The DEA is under fire again. It's been a couple weeks since they raided a San Diego house connected to a suspected MDMA or ecstasy operation. Agents reported that they seized somewhere around 18,000 ecstasy pills, guns, and other contraband from the house.
Agents made several arrests. 7 other suspects were fingerprinted, processed, and then released to a county jail. One suspect was released entirely. Daniel Chong--a 23 year old student at UCSD--was "accidentally" left in his cell for a week.
Reports by the LA Times show that Chong drank his own urine to survive, and at one point, attempted suicide by breaking his glasses to cut his own wrists.
I'm not familiar with protocol or the administrative realities of federal agencies like the DEA, but it seems like it would be hard to just "forget" about a detained person from this kind of drug raid? Is this the kind of case where guards at the holding facility intentionally neglected a detainee? It wouldn't be the first or last time that this has happened.
Everytime I read about cases like this one, I am reminded of how Philip Zimbardo had to prematurely end his Stanford Prison Experiments because he found that students playing guards would get too deeply into their roles.
For those who are unfamiliar, here is a quick blurb I got from wikipedia about Zimbardo's research design:
Twenty-four male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. Certain portions of the experiment were filmed and excerpts of footage are publicly available.
Zimbardo's study has been used by popular media and analysts as a way to understand the group psychology of punishment and authority. Is this a likely explanation for what happened to Chong? Or, is this really a case where the DEA fumbled a case because they don't have the right administrative detail in place?
Chong and his attorneys are going to sue the DEA for somewhere close to 20 million dollars. In a time when federal tax dollars are harder to secure, the DEA should try to avoid mishaps like this one.
Agents made several arrests. 7 other suspects were fingerprinted, processed, and then released to a county jail. One suspect was released entirely. Daniel Chong--a 23 year old student at UCSD--was "accidentally" left in his cell for a week.
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| Daniel Chong, UCSD student and suspected Ecstasy distributor |
Reports by the LA Times show that Chong drank his own urine to survive, and at one point, attempted suicide by breaking his glasses to cut his own wrists.
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| Zimbardo's Prison Experiments |
Everytime I read about cases like this one, I am reminded of how Philip Zimbardo had to prematurely end his Stanford Prison Experiments because he found that students playing guards would get too deeply into their roles.
For those who are unfamiliar, here is a quick blurb I got from wikipedia about Zimbardo's research design:
Twenty-four male students out of 75 were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo's expectations, as the guards enforced authoritarian measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his role as the superintendent, permitted the abuse to continue. Two of the prisoners quit the experiment early and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. Certain portions of the experiment were filmed and excerpts of footage are publicly available.
Zimbardo's study has been used by popular media and analysts as a way to understand the group psychology of punishment and authority. Is this a likely explanation for what happened to Chong? Or, is this really a case where the DEA fumbled a case because they don't have the right administrative detail in place?
Chong and his attorneys are going to sue the DEA for somewhere close to 20 million dollars. In a time when federal tax dollars are harder to secure, the DEA should try to avoid mishaps like this one.
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