No Brainer

by digby

I’ve been musing for some time about the logic of using torture on terrorist suspects but not criminal suspects and wondering when that line was going to break down. (In my view, the indiscriminate, reflexive use of tasering is the first sign that it already is…)

Apparently, in the UK it’s happened:

Six Scotland Yard officers could face assault charges after being accused of inflicting torture by ‘waterboarding’.

Four suspects are said to have been subjected to simulated drowning during searches of two properties for drugs.

These suspects were allegedly selling pot, by the way.

Waterboarding is illegal in the UK, so the officers will be dealt with if these charges are true. And there have been similar cases in the US in the past. But one has to wonder if it’s going to become more common — after all, half the country thinks it’s sometimes necessary and many of the authorities seem to think it works.

It’s hard to put these genies back in the bottle.