better than the street stuff you people smoke. You probably smoke laced bullshit weed also known as shwag. I can smoke all day and never get to that point of laughing uncontrollably. Maybe this is because I have been smoking pot since I was 9. Any uncontrolled function isn't apart of THC it just doesn't work that way. If it does you have personal self worth issues or your under 18 and in high school. I wouldn't know anything about alcohol.
@Steve-O
Sounds like your friend Matt is mildly allergic to pot get him checked before you kill him.
@Kulahan
Nope never had a cop help me in any way. Let alone ask for it. I was being held at gun point while a cop drives on by, looked straight at me and the gun and kept driving. So f@ck cops they can all die. No matter what you say they will always suck and ruin lives. And have too much power and shouldn't be. If someone was to rob me they will be met with a 12 gauge shot gun, 7mm rilfe and a 45 cal. handgun. I don't need cops. I have guns and a license to carry them. Secondly I wouldn't need to worry about them coming and taking my pot I get it legally. So HA!!! If I ever see a cop get fucked up or shot I will point and laugh and say he deserves it and thats my personal opinion and I we all know you are just a cop. Go die somewhere. No one will miss you anyways.
@Kulahan
Also I will add. Yes it not just cops its ALL human beings that suck and ruin lives. Cops just have more power than the average human to do it on a daily basis. You may argue that "Aren't you human or do you think your pot headed little mind thinks your a alien." I just think that I am beyond the thinking of normies (humans). A few people agree with me.
Einstein- Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
George Carlin- "think of how stupid the average person is, then realize that half the people are stupider than that."
Aldous Huxley- At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.
Bernard Devoto- Sure the people are stupid: the human race is stupid.
Way to go chumps!
this is NOT about pot.
unless you have some AND happened to notice the female officer jumping up and down after making a strike
then its about pot.
@ hereuspam,
Exactly.... Having a bit of fun on the job.
No different to any other worker lazing around or commenting on engadget ;)
Good on 'em!!!
im just glad my tax dollars are going to good use...........
Unless you live in Polk County it probably wasn't your tax dollars and even if it was a tiny bit of your taxes it probably equalled less than a fraction of a penny. Now shutup.
At least these guys potentially risk their lives to perform their jobs (well maybe not these ones). I've got bigger problems with the paper pushers that play golf on Fridays and leave the office by 3pm. They just coast....
"Unless you live in Polk County it probably wasn't your tax dollars and even if it was a tiny bit of your taxes it probably equalled less than a fraction of a penny. Now shutup."
Never seen a police department yet that didn't get federal funding... thus your tax dollars. And, it doesn't matter how little is lost, the losses add up. In my State $4000 would be felony theft.
The "War on Drugs" (actually war on the american people) IS a federal funded piece of crap war that has done nothing but kill a lot of people.
"There's always downtime during searches and no tax-payer dollars were wasted"
--- this is a laod of crock. Seeing as how Deputy Sheriffs - not to mention detectives or undercover agents are salaried employees that get paid whether they work 10 hours or 100 hours. They got paid for the time in the video.
@Arcaria -
Unless you live in Florida - you might want to take your own advice!
The state of Florida Law Enforcement just got a $30 Million incentive for passing a seatbelt law 3 months ago. That's Federal tax money that was passed out around the state. Also the State kicked in a bunch to boot. And I know for a fact that local LEOs got a piece of that pie.
Deputies in Florida average around $35k/ year starting salary_ Undercover [detective level] or being on one or several task forces will probably push their pay more near $50-60k/ year depending. I count at least 7 individuals in the video. For arguements sake let's say they each get $50k annual salary. That's $350,000 in tax money. And how do we know some of these folks don't do this sort of thing at other crime scenes? They just happened to be caught on film in this one.
So Yeah! My tax money did in fact go to these folks.
The Deputies might get slaps on the wrist for this but the Supervisor on Scene will most likely get the brunt of the reprimand as they allowed it to continue and didn't intervene.
this sounds like a case of the pot calling the kettle black, so no one here has had fun at work at their employers expense? salaried or otherwise? i have fun at what i do, and ive wasted man hours watching a football game when im forced to work sundays. so lets be nice and take the beam out of our own eyes before attempting to remove the mote from theirs, shall we?
hypocrites
these guys can start looking for new jobs.....
now!
Yep, specially the grown man jumping like a 2 yr old who just got money from the tooth fairy. Games brings the kid out of all of us, eh?
Dream on, they'll probably get promoted in the end.
Hopefully they get something in the end.
Yup, our wonderful tax dollars at work.
HAHAHAHAHA!!! The drug dealer will probably go free because of this (if he has a good lawyer).... Talk about incompetent police work!
It likely included searching all "computers" and while these guys are going to be screwed on other grounds (namely gross abuse of privaleges, etc) but I don't think the fourth amendment will be applied here. Also the only remedy for fourth amendment searches is exclusion. Unless they found something on it that they want to use as evidence, the wii abuse is irrelevant to the raid.
The Fourth Amendment also has to specify what they're allowed to search for. No reasonable judge would believe that Wii Sports might contain information related to drug dealing.
I suppose it might be reasonable to boot the disc, just to make sure it's not a CD-R in disguise; but, after that, they should shut it down.