I'm Sure These Kids Thought It Was Funny

From February 13, 2008 KRQE in Albuquerque:

LOS LUNAS, N.M. (KRQE) - A pueblo police officer already mad at being served a burger spiked with marijuana is even more upset that the two men responsible got probation instead of jail sentences.

Henry Gabaldón and a fellow Isleta pueblo officer ate those burgers while on duty. Both got high and could have hurt themselves or someone else that night, he said.

Gabaldón called the crime a personal attack that had no consequences for the attackers.

"The message was it's OK to hurt an officer," Gabaldón said.

At first Gabaldón was very matter of fact about what happened on that October night in 2006.

He told KRQE News 13 how he and a fellow officer went to the Los Lunas Burger King and got Whoppers that had secretly been filled with pot.

"There was a lot of marijuana on the hamburgers," he said.

But it quickly became apparent how personal this is to Gabaldón.

"In the end we have to go home, too," he said. "We have families, and that is what it was, to all police officers, just a slap in the face."

The two men who laced the burgers, Justin Armijo and Robert Nuckols, both pleaded guilty to the crime.

Armijo was sentenced in November, and Nuckols was sentenced Monday. Both will serve no prison time only probation.

No jail time? I wonder if the problem here is that much of my generation are such heavy pot users that they just can't see this as the serious crime that it is. It would be a serious matter under any circumstances--but when you know that you are going to get someone intoxicated who is:

1. Driving a car.

2. Carrying a gun.

3. Has the full power and responsibility of law enforcement behind him.

This is a very serious matter.