Tuesday, February 13, 2007

So what was the cop smelling?


How many times have we heard the claim from police officers that they smelled something which their trained noses told them was marijuana. On the basis of their keen sense of smell they search a person, his car, or his home. Something similar happened to Terence Moore, as we reported.

In that case a police officer claimed, after he invented a reason to arrest Mr. Moore, that he thought he saw what appeared to his trained eye as marijuana flakes on the seat of Moore’s car. Of course he searched the car but never took those suspicious flakes out of the care for testing -- because they didn’t exist.

American football player Michael Vick was walking through the internal passport control at the Miami airport when he was told they wished to inspect his bag. Actually you aren’t given an option. In his bag was found a 20oz “Aquafina” bottle. Now since some moron in the British government invented the story that small bottles of liquids can be combined to create explosives on an airplane one is not allowed to take liquids aboard the plane.

Vick was told he could put the bag with his checked luggage or throw it away. Vick thought about and finally decided to chuck the bottle. But even thinking about it was considered suspicious. So one the vigilant morons hired by the American Travel Gestapo decided he would investigate the bottle further since hesitation itself is obviously a potential terrorist act.

According to the report from the State Attorney’s office: “Upon close examination Ms. Joseph discovered the bottle was modified to contain a hidden compartment behind the label.” She told her supervisor and they notified those clever cops.

Detective Kevin Kozak used his keen sniffing ability and, says the report, “immediately noted a strong odor of marijuana and a few dark flakes in the hidden compartment.” Oh, dear things aren’t looking good for Mr. Vick. After all a cop smelled marijuana and you know how reliable they are. And he saw flakes.

The “evidence” was sent off to the Metro-Dade Crime Lab for investigation and found --- nothing! You’ve heard of “seeing things”. Well, apparently the detective was “smelling things.”

Now why Mr. Vick been reluctant to throw out the bottle? Maybe because these special bottles cost about $20 each. Yes, they come apart and are used so you can hide valuables “in plain sight” so to speak.

Now what was the cop smelling with his keen sense of observation?

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