So That Explains It
2008-01-21 10:59:25
By:
Gene Bromberg
The other day I wrote about a raid conducted by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department on a poker game. After a three-month investigation, which included cops going undercover to play in the game and see what was going on, a dozen officer's charged through the doors with guns drawn. All this over a poker game with buy-ins ranging from $25 to $65 and five bucks collected by the owners for refreshments.
The police
have now released their version of events in an attempt to justify their actions. And I can't say they did a very good job of it. According to the article:
A Sheriff's Office news release following the arrests charged that Cardenas organized the poker games "to fraudulently obtain money from the unwitting participants." While private poker games are legal, the organizer is not allowed to collect any money from the participants.
Cardenas allegedly collected $5 from every participant for "refreshments."
The article places the world "refreshments" in quotes, as if there might be something sinister about what the folks running the game were offering their guests. Like crack cocaine, perhaps, or a prostitute smorgasbord. Well, according to a player who was there at the time of the bust, the offerings were rather pedestrian:
We all chipped in $5 for munchies and non-alcoholic drinks on a regular basis. Not a whole lot different than if a group of guys were watching a Sunday afternoon football game and decided to chip in to buy a single pizza together upon arrival instead of everyone showing up with their own large pizza and trying to cram the leftovers in the fridge or into cupboards or not finishing them and just leaving them there for the host to store and/or dispose of.
According to the article the poker games attracted between 20 and 40 people a night. Forty players at five bucks a head--according to my calculations that comes to $200. Is having 40 poker players in your house grinding potato chips into your carpet and spilling Sprite on your tables worth two hundred bucks? Is this the San Mateo Sheriff Department's idea of a scam?
The cops say that the players were being scammed "whether they knew it or not". That's a rather arrogant stance to take, seeing that none of the players involved (many of whom took the game seriously) seemed to think there was anything crooked about it.
Reading the piece there were good reasons why people might've complained about the game and why the police might have been called in--all the cars parked around the house where the game was held. According to
Cary Weist, president of the local neighborhood association, "that problem has grown over time":
People want to come home and see it as their sanctuary, and all of a sudden there's anywhere from 20 to 40 cars in a one-block area — and they stay (un)til the wee hours of the morning.
Wholly understandable. I don't know if Weist (or another neighbor) went to the people hosting the games and asked them to deal with the traffic situation, but if they didn't and instead went straight to the police, why didn't the cops go to the door, knock on it, and tell people to move their cars and stop blocking the roads? Why not write a few tickets? Why not tell the people hosting the games to deal with the situation or face further sanction? Instead the police conducted an undercover operation that lasted for three months. During which time the streets of the neighborhood were as cluttered as always. This is how best to serve the people of that area? Don't address the problem at hand, and then bring ten police cars to the party and have a squad of officers hit the house with their guns drawn? It makes no sense whatsover...though a big "operation" like this does play well for the cameras. Until someone starts asking questions.
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