What if the police came into your place and did a search (assuming were are innocent) How would you like it if the cops starting using your game console? Ate your food? Slept in your bed? I'm sure you wouldn't like that. I'm not saying I support criminals, but sometimes cops can abuse their power too. As was the case in this situation.

I know you don't like cops (you have said as much in other threads), and the incident should have never occured-- but really?  How much wear and tear did they really cause? 

What charges should this drug dealer bring against the police?  Assuming there is indeed a crime that can be prosecuted, I doubt any DA would prosecute over this (waste of time considering how much work a typical DA has to do), and if a DA did prosecute I imagine most, if not all, judges would throw this out of court as a waste of time.

Perhaps a civil case?  The one dollar worth of wear and tear and electricity would not justify it and I imagine any judge would throw it out as a waste of time (plus the filing fee is most likely several times the amount in question).

You also don't know for sure that their actions were illegal-- if the warrent did not include the Wii, then you are correct that it is illegal (or at least a good lawyer could convince a judge it was illegal).  But if the warrent included the Wii and TV (the warrent could have included the house and all of its contents), then playing the Wii was not illegal.  unethical-- yes, abusive-- possibly (your definition of abusive has to be pretty lax to include this incident), but not illegal.

Also, I don't think the suspect in question will be very concerned about the police playing his Wii (unless he can use it to get the search declared illegal), he is probably more concerned with his own court case.

I think a little unpaid leave of absence for a week or two for one or two of the officers and a memo spelling out what behavior is expected is really all that is required.

QFT

It would not surprise me at all if the judge in the case decided to disallow all evidence more as a punishment than as saying that they essentially seized the wii.  Even seized property can't be used for a cop's general entertainment.  As much as I hate the idea of the drug dealer getting away with it, I consider the idea of cops abusing their power to be more threatening to everybody than a drug dealer.

Actually, I would rather the judge accept the evidence, but not only that throw a fine at the police officers. That way you don't let the drug dealer walk, but you also slap the wrists of the police in a much more meaningful way then letting a criminal go free.

LoL, I guess this gives the Wii more street cred;)

No way. Prohibition worked, and so will this!

I'm sure they were verifying if the dealer had the twilight hack or something else that was unfair to other users.

Prohibition isn't working.  Several nations, including Mexico most recently, have changed their views on the current prohibition.  Mexico recently decriminalized many drugs so that possessing 1-10 uses of them isn't considered a crime any more.  In fact, the Mexican government claimed that it acted because of the great amount of corrupt cops in Mexico that were abusing the war on drugs to steal from people by forcing them to pay police bribes.

I agree.  Many of my friends have been drug dealers at one point in their lives.  If any of them were arrested for it, it would have been terrible as they didn't hurt anyone.

Using the bathroom for a minute is different then playing a Wii for an hour while on the clock.  Remember, tax payers were paying this cop to steal someone's Wii and play that person's game.  For misuse of tax dollars alone, the cop should be put on leave.