INSANE ATTACK ON CARD GAME

It was a sickening abuse of police power. Here's how one victim described it: "I think what hasn't been reported is the aggressiveness of it. They came in with guns drawn, lasers trained on people's heads. They swarmed in screaming, 'Put your hands over your face and don't move.' I don't think I've ever been that frightened in my life." So what emergency, what crisis, prompted this massive display of police force? Was a terrorist threatening to blow up part of the town? Had somebody kidnapped a child? Was a murderer on the loose? Had a gang of thieves been discovered? No. People were playing a game of cards.

That was the pretext for the militarized police raid, featuring storm troopers "with guns drawn, lasers trained on people's heads." A GAME OF CARDS. (All allegations of criminal activity are currently just that -- allegations.) Here's how Walter Schlomer, from whom I first heard of the case, described the absurdity: "Law enforcement officials in Palmer Lake, Colorado, have successfully eliminated all crime from their community. All actual crimes, the ones that might cause damage to you or your property, no longer occur there. It must be true, because they just spent a month conducting an undercover investigation of a $15 poker game held weekly at a local restaurant."

Of course, while the police involved in the raid deserve nothing but contempt and moral censure, they were merely acting on the power given to them by the state legislature. The Colorado Revised Statutes state: "18-10-103. Gambling - professional gambling - offenses. (1) A person who engages in gambling commits a class 1 petty offense. (2) A person who engages in professional gambling commits a class 1 misdemeanor. If he is a repeating gambling offender, it is a class 5 felony." The legislature sets various additional rules about gambling, many of which can be read online (search for "gambling"). For instance, the legislature saw fit to write some 3,476 words regulating bingo raffles (see section 12-9-107). The state also sets various rules for owners of bars.

At the same time, the monopoly gambling ring run by the Colorado state government (a.k.a., the "stupid tax") is running up large figures. The lottery brags of "record sales of $407 million for fiscal year 2002." The same page notes that the legislature renewed this gambling ring several times. The Trust for Public Land notes, "Approved on the ballot by voters in 1980 and passed by the General Assembly in 1982, SB 119 established a state-sponsored lottery which began in January of 1983."

So let's review. If you participate in recreational card playing with a tiny pool that costs less than the price of two adult movie tickets, you will be raided by a swarm of card police who point their guns at your head and threaten you with imprisonment. If, on the other hand, you run a half-billion-dollar per year monopoly gambling ring okayed by Colorado politicians, then you get a cushy salary, benefits, and the praise of the political class.

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