Just to chime in with some local corruption news of my own- you know it's got to be good when it makes it to the UK press.
Quote:
LIKE many other 15-year-old schoolgirls, Hillary Transue was not quite as respectful as she might have been towards the teachers at her Pennsylvania school. Yet she was a clever, computer-savvy pupil who had good grades and had never been in serious trouble.
One day, for a joke, she published a spoof article on the MySpace social networking website, mocking the assistant principal at her high school in Wilkes-Barre. The teacher complained and, to the astonishment of her family, Transue was charged with harassment and hauled into juvenile court.
That was where the family’s surprise turned to horror. After studying the case for two minutes, Judge Mark Ciavarella sentenced Transue to three months in juvenile detention. She was led out of the court in handcuffs.
Two years later it is Ciavarella’s turn to go to jail and Transue is among several hundred former inmates of local juvenile detention centres who are suing for compensation after one of America’s most sinister judicial scandals of recent times.
Basically, judges were sentencing children to juvenile detention in return for kickbacks from the detention center. This one seems like it keeps getting bigger and uglier by the day as the feds shine light on the dark underbelly of county government. :sweatdrop:
03-11-2009, 03:35
Papewaio
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneApache
Excellent and succinct points about how the Uk investigates police crime. There is also another layer that you may not be aware of. The Police Complaints Authority.
In fact they may have even transcended them.
My uncle after being a super tanker captain became a policeman in Wales. And a cousin in the UK police force too. While my mum worked at Scotland Yard in the internal investigation unit as a secretary.
03-11-2009, 04:22
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xiahou
Just to chime in with some local corruption news of my own- you know it's got to be good when it makes it to the UK press.Basically, judges were sentencing children to juvenile detention in return for kickbacks from the detention center. This one seems like it keeps getting bigger and uglier by the day as the feds shine light on the dark underbelly of county government. :sweatdrop:
Not that much different than private prisons spending hundreds of millions lobbying and donating to lawmakers for strict marijuana laws.
03-11-2009, 13:41
Hosakawa Tito
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
That brotherhood happens a lot in other government departments. Just watch what happens to whistle blowers. It also happens in any large organization (NGO's, Corporations etc), and more so where the organization is under pressure, understaffed (and has a hard time recruiting, as management will be loath to let go any head count), and has a lack of transparency and accountability.
There is a stigma attached to being a whistle blower aka snitch, and it applies to all groups and work environments from school children on up. Some of it is justified because sometimes the whistle blower/snitch has their own not so virtuous agenda in mind. Even those with the best intentions are going to be reluctant or soon discover the fact of this stigma. It is most extreme in a prison setting. Among the inmate population snitches are despised more than baby rapers, and in any serious disturbance or riot the first ones the rioters go after are the snitches.
Among law enforcement & military grunts, snitches are also not socially acceptable and are considered a tool of the darker side of management. In my department our internal investigative unit is called IG, Inspector General. Most of the investigators are also ex corrections officers and are about as popular as a dose of the clap. Been that way long before my time, and probably will continue to be long after I'm gone.
03-11-2009, 20:09
Xiahou
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump
Not that much different than private prisons spending hundreds of millions lobbying and donating to lawmakers for strict marijuana laws.
I understand your point, but it's wildly different. The judges were sentencing children to detention for minor offenses, or non-offenses in exchange for kickbacks under the table.
Lobbying legislators is the legally recognized method for influencing the law. Bribing judges is not. :no:
03-13-2009, 20:28
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hosakawa Tito
There is a stigma attached to being a whistle blower aka snitch, and it applies to all groups and work environments from school children on up. Some of it is justified because sometimes the whistle blower/snitch has their own not so virtuous agenda in mind. Even those with the best intentions are going to be reluctant or soon discover the fact of this stigma. It is most extreme in a prison setting. Among the inmate population snitches are despised more than baby rapers, and in any serious disturbance or riot the first ones the rioters go after are the snitches.
Among law enforcement & military grunts, snitches are also not socially acceptable and are considered a tool of the darker side of management. In my department our internal investigative unit is called IG, Inspector General. Most of the investigators are also ex corrections officers and are about as popular as a dose of the clap. Been that way long before my time, and probably will continue to be long after I'm gone.
Unlike other groups, however, the police enforce the law. They deform the very justice system when they cover up for each other.
It's also near the third anniversary of a man killed for making small-time bets with friends:
Sal Culosi was shot and killed by a Fairfax County cop three years ago last Saturday.
He was about to be arrested for taking football bets, the quarry of a dubious sting operation that seemed timed to make a news splash ahead of the upcoming Super Bowl. (Why dubious? Well, the only major bettor was an undercover police officer, and the alleged bookie, Culosi, covered all the bets himself.)
Culosi had no criminal record and owned and operated an optometry practice. He was unarmed, not fully dressed, and standing in front of his house in Fair Lakes when a bullet from a SWAT team member’s pistol went through his heart.
County officials say the killing was an accident, and that Officer Deval Bullock unintentionally fired the .45-caliber kill shot. According to the county’s version of events, a car door grazed Bullock’s arm and caused his trigger finger to twitch.
No criminal charges were ever filed against Culosi’s killer. Veteran prosecutor Robert Horan, in explaining shortly after the shooting why he wouldn’t pursue an indictment against the officer, said Bullock was tired from working an organized deer hunt in the morning before he killed Culosi.
Why call out a SWAT team? So they can play dress up and pretend they're like real soldiers? Getting away with murder. :shame:
Disclosure: During my rookie days back in the sixties as a San Diego police officer I used excessive force, more than once. I remember most of the incidents, though I'm sure I've conveniently forgotten some. I'm ashamed, wish to hell I hadn't done it. But I did, and visceral memories of these incidents help shape an answer to the question of why certain cops engage in brutal behavior, and others don't.
...
So, how do we prevent this kind of behavior in the future?
Please don't say through (1) more thorough screening of law enforcement candidates, or (2) better training. They're both important, of course. Critical, in fact. But law enforcement, for the most part, doesn't pick bad apples. It makes them, and not through academy training.
Forty-three years ago I was an idealistic, vaguely liberal 21-year-old when the San Diego Police Department hired me. The last thing on my mind was taking to the streets to punish people. And lest there be any doubt about the department's policy, the police academy, even then, drove it home: excessive force was grounds for termination.
So, why did I abuse the very people I'd been hired to serve?
Not to get too psychological, I did it because the power of my position went straight to my head; because other cops I'd come to admire did it; and because I thought I could get away with it. Which I did--until a principled prosecutor slapped me upside the head and demanded to know whether the U.S. Constitution meant anything to me.
It comes down to this: real cops, those with a conscience, those who honor the law, must step up and take control of the cop culture.
Some others here have mentioned upgrading technology, which I also think is good. Ideally, cops would be on tape whenever they are working.
CR
03-13-2009, 22:12
Whacker
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Several folks have mentioned increased surveillance through technical means of law enforcement. I couldn't agree more with this, nothing makes people thing things through more carefully than realizing they are being recorded.
However.........
I think the bigger problem by far is that even WHEN things ARE recorded, such as the numerous posts in this thread of law enforcement being generally out of control for no real reason, nothing has happened to majority of the individuals involved, barring an occasional "paid leave".
The bottom line is that this kind of crap isn't going to stop unless the behavior is cut off at the knees. Just like little children, they learn what they can and can't get away with, and will cheerfully do whatever they know they shouldn't because they know there will be no repercussions.
03-14-2009, 00:28
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whacker
I think the bigger problem by far is that even WHEN things ARE recorded, such as the numerous posts in this thread of law enforcement being generally out of control for no real reason, nothing has happened to majority of the individuals involved, barring an occasional "paid leave".
The bottom line is that this kind of crap isn't going to stop unless the behavior is cut off at the knees. Just like little children, they learn what they can and can't get away with, and will cheerfully do whatever they know they shouldn't because they know there will be no repercussions.
Apparently they are 'considering' filing charges against the cop.
CR
03-14-2009, 07:12
Lord Winter
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
In all fairness though, don't the cops deserve the benfit of the doubt in some cases?
03-14-2009, 09:13
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
We can't give the benefit of the doubt to a group of people who have and will continue to lie to protect themselves and their compatriots. They only tell the truth when it is convenient for them.
They have squandered and abused the benefit the public has given them, and as such do not deserve it.
CR
03-14-2009, 20:06
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Winter
In all fairness though, don't the cops deserve the benfit of the doubt in some cases?
Um, no, because of that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing we pride ourselves on. Police Officers carry a huge authority and responsibility, a very tough job. But the mere fact that one has a badge means ones word is the gospel, 100% truth, and when it turns out an officer has blatantly lied to protect himself or to punish an innocent then that officer has perverted justice, the law and the constitution and should not only be fired, but prosecuted as well.
03-14-2009, 20:11
Lord Winter
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
No ones denying that there are bad cops, and that they should be fired. I understand CR's arguement about the stigma of whistleblowing, but I still think you can take many isolated examples and blow them out of proportion. For example the story that first started this thread, could the officer have handled it better, yes. That does not make him an evil saddistic beign though.
03-14-2009, 20:31
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
I disagree.
While I'm not justifying this either, at least I can understand when a cop slaps around someone they just had to chase through a pitbull-infested trailer park or in a 100mph car chase through 2 counties or pulled drunk out of a car with 2 babies inside.
But this guy was acting as a jailer. In a jail. Whether he is a power freak, was having a really bad day, or was hung over from the night before -- that doesn't matter. Humans are humans, and if you allow them to physically abuse people then that will naturally become an outlet of their frustrations. Unless that man in the first video had just finished some highly intense situation that the female was a part of I cannot see how anyone could not view this as simple abuse of power.
On the same note, had she done that shoe-kick thing in Iraq she might get 3 years :laugh4:
03-14-2009, 22:56
Husar
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Winter
That does not make him an evil saddistic beign though.
Yes it does, he's beating a restrained teenage girl!
03-15-2009, 01:21
Mooks
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump
I disagree.
While I'm not justifying this either, at least I can understand when a cop slaps around someone they just had to chase through a pitbull-infested trailer park or in a 100mph car chase through 2 counties or pulled drunk out of a car with 2 babies inside.
This reminds me of some advice of a guy I once knew, not really a friend but I knew him well. He told me in a serios tone "If you run away from the police, do not get caught. Because that cop will beat the living **** out of you". He is in prison now, quite a lot of contact with the police; probaly too much of it.
03-15-2009, 17:54
LittleGrizzly
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
In all fairness though, don't the cops deserve the benfit of the doubt in some cases?
No, the citizen deserves the benefit of the doubt until a police officer can prove otherwise!
03-20-2009, 18:51
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Don't be an immigrant storeowner in Phildelphia, lest you run awful of the organized crime gangs there:
Quote:
Drug raids gone bad
Shopkeepers say plainclothes cops barged in, looted stores & stole cash
By WENDY RUDERMAN & BARBARA LAKER
Philadelphia Daily News
ON A SWELTERING July afternoon in 2007, Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and his narcotics squad members raided an Olney tobacco shop.
Then, with guns drawn, they did something bizarre: They smashed two surveillance cameras with a metal rod, said store owners David and Eunice Nam.
The five plainclothes officers yanked camera wires from the ceiling. They forced the slight, frail Korean couple to the vinyl floor and cuffed them with plastic wrist ties.
"I so scared," said Eunice Nam, 56. "We were on floor. Handcuffs on me. I so, so scared, I wet my pants."
The officers rifled through drawers, dumped cigarette cartons on the floor and took cash from the registers. Then they hauled the Nams to jail.
The Nams were arrested for selling tiny ziplock bags that police consider drug paraphernalia, but which the couple described as tobacco pouches.
When they later unlocked their store, the Nams allege, they discovered that a case of lighter fluid and handfuls of Zippo lighters were missing. The police said they seized $2,573 in the raid. The Nams say they actually had between $3,800 and $4,000 in the store.
The Nams' story is strikingly similar to those told by other mom-and-pop store owners, from Dominicans in Hunting Park to Jordanians in South Philadelphia.
The Daily News interviewed seven store owners and an attorney representing another. Independently, they told similar stories: Cujdik and fellow officers destroyed or cut the wires to surveillance cameras. Some store owners said they watched as officers took food and slurped energy drinks. Other store owners said cigarette cartons, batteries, cell phones and candy bars were missing after raids.
OFFICER JEFFREY Cujdik was the first cop to burst through the front door, gun drawn.
Lady Gonzalez froze. Terror gripped her five young children as Cujdik and eight other narcotics cops stormed the Kensington home.
" 'Where are the guns?! Where are the drugs!' " Cujdik shouted during the December 2007 raid, Gonzalez said. "I didn't know what they were talking about."
Then things got worse. Gonzalez said that one of the cops - not Cujdik - pulled up her shirt and bra and fondled her breasts.
The raid was prompted by a drug buy at the house three days earlier, according to a search warrant.
A police informant bought a packet of cocaine from Gonzalez's husband, Albert Nunez, on their front porch while Officer Robert McDonnell watched, according to the warrant.
But that informant, Ventura Martinez, now says that the search warrant was based on a lie: He never bought drugs from Nunez.
Anyone want to bet on the punishment? It's 10-1 odds they get no punishment.
CR
03-21-2009, 15:40
KukriKhan
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
It's been a whole heckova lotta fun reading the continuing saga of police malfeasance and criminal activity.
As to punishments handed out to law enforcers, I'd like to point out that prevailing (US) law puts extra sanctions and provisions on officers under any kind of inquiry or interrogation.
They have the same Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination as we other citizens do. Additionally, they fall under laws known as "Garrity" and "Lybarger" provisions, as well as O.North v US. Simply put: if the person's job demands that they answer questions or be terminated from employment for failing to follow an order (to answer/testify), then any information gleaned during such questioning CANNOT be used in any other proceeding, like a criminal trial.
So, for example, Colonel North, being an active-duty Marine, was compelled to testify to Congress in the Iran-Contra hearings, but that testimony could not be used against him in any criminal proceeding.
Many Internal Affairs investigators use a form similar to this:
Quote:
CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION STATEMENT
Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 US 493 (1976)
Spevack v Klein, 385 US 551 (1956),
On ____/_____/____ at ______hrs, at _________________I, ________________________
(Location) (Officers Name)
was ordered to submit this report (give this statement) by _____________________________.
(Name and rank)
I submit this report (give this statement) at his order as a condition of my employment. In view of possible job forfeiture, I have no alternative but to abide by this order.
It is my belief and understanding that the department requires this report (statement) solely and exclusively for internal purposes and will not release it to any other agency. It is my further belief that this report (statement) will not and can not be used against me in any subsequent proceedings; I authorize release of this report to my attorney or designated representative.
I retain my right to amend or change this statement upon reflection to correct any unintended mistake without subjecting myself to a charge of untruthfulness.
For any and all other purposes, I hereby reserve my CONSTITUTIONAL right to remain silent under the FIFTH and FOURTEENTH AMMENDMENTS to the UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION and any other rights PRESCRIBED by law. Further, I rely specifically upon the protection afforded me under the doctrines set forth in Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 US 493 (1976), and Spevack v Klein, 385 US 551 (1956), should this report (statement) be used for any other purpose of any kind whatsoever.
So, if we decide we want more unencumbered accountability for police/military wrong-doing, we're gonna have to rewrite law, and re-think the role and rights of the guys we pick to protect us.
03-24-2009, 00:10
Papewaio
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
So go to confession and the sin is resolved. Nice.
And as for the military. Combine the you can't get charged because you were ordered to confess or you lose your job. With if you resign you can't get charged with a war crime. :wall:
In Oakland a criminal killed three cops and injured another before being killed. And because of the actions of the police department, there are people supporting what he did, in a way.
CR
03-30-2009, 13:49
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Guy gets ticket for not having a front license plate, sees cop off duty later with no front license plate and cop denies being a cop, sees cops at police station where several of the vehicles don't have fron license plates:
You know, a posting by a fellow taverner in another thread who thinks its a giant media conspiracy against cops has rekindled my gusto to dog up some of the older stories that were posted in the thread that I believe was started when the off-duty air force guy was shot.
So far, I'm not having much luck as the examples I am trying to get from Oklahoma City are not showing up in the archives of the states only real online news source, The Daily Oklahoman, because it appears they don't archive online that far back. Anyway, looks like we are running out of recent stuff (give it a few days, right?) so I'll keep looking.
In the meantime, heres the one that started it all the first time:
Deputy pulls over car after short chase and crash, the drunk illegal immigrant driver flees, the passenger -- an iraqi war vet -- is on the ground trying to talk his way out of having a gun pointed at him. Note the cops dash cam would not have recorded this, and the cops initial report was complete BS but taken as the word of God (even though the wounded vet and eyewitnesses denied what the cop said was true) and was recanted and prosecuted only when the video shot by a bystander was aired.
cop: "get up, get up" BANG BANG (victim screams) shut the **** up
This pdf survey of US police departments as part of city/county budgets works out to about $200 per resident, per year for police services.
Should we do away with police, since they are so bad? Take back that money? Hire rent-a-cops instead?
03-30-2009, 14:53
LittleGrizzly
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Should we do away with police, since they are so bad? Take back that money? Hire rent-a-cops instead?
I don't think all police should be done away with... quite happily remove those street crawlers whose only job appears to be to annoy ordinary civilians over minor quibbles.
Im happy to pay for the cops that catch murderers, paedophiles, bank robbers or similar big time thieves....
Of course this has to be combined with things like ending the wasteful war on drugs, could get rid of a decent portion of the police force right there...
Some of the money wasted on this could be spent on reforming those already down the wrong path or ensuring they never take thier first steps onto the wrong path...
And while I don't have an immediate link, I have found copy/pasted articles in other forums with identical stories saying that the deputy was acquitted of all charges. So a "stress" defense worked, although why a police officer would be telling a prone man to get up in the first place -- which they don't do unless you are restrained or the scene is contained -- is beyond me. Still seems like the only reason he told him to get up was so he could shoot him. I mean, who ya gonna believe, a bunch of immigrants who probably won't even talk to cops, or good ole boy Webb?
Here's the New Years shooting in the BART station of the unarmed man restrained and face down. Apparently he was "struggling" which people tend to do with two knees in their back and one on their neck, but you decide.
This is likely the catalyst for the anti-police demonstration that CR posted above.
Dash cam footage of a football player being pulled over for stopping at a redlight with his flashers on, then going on when waved through by the only car around, so he could get to the hospital to see his dying mother-in-law whose cancer just crashed. I would almost say this cop is one of the good ones, because a lot of them would have tasered/peppered the woman and aunt for fleeing the scene and going into the hospital, but I won't go that far. Watch the whole video, the end with the nurses and the other cop is hilarious
This actually happens all the time around here, but it's local news and gets lost in the archives. I generally believe if you are rushing to the hospital for whatever reason you should call 911 and tell the cops and ask not to be messed with or to be escorted, but local protocol actually says the cops are not supposed to escort you and are supposed to have EMS show up and transport you so you can feed the municipal tax machine some more. In the last year, we've had one man detained and arrested while his son siezured in the car of the hospital parking lot, and another pulled over 6 blocks from the hospital and forced to wait on an ambulance for his passenger, and thats just in this suburb of OKC, and we have arguably the most professional police force in the metro, although our city council did just pass an anti-littering ordinance that makes the accused prove they didn't do it rather than place the burden of proof on the police.
Trooper (with 8 complaints in his pocket already) tickets man for driving in break down lane while wife is in labor, even after other troopers permitted it, and doubts her labor claims and wants to see her belly. Public outrage. State magistrate drops ticket. Troopers reinstate ticket. Public outrage. Troopers drop ticket. LOL In the cops defense, I do know the pregnant wife excuse is used often amongst people in a hurry, which is where the escort them or get an ambulance rule comes into play. Again, I think escorting is the more viable option.
Drunk off duty cops get into wreck with cop in uniform who is driving personal vehicle. one drunk cop pulls gun, uniform cop pulls gun too, drunk cops arrested. As of now, only open container charges are filed. Anyone want to bet he wont get any sort of felonious pointing a weapon charge? Anyone want to bet what would have tranaspired had he not gotten into an accident with another cop, but with you or me?
This pdf survey of US police departments as part of city/county budgets works out to about $200 per resident, per year for police services.
Should we do away with police, since they are so bad? Take back that money? Hire rent-a-cops instead?
Nah, I don't think the police are bad, but they are certainly open to scrutiny like everyone else, and should be held accountable like everyone else, and that is done with information, education and transparency, not the ole boy system and coverups, not by blowing off criticism as a media/lefty conspiracy against authority.
If you ignore something, it only gets worse. In fact, Policelink.com recently ran a story on that showed cameras were more likely to protect officers careers and bodies than the likelihood that they would ruin the officer for misconduct etc. Scrutiny and standards are about protecting both sides, and no matter how many decent people I know and love who work in law enforcement I will never, ever use that as a reason to withhold criticism or disgust in situations involving cops acting inappropriately.
Far too often, people hide behind their choice of being a public servant -- whatever the hell that means anymore, as I just heard the Kennedys referred to as a family of servants -- as a means to be treated differently. It shouldn't work that way, people see right through it, although in most cases they are unable to stop it. So it builds and builds. Then you get knee jerkers having pro-cop killer rallies in Oakland and voters calling for the heads of Congress for misconduct only to replace them with clones of a different party.
03-30-2009, 17:39
Husar
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Major Robert Dump
You know, a posting by a fellow taverner in another thread who thinks its a giant media conspiracy against cops has rekindled my gusto to dog up some of the older stories that were posted in the thread that I believe was started when the off-duty air force guy was shot.
Well, you know, I'm not excusing the cop, but calling a guy a hero just because he can put screws onto a plane is media bias to me. And if every American does it, it's public bias or whatever.
03-30-2009, 17:56
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Husar
Well, you know, I'm not excusing the cop, but calling a guy a hero just because he can put screws onto a plane is media bias to me. And if every American does it, it's public bias or whatever.
He was an military police officer on leave from Iraq, he was not a mechanic as far as I know. I don't know what he did or where he went, but yeah the "hero" moniker is tossed around all too often and most soldiers will deny the label, even the ones who were in harms way.
As an MP, he should have known better to let himself be put into a situation like that, which begs the question: whats safer, punching the driver going 100 mph and trying to commandeer the car, or laying on the ground unarmed with a cop standing behind you? I guess we know the answer now.
Bukowski is accused of crossing a police barrier to take photos and then resisting State Police troopers after they ordered her to move. Bukowski claims to have put up no resistance, saying she never had the chance. She describes immediately being set upon by hostile officers who roughly grabbed her and took her camera, erasing photos she'd taken of the scene.
"They assaulted me, as far as I'm concerned," says Bukowski.
At the February hearing, Hathaway smacked down Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Thomas Trzcinski, who attempted to justify the police action — which could be interpreted as the illegal destruction of evidence — by saying it was an attempt to protect families of the deceased from enduring the emotional trauma of seeing grisly pictures of dead loved ones in the paper. Aside from the fact that the bodies were covered with tarps, Hathaway correctly pointed out that its not the duty of the police to act as censors. There is, after all, something called the First Amendment.
Hathaway also expressed the desire to see the matter put to rest before going to trial.
But at last week's hearing, the judge — to News Hits, at least — seemed to have jumped the fence, adopting a tone that seemed openly hostile toward Bukowski. At one point he talked about her crossing the barrier of yellow tape — still only an allegation at this point, mind you — motivated only by the desire to get sensationalized photos.
"I'm an investigative reporter," Bukowski told News Hits afterward. "I was documenting the scene." She also says she was at least 70 feet from any body.
Hathaway also made a crack about Bukowski — who contends that she's being targeted for prosecution because of previous work that was critical of both police and the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office — having an inflated opinion of her own celebrity.
In New York State, police kill two dogs, just for the heck of it, on a drug raid that produced no drugs and no arrests.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
A South Buffalo family wants answers after police shot and killed two of their dogs during a raid Saturday, leaving blood puddled on a living-room carpet and speckled on the wall.
Police, who were looking for a drug suspect and narcotics, left the Indian Church Road home without finding any evidence or arresting anyone, according to residents of the house.
The incident has left the family distraught and angry over the loss of the dogs, Essy and Moosey.
“It was just the most traumatizing, horrible thing,” said Rita M. Patterson, 27, who lives in the house with her 68-year-old father, Daniel J. Patterson.
...
Before she knew what was happening, police wearing masks and helmets and carrying automatic weapons had broken through the door. They tied her hands with a zip tie and put her on the floor.
Her father pleaded with police not to shoot the dogs, but they wouldn’t allow him to grab the dogs and put them in another room, Patterson said.
One of the officers started firing a shotgun at the two dogs, one a pit bull and the other a pit bull-boxer mix.
One of the dogs was shot three times: once in the throat, once in the back and the last time in the leg while trying to run away, Rita Patterson said.
The other dog was cowering behind a table. Neither was a threat to the police, the residents said.
The police had a warrant for the home, but it named no suspects. It said only that investigators were looking for a white male and Hydrocodone. Information that led to the warrant, according to the warrant itself, came partly from an informant, Rita Patterson said.
This suit claims Plewa and other officers entered Hernandez’s home on April 16, 2008 when he was not home. The officers had previously secured a warrant to search the home by falsely representing that they had obtained facts from an anonymous “confidential source.”
The officers claimed they had recovered drugs and drug paraphernalia as well as $1,000 in cash, the suit said.
When Hernandez learned officers had been inside his home, he voluntarily went to the police station and was interrogated by officers. When officers told him to give them guns or the names of drug dealers, Hernandez did not do so and was arrested.
Hernandez was sent to the Cook County Jail where he remained from April until October 2008 until charges were dropped in his favor – a total of six months. During his six-month incarceration, Hernandez missed the birth of a child and lost his jobs, the suit said.
The suit alleges Hernandez’s constitutional rights were violated and that his prosecution was malicious and caused emotional distress.
The suit also accuses the city of Chicago of allowing the “confidential informant” process to lead to arrests without probable cause and to pursue wrongful convictions through “profoundly flawed investigations.”
The suit seeks an unspecified amount of money, as well as attorneys' fees.
It's not just brutality, but a pervasive violation of rights and justice.
CR
03-31-2009, 08:31
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
I gotta tell ya man, no-knock warrants and warrants based soley on confidential sources are the bane of the war on drugs. It gets civilians and cops killed, and it violates peoples rights to know their accuser. To hell with protecting informants identities, as the vast majority of informants are criminals themselves and only informing to get preferential treatment, and I would be willing to bet a lot of the infromation is based on vendettas or just completely made up because someone needs some evidence to back up their gut feeling.
This crap with the dogs happens all the time. This crap with warrants being served on secret information, your city spending a few grand gearing up a dozen police in war gear and busting into your home, only to find a small amount of drugs -- or better yet, nothing at all -- and then all the red tape you gotta go through to get your house repairs paid for by the cops....its disgusting. If the police in my town find no drugs but do find paraphanelia, they will scrape the insides of the instruments until they can get a gram of resin, at which point they now have a possession charge. Yay. Talk about fruits of their labor, the streets are safer now.
03-31-2009, 22:17
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Here's a real beauty.
Unarmed woman kneeling with child killed by SWAT member because, he says, he thought people were shooting at him from inside the bedroom. So who was shooting? Other cops, shooting the dogs:
not so much as a misdemeanor negligent assault conviction.
This sort of reminds me of the guy in NYC, 10 years ago, shot 41 times. Plainclothes cops, who witnesses said did not identify themselves, chased the man to his home. As he reached for his wallet, one cop opened fire. Another cop, who was such a fat pig he couldn't keep his balance, fell backwards, which prompted the other cops to think he had been shot. Hail of bullets ensues. All officers acquitted. The Street Crime unit was disbanded in 2001 because of "budget issues" but we all really know why it was disbanded: because it had a systematic pattern of questionable shootings and issues of abuse, many of which involved officers not identifying themselves before they escalated the situation, and some of which involved misconduct using their plainclothes as a coverup. Good riddance Gestapo.
I mean, dude was shot in the bottom of the foot even. http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beat...h/Default.aspx
Hey, speaking of waving a gun around and not identifying yourself (according to witnesses, at least) but more importantly, shooting an unarmed, fleeing man for what amounted to a misdemeanor:
This pdf survey of US police departments as part of city/county budgets works out to about $200 per resident, per year for police services.
Should we do away with police, since they are so bad? Take back that money? Hire rent-a-cops instead?
Go the free market way and have healthy competition, with transparency and accountability and bonuses. Not saying that their should be private police forces, but maybe a decentralisation for some and some sort of competitive vibe (best county gets a performance based pay bonus) etc. Mind you moment you go down KPI incentives the system gets worked. So need to make a system that brings out the best in people not awards a dodgy version of brotherhood.
Heck I would love to see the top ten police get million dollar bonuses as long as all the corrupt ones were handled.
04-01-2009, 11:45
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Papewaio
Go the free market way and have healthy competition, with transparency and accountability and bonuses.
Meh. Been there, done that. Hire-a-cops, private armies - that's got a name, feudalism.
As for police in general, I've been on the receiving end of both the best and the worst of the police. Some have been very kind, going above and beyond the call of duty for me. I've also stared at the wrong end of the barrel of guns wielded by trigger-happy little fascists in uniform. And I do am pretty much a law-abiding citizen. Thank God I was white or I might not have been around anymore to post here. :shame:
04-01-2009, 15:13
Major Robert Dump
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Papewaio
Go the free market way and have healthy competition, with transparency and accountability and bonuses. Not saying that their should be private police forces, but maybe a decentralisation for some and some sort of competitive vibe (best county gets a performance based pay bonus) etc. Mind you moment you go down KPI incentives the system gets worked. So need to make a system that brings out the best in people not awards a dodgy version of brotherhood.
Heck I would love to see the top ten police get million dollar bonuses as long as all the corrupt ones were handled.
Honestly I don't know how a "top cop" system would work without it being based on quotas and inherently causing cops to trump up charges and try to get even more arrests for things which don't need to end in arrests.
Many cities and counties have a traffic citation quota system than is enacted either constantly or when the local budget needs more money. Most of the cops I know hate the quotas, and it enrages the public. Personally, I don't have a problem with it as it keeps the roads a little safer, but when the city does enact a quota for budget reasons the police department warns the local papers, who in turn warn the people, and towards the end of the month when the quota deadline hits people darn well better mind themselves on the road. So one could argue that that does, or does not work.
Convictions in general, however, from the perspective of drug task forces seeking budgets or district attorneys seeking re-election, is something that is paramount in touting for justifying ones own existence. Theres no shortage of examples of American DAs and sheriffs going to ridiculous extremes to prove their worth come election time, whether it be the Duke Lacrosse team, Phelps smoking pot, busting poker games etc. They need convictions to prove their worth.
What's even more scary is the manner by which the Oklahoma Drug Tasks Forces report their records to the state legislature to pander for funds. First, until 2 years ago, they never distinguished between felony arrests/convictions and misdemeanor arrests/convictions until our US Senator Tom Coburn called them on it. Turns out the Forces were netting far more misdemeanor and insignificant arrests than felonies.
Second, the reporting still does not distinguish between number or people arrested/convicted vs the number of individual charges. I'll give you an example:
Man has marijuana in his house. For whatever reason, he gets raided. Police find marijuana. One would think possession charge, right? In addition to possession, he can also be charged with: 1-a felony if he has a legal firearm in the closet, possession of firearm while in commission of a crime; 2-a misdemeanor of possession of marijuana without a tax stamp, although that one is a catch-22 and you can't legally apply for a tax stamp for illegal marijuana; 3-a felony of possession of marijuana while within 1000 feet of a school, church or park, a charge you will get no matter where you are in town because it has been zoned to include crosswalks, bus stops, church auxillary building that aren't even labeled, and public land thats not really a park but people use for jogging, ball, etc; 4-a misdemeanor of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, if you have more than an ounce (despite being like everything else, the more you buy the cheaper it is) or if you have sandwich bags in your house anywhere, can be bumped up to a felony if within 1000 feet of a school, church or park, see number 4; 5-a misdemeanor of possession with a child present, if there is a child present anywhere on the property, to include the children of other tenants in the apartment/duplex/condo complex. And my personal favorite, 6, a misdemeanor maintaining a dwelling where drugs are kept or sold, which in basic english means you own a house and have drugs, and is nothing more than a pre-requisite charge to justify the cops to confiscate everything you own so they can pad their budget (5-10% of Cleveland County Sheriffs budget comes from seized personal property sales) on the grounds that your entire estate was purchased with drug money. Also, if you have more than 200 dollars in cash on one individual in the house and got the distribution charge, you can be charged with 7 a misdemeanor of possession of drug proceeds.
So we have 1 guy, in a condo he owns, in possession, committing one crime really, but he is charged with a possible 8, redundantly stacking 7 on top of the possession charge. Drug task force reports to legislature this as 8 charges brought, 8 convictions gained, but does not mention that they all came from the same unlucky individual. Oh, and his life is ruined, as is the life of his family, he is now a felon and a convict, will go to prison and be raped, will come out of prison and be unable to find work and will become one of those people like the ones at the Oakland rally. Now that's progress.
That is where top cop competitions get us. They don't want to win the drug war, because then they won't have jobs and there will be no one to fill the prisons with.
Now, if we had a competition where the cop who shot the least unarmed people got a prize, I would go all in.
04-01-2009, 17:00
KukriKhan
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Just as an aside, I offered a personal anecdote:
Once upon a time, in a previous life, I was a Military Policeman. One of my assignments was to the now-deactivated Presidio of San Francisco, smack dab in the city of San Francisco, abutting the Golden Gate Bridge, containing part of the Port of SF, a National Cemetery, and part of a Cal State highway.
We typically had five 2-man patrols on duty. We'd often get "hot-pusuit" assistance requests from SFPD. Some speeding motorist, or wanted criminal would be chased by: SFPD, MP vehicles, CHP (Highway Patrol/State Police) officers, Border Patrol guys, US Customs Police, Park Police jeeps, and DEA enforcers.
It was not unusual to see a single civilian car pulled over, surrounded by 7-8 police vehicles, all painted differently, with lights flashing, and the various cops, in different uniforms, trying to untangle whose bust it was, and who had jurisdiction.
We (MPs) usually lost those arguments, unless the 'perp' was an active-duty Army guy, stationed at Presidio, driving a vehicle registered on-post.
Very Keystone-Coppish looking, now that I look back. :)
04-01-2009, 19:24
Seamus Fermanagh
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Was it better when we had beat cops and an officer was personally responsible for things on his beat being quiet?
In short, do we want police enforcing laws or establishing order? The former is far more impartial, butnecessarily imperfect because we would need a catastrophic percentage of our workforce in police uniforms to enforce all of the laws we have on our books in our heavily legalistic Western nations. If we ask them to impose order, however, we must accept that the methodology used will involved force and that the police involved will never/cannot be completely accountable for that force as would be a private citizen. By the way, historically, police have had much more success enforcing order than they have laws.
04-01-2009, 23:46
Papewaio
Re: Re : Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Meh. Been there, done that. Hire-a-cops, private armies - that's got a name, feudalism.
As for police in general, I've been on the receiving end of both the best and the worst of the police. Some have been very kind, going above and beyond the call of duty for me. I've also stared at the wrong end of the barrel of guns wielded by trigger-happy little fascists in uniform. And I do am pretty much a law-abiding citizen. Thank God I was white or I might not have been around anymore to post here. :shame:
Not privately owned. Civic cops who can get paid far more then now. What is good for private industry and large government should be applied to police. That includes the accountability and transparency, but it also should include paying them more as professionals if they are performing well.
04-02-2009, 07:58
Banquo's Ghost
Re: Re : Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Papewaio
Not privately owned. Civic cops who can get paid far more then now. What is good for private industry and large government should be applied to police. That includes the accountability and transparency, but it also should include paying them more as professionals if they are performing well.
I disagree. Such a course will, as MRD noted, enshrine the target system and the drive for personal greed. Since it is usually politicians that set the targets, you will get short term, populist targets that policemen simply implement mindlessly for money, rather than the public good.
What's needed is a return to the concept of public service and the recognition by the public of the status that service should have. Service for the greater good of society is what being a policeman used to be all about, and they would be recognised for that service, not by sordid bonus payments, but by a grateful neighbourhood.
When everything is about money and individual aggrandisement, one will always end up with self-serving cliques. Therein lies the tragedy of our modern world.
04-02-2009, 11:38
Husar
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Well said Banquo, I completely agree. :2thumbsup:
04-03-2009, 07:51
Papewaio
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
That is fair and well when the idea of service given had reciprocal benefits such as pension, food, housing, medical care, respect etc
Now in the modern capitalist societies were all users pay even those those in service (civic, police, firemen, nursing, army etc) have to pay out of their pocket for it. Over time a lot of those expected reciprocating services are dropped for the user pays system (pay your own meals, accommodation, training, etc as per private enterprise). Lets face it a plaque and a medal does not a lifestyle make. And there is nothing honourable about not being able to provide for ones own family.
Also as we now live in nation states and not tribal neighbourhoods it is a bit late to hope that happy neighbours will look after you for service to the nation. As the nations are set up for capitalists, I don't think that it is fair that doing the right thing should get penalised on societies score card of money, while those whose service is to themselves in business get a better deal.
Please also not that it has to rest on a system that is transparent and accountable. And that I have already stated the problem with KPIs is that the results will be made to cater for them and as such we have to have a system that caters for human fallibility (obviously the mechanism for accountability has to be thorough).
04-03-2009, 13:17
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Australia, the UK, the USA? Your police brutality is as nothing compared to the depths of depravity consistently reached by the French police.
For those interested, Amnesty International published an utterly damning report yesterday.
The most devastating find is the policy of charging victims of police violence with criminal offences if they dare to file a complain afterwards.
Newspapers are full of stories of people being fined thousands of euros for attacking police battons with their forehead. :furious3:
Quote:
Unlawful killings, beatings, racial abuse and excessive use of force by law enforcement officials are prohibited under international law in all circumstances. Yet in France, reports of such human rights violations are rarely investigated effectively and those responsible seldom brought to justice, Amnesty International said in a new report published today.
Amnesty International’s report Public Outrage: police officers above the law in France, condemns the fact that allegations of police ill-treatment, racial abuse and excessive use of force continue while procedures for investigating such allegations are still failing to live up to the standards required by international law. The organization notes the increasing trend for people who are the victims of or witnesses to ill-treatment by law enforcement officials find themselves charged with the criminal offences of insulting or assaulting a police officer (“outrage” and “rebellion”).
The numerous cases that Amnesty International has researched in the course of preparing this report show that although the victims of ill-treatment and other human rights violations include men and women of all age groups, the vast majority of complaints concern French citizens from ethnic minorities or foreign nationals.
04-03-2009, 14:50
InsaneApache
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
I was stopped just outside Metz a couple of years back by Frances finest. A few miles earlier I'd seen a motorbike gendarme on the other carriageway run to his bike and get on his radio when he'd clocked my plates.
Aye, aye I thought, a bit of the non-entente cordial about to descend on moi. Sure enough a few miles further on I spied the flashing blue lights in my rear view mirror. I defy anyone not to glance down at your speedo when you see the coppers coming up fast behind you. :yes:
Anyroad, there were four of them on bikes. One came up alongside and stood up on his bike and looked inside the van. A few seconds later another came alongside and flagged me down. By now I had two at the front and the other two were following along the rear. They gesticulated for me to follow them and took me to a layby.
Now in the UK I've been stopped a few times and the first thing you do is get out of your vehicle. Not in France matey boy! As I started to get out all four of them started shouting "Stay where you are!" and reached down to ther holsters. Now you have to understand that we in the UK are just not used to seeing blokes tooled up, never mind coppers. I froze and put my hands back on the wheel, you see I've seen CSI and I know how it works. :sweatdrop:
To cut a long story short, they searched me and the van on the pretence of a customs check. (yeah right) They asked me if I was carrying anything, I said I was, two bottles of Chianti I'd picked up in Perugia. They were distinctly unimpressed.
After about twenty minutes, during which they also checked my passport on their mobile phone, they let me go, clearly disapointed. I resumed my journey but about ten miles further on I started shaking. I'd never come close to having a gun pulled on me and it was a tad unnerving.
At least they didn't hit me on the back of my head with their handcuffs wrapped aroung thier fist, ala knuckledusters, like the British cops used to do to unruly teenagers back in the 70s. Life's full of little tender mercies.
04-03-2009, 18:05
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Last time my bicycle was stolen, I went to the police. I had borrowed a bike to get to the station.
'Good afternoon. My bicycle was stolen earlier today and..'
'I see you arrived here on bicycle. How did you get it?'
'My friend was so kind to lend me hers. Anyway, my bike was stolen where I work, which is at...'
'Where did you get your bike?'
'Huh?'
'Your bike! I am quite sure you stole it. Begone or I'll put you in custody while I check the origin of your bicycle.'
Louis leaves, part confused, part seething with rage. ~:confused: :furious3:
Cop shouts 'Hah! Glad to see you run with your tail between your legs! Proves I was right, doesn't it!?'
*thank God I am white :shame:*
Quote:
Originally Posted by IA
they searched me and the van on the pretence of a customs check.
Pretence indeed. They searched you because you are British. On the scale of suspect foreigners, that is still alright. For a fun time with French coppers, try, say, a Bulgarian license plate. Or put on a bullet-proof vest and disguise yourself as an Arab or a Black. :skull:
Welcome to Latinistan, where 'frustrated little men with shiny uniforms', of some sort or another, forever manage to make people's lifes miserable. Oh well, all peoples get the cops they deserve. The UK has unarmed bobbies. The US trigger-happy pigs. France little fascists with flashy uniforms.
04-03-2009, 18:13
InsaneApache
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Now you mention it they did have uniforms on that looked like a cross between the US 7th Cavalry and the Waffen SS. :laugh4:
Oh I'm fully aware that the reason I was stopped was because I had British number plates. Gotta say their English was excellent, much better than the average bobbies French I'd imagine.
Their faces when they were told that I had Italian wine (and no French) was almost worth the hassle. :laugh4:
04-03-2009, 18:32
Vladimir
Re: Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Last time my bicycle was stolen, I went to the police. I had borrowed a bike to get to the station.
'Good afternoon. My bicycle was stolen earlier today and..'
'I see you arrived here on bicycle. How did you get it?'
'My friend was so kind to lend me hers. Anyway, my bike was stolen where I work, which is at...'
'Where did you get your bike?'
'Huh?'
'Your bike! I am quite sure you stole it. Begone or I'll put you in custody while I check the origin of your bicycle.'
Louis leaves, part confused, part seething with rage. ~:confused: :furious3:
Cop shouts 'Hah! Glad to see you run with your tail between your legs! Proves I was right, doesn't it!?'
*thank God I am white :shame:*
Pretence indeed. They searched you because you are British. On the scale of suspect foreigners, that is still alright. For a fun time with French coppers, try, say, a Bulgarian license plate. Or put on a bullet-proof vest and disguise yourself as an Arab or a Black. :skull:
Welcome to Latinistan, where 'frustrated little men with shiny uniforms', of some sort or another, forever manage to make people's lifes miserable. Oh well, all peoples get the cops they deserve. The UK has unarmed bobbies. The US trigger-happy pigs. France little fascists with flashy uniforms.
Wait a minute: "hers"? Either that would prove your point or subject you to more mockery.
Assuming, of course, that French bikes are gender-oriented like U.S. bikes. Or maybe you people all ride girl bikes. ~;)
Regarding your last paragraph: Read my sig. Do French fascists dress better? (j/k, of course)
04-04-2009, 10:02
Husar
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Man Louis, that sounds really bad. :sweatdrop:
I wish the whole world had cops like we do, okay there was one who called me an idiot because I was a little confused when he bought something from me, but all the others I've come across seemed pretty nice, maybe it's because many of them have hot female colleagues? That might be relaxing. :shrug:
Also Louis, I would have let him check who the bike belongs to if your friend gave it to you, she would probably tell him that and then he wasted a lot of time and would still have to work on your issue. But maybe that's just because i never learned to fear the police, rather to respect them and see them as friends, as their motto suggests. :shrug:
04-04-2009, 11:26
Hepcat
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
In Britain I found the police approachable and nice enough. Though in France they often looked really pissed off and so I tended to avoid them. And despite this they stopped me for no reason (or at least none I could really think of except maybe they thought I was on drugs/carrying drugs which is crazy). :inquisitive:
I had gone for a walk around Provins, and then was walking back into the town (I'd ended up outside it) when suddenly this police car pulled into the Railway station car park in front of me, two police get out and demand my ID. So I told them in French that I don't have my id because I just went for a walk around the town so I left my passport at my friend's place and that I was from NZ. At first they seemed skeptical for some reason, but I remembered I had my NZ YHA membership card in my wallet so I showed them that and suddenly they changed their attitudes completely and asked me a bit about how I was finding Provins and whether I was cold or not. I suppose they must have thought I was on drugs because there was snow on the ground, it was a freezing day and I was walking around with a thin sweater on and thin trousers seemingly unaffected (I was too lazy and cheap to buy winter clothes so I just toughed it out with my summer gear). And I guess I also do look a bit stoned when wandering around listening to my ipod. But the whole incident give me quite a fright. Just the way they drove the car in front of me, got out and asked me for id in a very aggressive way. :sweatdrop:
At least my French was good enough to talk with them. ~D
04-04-2009, 18:41
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneApache
Their faces when they were told that I had Italian wine (and no French) was almost worth the hassle. :laugh4:
You know, I'm still very angry about your post. Those bastards are a disgrace to France! This is no way to deal with foreigners. They should've shown you what France is really about, and have dragged you out of the car for a right good beating for carrying Italian wine.
More seriously:
You know what they say, the French disrespect the law but love authority. The English respect the law and hate authority.
Germans, I'm afraid, love both. (Law and authority that is, not their western co-continentals)
And in the end, we all get just what we deserve. France, and indeed Latin Europe, gets little fascists with shiny boots, mirroring sunglasses and flashy uniforms. It's the ancient love for the strong man, the macho, whether in politics or on the street corner.
Meanwhile, cars are parked six lines thick in the middle of the street, traffic rules don't mean anything and the last time I've seen somebody wait in line was in science-fiction movies or America.
:wall:
The British have bobbies with reflecting yellow yerseys. They look more like road workers than policemen to me. At the risk of sounding repetitive, I think Britain has the best law enforcement culture in the world. Together with the Dutch. Possibly Scandinavia as well.
The Germans have, well...after the final bankruptcy of Prussian and other authoritarianist streaks a few decades ago they've been having an alright law enforcerment culture.
Don't know where America or Australia fit in this. (But no, despite their speaking a slightly related language, neither are British)
04-04-2009, 18:43
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Good to see you, Hepcat! :balloon2:
(At least, I think you've been away. I haven't been as active recently as in times past)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Husar
Man Louis, that sounds really bad.
He was just making it perfectly clear that he was in a position to make my life more miserable than I could make his. If I require him to do twenty minutes of work, he'll show me he's got all night to prevent me from doing that. My insolence of undermining the authority of a uniformed man by parting him from his coffee for twenty minutes could not go unchallenged.
I didn't need a police report for insurance, and I wasn't under any illusion (anymore) that the police would make any effort whatsoever to retrieve a bicycle or catch a thief. So what do you do? Waste three days of fighting bureaucracy just to be able to fill in a useless form that will find its way to the bottom of a drawer before you've even left the police station? :shame:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
Wait a minute: "hers"? Either that would prove your point or subject you to more mockery.
Assuming, of course, that French bikes are gender-oriented like U.S. bikes. Or maybe you people all ride girl bikes.
The bastard wasn't interested in my bike. He was interested in his coffee and his authority.
We do have male and female bikes. Most women just ride male bikes though. My last bike was the same colour as my profile page. Which you American brutes would probably deem 'girlish'. Me, I'd deem it all-pervasing personal style.
04-04-2009, 19:00
Strike For The South
Re: Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
We do have male and female bikes. Most women just ride male bikes though. My last bike was the same colour as my profile page. Which you American brutes would probably deem 'girlish'. Me, I'd deem it all-pervasing personal style.
1. Since when did bikes have genders?
2. You're talking to a man with size 14 purple crocs. I have STYLE
04-04-2009, 19:10
Samurai Waki
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
I've never once had a problem with the Police in the US, yet for some reason whenever I've gone north into Canada the Mounties sure have a hard-on for making sure I'm not doing anything illegal. I always thought they were supposed to be gentlemen, but it could just be the fact that the folks up in Calgary and Edmonton don't like Americans much, though I've never gotten that impression from most of the people I've known up there.
04-05-2009, 08:17
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat
Australia, the UK, the USA? Your police brutality is as nothing compared to the depths of depravity consistently reached by the French police.
The jackbooted little asses may be terrible in terms of trying to avoid work, but I'm not seeing anything that much worse in terms of brutality.
Some recent news:
In Philly, a white cop uses racial slurs and describes blacks as 'animals' to a journalism student on a ride-a-long. Imagine what he says to other cops.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Student's article leads to desk duty for officer
A Philadelphia police officer has been put on desk duty after he was quoted spouting his disgust for the black residents in the community he patrolled.
...
At one point during a three-hour, midday patrol-car ride together in January, Thrasher reportedly pointed out recent homicide scenes, three of which involved multiple gunshots.
"People in this neighborhood don't care about each other," Thrasher was quoted as saying. "They'll shoot each other for drugs, for money, for bulls-. All they care about is their reputation. They want to look tough."
After Thrasher responded to a call about an argument, he reportedly dismissed the incident to his lieutenant as "TNS. Typical n- s-."
At another scene, where a man was shot in the back of the head by his daughter's boyfriend, Thrasher said: "These people are . . . disgusting. It's like they're animals."
...
McDonald quoted Thrasher on tensions in the community between police and residents, with Thrasher saying: "People hate us here. They spit at us."
Two cops in Baltimore beat a handcuffed teenager with clubs, and their sergeant helps them cover it up. That was five years ago. Four years ago one cop was actually convicted of second degree criminal assault. He is still on the force, with pay. They've been paying a convicted criminal for four years.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
BALTIMORE — Two Baltimore police officers beat a teenager with a baton and a pool stick while he was handcuffed and shackled, then tried to cover up the attack with their sergeant's help, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Officers Gregory Mussmacher and Guy Gerstel and Sgt. Wayne Thompson face charges of civil rights violations in a six-count indictment.
Gerstel and Thompson have retired. Mussmacher, 34, has been suspended with pay since the April 2004 incident, even though he was convicted in February 2005 of second-degree criminal assault, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
Mussmacher remained under suspension because city police were cooperating with the FBI, which was investigating the beating, Guglielmi said. But Guglielmi could not explain why Mussmacher was not kicked off the force immediately after his conviction. Mussmacher received a suspended sentence and probation.
The alleged beating victim, Benjamin R. Rowland, filed a federal lawsuit against Mussmacher and Gerstel in 2007, seeking $6 million in damages. The lawsuit was settled out of court.
Rowland is identified only as "B.R." in the indictment.
According to the indictment, Mussmacher hit Rowland in the face with a baton and Gerstel struck him in the back with a pool stick after he was arrested on April 27, 2004. Rowland was 17 years old at the time.
The indictment says Gerstel obstructed justice by lying under oath in a state proceeding about the presence of two other officers when Rowland was arrested. Gerstel is also accused of making false statements to the FBI about his role in the beating.
Thompson and Mussmacher submitted false police reports about Rowland's arrest and how he was injured, according to the indictment.
Before beating Rowland, Mussmacher removed the teen's handcuffs, set aside his badge and gun and offered to fight Rowland, the indictment says. The teen was never charged with a crime as a result of his arrest.
Gerstel faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted of all three charges against him; Mussmacher faces 15 years, and Thompson faces five years.
No attorneys had entered appearances on the officers' behalf Wednesday, and their initial court appearances had not yet been scheduled, said Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Baltimore.
Joseph E. Spicer, who represented Mussmacher in the lawsuit, declined to comment. Rowland's attorney in the lawsuit, Robert L. Smith Jr., did not immediately return a message.
In Connecticut, cops get a tip from a woman that a guy was doing cocaine at his house. Naturally, they gather together 21 officers with body armor and machine guns and raid his house. They don't knock on his door, but toss in two grenades designed to disorient and confuse. They then break down his door. One cop thinks he was hit in the foot, though he isn't, and moves forward, bashing the guy with his bulletproof shield.
Let's look at this; two extremely loud grenades go off in your house, which has previously been shot at, you can't hear or see anything. And these well armed men in masks are breaking in and hitting you.
So the guy, according to the cop, grabs hold of the arm of the cop bashing him. Now, the cops have all their guns drawn as they break into this guy's house. They sent 21 officers to practically wage war on this guy.
So the cops all have their guns out and ready to get these two cocaine smokers lying in their house. When one of them grabs the arm of the guy (if he really did at all) the cop starts firing wildly with his gun, killing the guy.
Santa Fe cops beat a man they stopped for walking down the middle of the street, who's father had just died. There's a video; they yell 'stop ******* resisting' as they beat him and slam him onto the ground. Two cops are laying on top of him, punching him in the head and body as he's pinned to the ground, continuing to tell him to stop resisting. Oh, and they pepper spray him while he's on the ground. The cops charge him with assault on police, then resisting arrest. He is acquitted and the city of Santa Fe settles a police abuse lawsuit with $125,000.
Now, you tell me - if two large men have you pinned to the ground and are directly on top of you, hitting you in the head, are you going to lie motionless and not even try to block the blows? Also, the police denied the existence of the video at first.
Gunmen Kills Three Pittsburgh Police Officers
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) ―
A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said.
Of course, while I wouldn't shed many tears for some of the worse scumbags in this thread meeting such an end, those were just random cops who hadn't necessarily done anything wrong.
But then the cynic in me says they likely have done bad things, they supported bad and corrupt cops through their participation in a code of silence, and would likely have violated the rights of other citizens in the future. I suppose the shooter here is someone who's read a little too much Unintended Consequences.
Or maybe the rest of us haven't read it enough.
CR
04-05-2009, 14:05
KukriKhan
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Poor Crazed Rabbit. This anti-cop crusade has obssessed him. Imagine what it must be like to wake up every morning, determined to find yet another police atrocity to share with us.
Too bad there are so many, he never fails to find new material.
I begin to understand his other obssession: gunpowder-based self-defense.
04-05-2009, 17:56
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by KukriKhan
Poor Crazed Rabbit. This anti-cop crusade has obssessed him. Imagine what it must be like to wake up every morning, determined to find yet another police atrocity to share with us.
Too bad there are so many, he never fails to find new material.
I begin to understand his other obssession: gunpowder-based self-defense.
I'm concerned, not obsessed. And I was supportive of the second amendment far before I realized what so many police were up to.
As I've said, I'm not so much anti-cop as I am anti-police-officers-assaulting-people-and-getting-away-with-it-because-the-system-covers-for-them.
I know I post a goodly amount of stories in this thread. But I don't scour the internet. I go to one single blog, run by one guy, who posts once or twice a day. One post will generally have a round-up of the latest news. And even then I don't run right over here to post it.
I simply don't wake up every morning "determined to find yet another police atrocity to share with" you guys.
Sorry, old friend. I didn't mean that as a personal critique, just a kind observation. But you're right, in the context of your entire day, finding and posting a couple of police abuse links represents probably a mere 15 minutes. It's just that those contributions have come to dominate this thread/topic, so as a reader I say: "OK. I get it. Police abuse is widespread, and documentable."
Now what are we gonna do about it?
Or is the purpose of this thread to explore the length and depth of law enforcement depravity?
You wrote:
Quote:
I'm not so much anti-cop as I am anti-police-officers-assaulting-people-and-getting-away-with-it-because-the-system-covers-for-them.
Then what we have is not a police problem, but a courts problem, yes?
04-06-2009, 00:50
Husar
Re: Re : Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit
[...]which has previously been shot at[...]
:no:
What kind of "civilized" country is that???
Most houses here were last shot at 60 years ago, seems like over there almost every house gets shot at frequently. Maybe that neighborhood needs more policing. :mellow:
04-06-2009, 03:08
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by KukriKhan
Sorry, old friend. I didn't mean that as a personal critique, just a kind observation. But you're right, in the context of your entire day, finding and posting a couple of police abuse links represents probably a mere 15 minutes. It's just that those contributions have come to dominate this thread/topic, so as a reader I say: "OK. I get it. Police abuse is widespread, and documentable."
Quite. But this thread is only one of many I contribute to, and only a fraction of the backroom. Has the point been proved in this thread? Yes, I suppose so. But it's easier to simply maintain this one then open a new one whenever some particularly disgusting incident occurs.
Quote:
Now what are we gonna do about it?
Or is the purpose of this thread to explore the length and depth of law enforcement depravity?
You wrote:
Then what we have is not a police problem, but a courts problem, yes?
Some of each, but mostly police in this case (there are many problems with unscrupulous prosecutors, but there actions don't contribute to this problem so much). It's the police who cover up for one another, lie and plant guns and intimidate witnesses and make it so no prosecutor can put together a case in the first place. Even the cops who don't directly commit the crimes know what happens and let it happen. As has been side, this 'blue wall of silence' must be shattered.
Heh. Detroit PD: shot at, stabbed & generally beaten and diss'd so often, they've lost their sense o'Yuma.
Still, it pays regular. Unlike most jobs there, in that town.
04-07-2009, 12:56
Louis VI the Fat
Re : Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit
I'm concerned, not obsessed.
The world needs more of your concern, not less. Bad enough as it is, being shot at or beaten by a gang of street punks is one thing. By the state is another one altogether. Democracy and liberty is the limitation and accountability of state power, it is the prevention of gangs of armed men from beating and shooting other people.
This is all not a trivial concern.
04-07-2009, 22:02
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
More on the culture of corruption/blue wall of silence.
Wednesday, through a department spokesperson, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer refused to comment on allegations he's condoned a culture of violence within the force.
Dyer declined to discuss accusations made by a member of his own force, that he had a hand in manipulating the outcome of internal affairs investigations.
But, attorneys pushing a lawsuit against the chief and the department hope to show that Dyer's own misconduct set a tone for the department.
In a February 26th deposition obtained exclusively by KSEE 24 News, Dyer admitted he violated police procedure in the past.
The civil rights lawsuit claims Dyer's misconduct opened the door for other officers to behave outside of policy.
HONOLULU -- Honolulu Police Department Chief Boise Correa on Monday defended himself against criticism from the police officers' union, which wants him ousted.
He told KITV he is taking his own survey of police brass.
A survey taken by the union and completed by about half the police officers found 87 percent of them want a new chief. That number is up from the survey in 2005, when 78 percent of them wanted a new chief.
They said they felt Correa treats officers unfairly in discipline and other matters.
Correa said disciplining officers is unpopular at times, but necessary to maintain the department's integrity. He said all the data point to success at the top of his department.
"We had a low, the lowest crime rate in 75 years. We had the lowest amount of complaints ever reported to the police commission," Correa said.
Correa told KITV he is asking captains and above for their suggestions to improve the Police Department.
The Honolulu Police Commission must decide whether to reappoint or replace him when his term ends in August.
Some commissioners have told people they are amazed at how passionate the rank-and-file are in their opposition to Correa and they are leaning against reappointing him, sources said.
The Police Commission deciding his fate is made up of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's appointees, who sources said has privately told people he does not support retaining Correa.
Over in Denver a while back, some undercover cops beat the ever-loving **** out of a fifty seven year old man. One of them, undercover, swore at the old man, saying he ran a red light on his bike. The man knocked the baseball cap off of the cop. So naturally, the cops do the standard "three cops pummeling with fists" while they've got him on the ground.
And then, while he's on his stomach, hand behind his back, with three cops on top of him, one of the cops pulls back his head and slams it face first into the pavement. And then they charge him with assault on a police officer, lying in all their reports, and not interviewing any witnesses.
But luckily, the whole thing was videotaped. You can hear the guys' teeth cracking as his face is slammed into the ground. And the cop who slammed the guy's face into the pavement was actually charged with a crime - second degree assault.
The videotape didn't come out until after the victim's trial had began. Because the cops didn't know there was a tape, they lied under oath about what happened.
CR
04-08-2009, 07:25
Banquo's Ghost
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
One thing that intrigues me is that in the US based crime dramas I like to watch, no suspect is ever interrogated with an official tape running - video or audio.
This strikes me as odd, and open to wide abuse - if it's actually what happens. The lack of such protection for suspects may of course, simply be a dramatic device, minimising the disruption of the storyline.
Do police have to record all interviews? If not, why not?
04-08-2009, 09:42
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost
One thing that intrigues me is that in the US based crime dramas I like to watch, no suspect is ever interrogated with an official tape running - video or audio.
This strikes me as odd, and open to wide abuse - if it's actually what happens. The lack of such protection for suspects may of course, simply be a dramatic device, minimising the disruption of the storyline.
Do police have to record all interviews? If not, why not?
I believe in real life it's a mixed bag, with a trend towards more recording. Not entirely sure, though.
CR
04-08-2009, 11:52
Banquo's Ghost
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Crazed Rabbit
I believe in real life it's a mixed bag, with a trend towards more recording. Not entirely sure, though.
CR
Interesting, thank you. So as far as you know, it's not a legal requirement across the country?
Are policing responsibilities set at state level or some other legislative level? (I ask because it informs the question of accountability of police forces in the USA, the root, I think, of the abuses you are highlighting).
04-08-2009, 15:32
Vladimir
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Recordings are a good idea and usually end up exonerating the officer in question. So much so that if he did any research on it, the results would shake CR out of his frenzy. But no, in a country as large and diverse as the U.S., recording isn't mandatory everywhere.
Banquo, please don't base your perceptions of U.S. law enforcement on law enforcement dramas. As a former instructor of mine says: "Don't waste your time with novels."
04-08-2009, 15:58
Banquo's Ghost
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by Vladimir
Banquo, please don't base your perceptions of U.S. law enforcement on law enforcement dramas. As a former instructor of mine says: "Don't waste your time with novels."
Don't worry, I have no intention of doing so. However, since I have never seen the inside of a US police station (nor have any plans in that direction) crime drama provides at least a starting point to ask something that bothered me as I read this thread.
Oh, and your instructor was utterly wrong about novels - but that's a different thread. :beam:
Thanks for the information. :bow:
05-13-2009, 03:12
Crazed Rabbit
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
So, what do you call it when a person says you won't have your children returned to you unless you give them money? Kidnappers, right?
TENAHA, Texas (CNN) -- Roderick Daniels was traveling through East Texas in October 2007 when, he says, he was the victim of a highway robbery.
Police in the small East Texas town of Tenaha are accused of unjustly taking valuables from motorists.
The Tennessee man says he was ordered to pull his car over and surrender his jewelry and $8,500 in cash that he had with him to buy a new car.
But Daniels couldn't go to the police to report the incident.
The men who stopped him were the police.
Daniels was stopped on U.S. Highway 59 outside Tenaha, near the Louisiana state line. Police said he was driving 37 mph in a 35 mph zone. They hauled him off to jail and threatened him with money-laundering charges -- but offered to release him if he signed papers forfeiting his property.
...
Texas law allows police to confiscate drug money and other personal property they believe are used in the commission of a crime. If no charges are filed or the person is acquitted, the property has to be returned. But Guillory's lawsuit states that Tenaha and surrounding Shelby County don't bother to return much of what they confiscate.
...
Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson said they agreed to forfeit their property after Russell threatened to have their children taken away.
Like Daniels, the couple says they were carrying a large amount of cash --- about $6,000 -- to buy a car. When they were stopped in Tenaha in 2007, Boatright said, Russell came to the Tenaha police station to berate her and threaten to separate the family.
"I said, 'If it's the money you want, you can take it, if that's what it takes to keep my children with me and not separate them from us. Take the money,' " she said.
Don't Miss
The document Henderson signed, which bears Russell's signature, states that in exchange for forfeiting the cash, "no criminal charges shall be filed ... and our children shall not be turned over" to the state's child protective services agency.
Maryland resident Amanee Busbee said she also was threatened with losing custody of her child after being stopped in Tenaha with her fiancé and his business partner. They were headed to Houston with $50,000 to complete the purchase of a restaurant, she said.
"The police officer would say things to me like, 'Your son is going to child protective services because you are not saying what we need to hear,' " Busbee said.
CR
05-13-2009, 03:14
Strike For The South
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
To be fair, this was only done to minorites and "people whom ain't from 'round here are ya boi" So it doesn't count.
05-13-2009, 08:56
Husar
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Well, my personal opinion is that driving around with lots of jewelry and 8,500$ cash is pretty nuts anyway, much safer to have the money in your bank account and let the banks handle the payment process. Of course that way you support the New World Order and the banks will take your money away and control your life but even when you pay cash and drive around in Texas, the fuel stations (and police) do the same to you. :laugh4:
That's just third world. I know America likes states rights, county rights, much autonomy for local law enforment. But this is just insane. Civilized America should clamp down on this.
Kidnapping they say. I call it sheer piracy. Aye, these scally wags should paint a Jolly Roger on their police vehicles when they go buccaneering passing-by landlubbers.
Deputies said two suspects armed with a long-barrel weapon burst into a south Orange County home this morning and shot one of the residents to death.
Orange County Sheriff's Office investigators said the victim is a 38-year-old man who lived in the residence at 1901 Rose Boulevard. They have not released his name.
Preliminary reports show the suspects knocked on the door and yelled "Police, open the door!" sometime after 1 a.m. The suspects rushed inside and fatally shot the victim, reports show.
More on the theft-by-cop mentioned above (an earlier article).
Quote:
Law enforcement authorities in this East Texas town of 1,000 people seized property from at least 140 motorists between 2006 and 2008, and, to date, filed criminal charges against fewer than half, according to a review of court documents by the San Antonio Express-News.
Virtually anything of value was up for grabs: cash, cell phones, personal jewelry, a pair of sneakers, and often, the very car that was being driven through town.
...
Some lawmakers, fed up with calls from irate constituents, say enough is enough. Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said the state’s asset forfeiture law is being abused by enough jurisdictions across the state that he wants to rewrite major sections of it this year.
“The idea that people lose their property but are never charged and never get it back, that’s theft as far as I’m concerned,” he said.
Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, believes some law enforcement agencies in his cash-strapped district in the Rio Grande Valley have become so dependent on the profitable seizures that they routinely misapply the state’s civil forfeiture law.
“In a lot of cases, they’re more focused on trying to find the money than in trying to find the drugs,” he said.
That means law enforcement agencies in the Valley tend to target vehicles heading south into Mexico rather than northbound cars, Hinojosa said, because the southbound vehicles are more likely to be transporting cash — the profits from the drug trade — as opposed to just the drugs.
In 2008, three years after stripping a man of $10,032 in cash as he drove south along U.S. 281 to buy a headstone for his dying aunt, Jim Wells County officials returned the man’s money — and the county then paid him $110,000 in damages as part of a settlement. Attorney Malcolm Greenstein said criminal charges never were filed against his client, Javier Gonzalez, nor any of the dozens of people whose records he reviewed. People were given the option of going to jail or signing a waiver, Greenstein said. Like Gonzalez, most signed the waiver.
...
But in Tenaha, a town of chicken farms that hugs the Louisiana border, critics say being a black out-of-towner passing through with anything of value is seen as evidence of a crime.
Tenaha Mayor George Bowers, 80, defended the seizures, saying they allowed a cash-poor city the means to add a second police car in a two-policeman town and help pay for a new police station.
“It’s always helpful to have any kind of income to expand your police force,” Bowers said.
Geoffrey Alpert is a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. For the past 25 years, his research has focused on high-risk police activities, specializing in use of force.
...
"I don't know how you'd make an argument to be normal, for that activity to be justified. There's no reason for it. Even if he was fighting, even if he were wrestling, you don't put a knee in someone's neck," Alpert said.
...
Neither Lee's Summit police officials nor Heil wanted to talk on camera, but in a statement the department said, "The use of force was deemed appropriate, and the actions of the officers were considered appropriate, as well, based on training and procedure."
Silly Rabbit, you're doing the same thing the anti-gun nuts do to argue against firearm possession.
05-14-2009, 14:50
LittleGrizzly
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Silly rabbit is (checks tribesman signature).... ahh fine and acceptable... just avoid the word poor...
So rapidly avoiding turning this into a gun thread, is your point Vlad, that these examples of bad policing are very rare and no laws should be passed or policy put into place to prevent these events from happening as most police are good guys who should be left to get on with the job ?
[/S]hey thats the same logic the pro gun nuts use![/S]
That logic is severly flawed...
Police need some of the greatest oversight and restrictions on thier powers as they are quite literally the law, especially in examples that CR came up with, or my personal experiences with cautions and the like, police can very often be judge, jury and executioner fine collector. Once one or a few police officers have made the decision they can not be stopped before/during the event and later on its almost impossible to prove you have been wronged...
05-14-2009, 15:28
Vladimir
Re: Two adults beat up a teenager
Quote:
Originally Posted by LittleGrizzly
So rapidly avoiding turning this into a gun thread, is your point Vlad, that these examples of bad policing are very rare and no laws should be passed or policy put into place to prevent these events from happening as most police are good guys who should be left to get on with the job ?
:inquisitive:
I know 2 + 2 can equal 1, 0, or a variety of other numbers but most likely the answer is 4.
How do you pass laws against something which is illegal?
A suspect leads police on a chase in a van. He's forced off a freeway on-ramp and the van flips, knocking him out and ejecting him. He lands face down on the ground.
And then five officers fall upon him like rabid dogs, kicking and beating him.
But the unusual bit is that the five officers were fired!
Quote:
Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today.
...
Police Chief A.C. Roper called the video "shameful." Mayor Larry Langford said it was "disgusting."
Roper said the video shamed the police department and the citizens served by the department, saying it was especially troubling because these were seasoned, veteran officers.
But we have something else:
Quote:
Authorities believe the video, [see the full 20-minute chase here] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect's van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and up to a half dozen supervisors over the past year. But top city and police officials weren't made aware of the taped beating until they were contacted by the district attorney's office two months ago.
...
Roper said there will be additional disciplinary action against supervisors who failed to report the incident to higher-ups. He has demanded the Internal Affairs Division track down every supervisor who saw the videotape, including those who have since retired. He said the department is reviewing its reporting mechanisms and policies.
Yup - supervisors saw this and did nothing. They protected criminals. That is the modern mentality of the thin blue line.
I have renamed the thread, since it has long passed the original single example and evolved into a wider reportage of incidents of police abuse.
:bow:
05-20-2009, 19:00
InsaneApache
Re: Police abuses
Walking on the Moon was definatly abusive.
05-20-2009, 19:46
seireikhaan
Re: Police abuses
I know that these incidents are crazy, but what exactly has the point of the thread become? That police forces need better regulation on who is allowed to become officer? Harsher punishment for thug cops?
