Winning the War on Drugs
Brooklyn Park police were looking for a meth lab, but they found a fish tank and the chemicals needed to maintain it.
And a few hours later, when the city sent a contractor to fix the door the police had smashed open Monday afternoon, it was obvious the city was trying to fix a mistake. It happened while Kathy Adams was sleeping. “And the next thing I know, a police officer is trying to get me out bed,” she said.
Adams, a 54-year-old former nurse who said she suffers from a bad back caused by a patient who attacked her a few years ago, was handcuffed. So was her 49-year-old husband. “They brought us here and said once we clear that area, you can sit down and you will not speak to each other,” she said.
Police were executing a search warrant signed by Hennepin County Judge Ivy Bernhardson, who believed there was probable cause the Adams’s home was a meth lab.
“From a cursory view, it doesn’t look like our officers did anything wrong,” said Capt. Greg Roehl. Roehl said the drug task force was acting on a tip from a subcontractor for CenterPoint Energy, who had been in the home Friday to install a hot water heater.
“He got hit with a chemical smell that he said made him light headed, feel kind of nauseous,” Roehl said. The smell was vinegar, and maybe pickling lime, which were clearly marked in a bathroom Mr. Adams uses to mix chemicals for his salt water fish tank.
This story has a happy ending—the city came and fixed the door! So what’s the problem? Adams could have easily heard the intruders and pulled a gun, not knowing they were cops. Then she or the cops could have shot, as happens often in these raids, and someone would end up dead. For a fish tank, or a maple tree, or even an actual pot plant or meth rock.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:03 am
Awful story. That kind of incident can also cause post traumatic stress syndrome.