The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into Sal Culosi’s death.

That’s all well and good. Certainly Fairfax prosecutor Horan and his 40-year record of never bringing charges against a police officer could use some federal oversight (libertarian purity note: This is a civil rights issue. If local police are routinely abusing the civil rights of civiilians, I have no problem with federal meddling, and indeed believe such meddling is called for in the Fourteenth Amendment).

But this case is outrageous not only because of the actions of one particular police officer, but because of the policies in place that led to Culosi’s death. An FBI investigation won’t change Fairfax County’s policy of bringing the SWAT team to serve a gambling warrant or similar nonviolent crimes, or the misuse of public funds to investigate a small-time sports pool in the first place. Those kinds of changes will only come if the people of Fairfax demand them.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 24th, 2006 at 1:27 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Gambling and Poker, Police Militarization. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.