Tonight’s Bali news mentions another Australian, who has been caught ( or entrapped), by the Balinese police for drug possession. Michelle Dawn Condon, from Melbourne, was caught near the Poppies Lane area in Kuta, with a tiny amount of methamphetamine. Sounds like a set-up to me.
In civilized countries, there are rules of engagement for police. I’ll give you an example. When I drove Yellow cab in California, in the late 80′s, one of our drivers got busted for selling coke out of his cab. Naught boy, you might say. Fact was, he picked 2 women up at the airport, who without encouragement, badgered him to get them some ‘blow’. He said he wasn’t into that stuff, but they said they’d make it worth his while, if he could hook them up. He made some calls, did the deal, and was arrested on the spot. In the US, that is called entrapment. In Bali its called ‘kasihan deh luh, you’re screwed, give me money’.
There are drug dealing monkeys hanging around Jl. Legian, most nightclubs, Pantai Kuta and Melasti, in full view of the police, who are probably their cousins. When a deal is made, the cops swoop, and its ‘naughty tourist , bad tourist, how dare you bring down the name of Bali by taking drugs’. The latest person to fall into this trap is Michelle Condon.
This stuff is no good for business, no good for Bali, no good for tourism. For every Michelle Condon that gets caught, 100 tourists make alternate holiday plans. No point in being serious on drugs, if its only the users who get hammered.
