Friday, February 22nd, 2008
- Dear Chief Romero: You’re off your rocker if you think you can bring federal charges against someone for merely coming with an amusing and creative way of criticizing your department. Also, in making a big deal out of this, you only helped the critic’s message reach a wider audience. So congratulations!
- This is absolutely chilling. Story here. The officer was fired, but is now suing to get his job back. The reaction from the police union is almost comical. “What we find to be unreasonable was the behavior of the suspect from the point she came in the room.” Really? Nothing unreasonable about the pool of blood she was lying in? The woman wasn’t being particularly cooperative, but it’s awfully damning that the cop turned off the camera. And sorry, but you don’t get those injuries from “falling.”
- A cop in New Haven will get to keep his taxpayer-funded pension after pleading guilty to stealing seized drug money and from funds earmarked to pay drug informants. The reason? He was able to submit retirement papers before the city got around to firing him.
- This one is priceless.
- Car cam catches Tennessee officer (allegedly) planting marijuana after a traffic stop.
- After a neighbor photographed police engaged in a drug raid, two cops charged the neighbors’ home, forced entry without a warrant, seized the camera and destroyed the film, and arrested the men who took the photographs. Charges were later dropped, and the men are now suing. In court, the prosecutor who tried to bring charges against the men finally agreed they’d done nothing wrong, and that the cops were out of line. But she still wouldn’t call what they did “criminal.” A police captain referred to their actions as, “a mistake in judgment.” Seems like a rather mild characterization of a home invasion, theft, wrongful arrest, and wrongful detainment in response to someone who was exercising his First Amendment rights.
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on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 12:38 pm by Radley Balko
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TheAgitator.com
I tend to be pretty pro-union, but in the case of police unions… well, collective bargaining is fine and all, but the stakes seem way too high to allow them the power to sway disciplinary decisions, which is basically what they seem to be doing these days.
Those “fake” plaques look pretty real to me. Are they considered “fake” because they don’t have the king’s stamp? How big is the plaque counterfeiting market and should we be concerned?
I think you need to add destruction of evidence and obstruction of justice to that last one…
I’m stunned the dashcam video survived in that TN story. The planting of the drugs and allowing the dog to attack when he was cooperative was blatant. It’s amazing how often those cameras tend to “break” when these types of behaviors are accused.
Has 60 minutes done a piece on police misconduct? Seems like there is enough (nation wide) for at least a 10 min. spot on the program. I remember back when news agency actually did investigative reporting. Good times.
I’ll preface this statement by saying I hate cops. All of the people I grew up with that became cops were assholes. Not to say there aren’t good cops, but they are overwhelmed by the rest of the shite.
That being said–I’ve broken my nose before playing sports. I was amazed at the amount of blood that came out. I was in a gym, and after I came to, I cupped my hands under my nose to try not to get blood everywhere. When the blood overflowed my cupped hands, I gave up. Subsequently I had two black eyes, although only my nose had been damaged.
The real damning evidence is that this fuck turned off the camera. To what purpose. As the article states, with a female prisoner you’d want it on to prove you didn’t sexually assault her.
Keep on spittin’ mad game Radley
sorry—
I forgot to say that if she was handcuffed, she could have easily fallen on her face and broken her nose.
Regularly reading Radley Balko’s New Professionalism Round-up is roundly depressing.
The repeated litany of police abuse and malfeasance, usually without any consequences to the police offender, is disheartening.
It is obvious to any citizen with an ounce of critical observation the our police from coast to coast, are OUT OF CONTROL.
Nixon’s War on Drugs unleashed the police WAR ON AMERICANS, and it has simply gotten worse and worse.
SWAT Teams serve No-Knock Middle of the Night warrants against NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS, again and again resulting in tragic consequences for the slumbering inhabitants of their RESIDENCES.
Steroid Rage cop bashing the face in on a Woman prisoner. Is that the first ever? Or, just the first video recording not erased?
WHY would the police even have male policemen processing women jail prisoners in the first place?
We saw recently the video of male deputies stripping the clothes off of a terrified female prisoner, then leaving her naked in a cell for 6 hours? That is proper police procedure?
Planting evidence in innocent people’s cars. First time it ever happened?
Body slamming a young teenager merely SKATE-BOARDING.
The police long ago adopted an US vs. THEM philosophy.
They don’t care if you die even if it is their mistake.
They control the subsequent investigation, they control or manufacture the evidence, and they are NOT, NOT, NOT independent to investigate their own malfeasance.
We need a new crop of Judges with some backbone to JUST SAY NO to No-Knock Searches. And, to LOCK-UP for a very long time those police who falsify evidence or abuse the citizenry or their prisoners.
And, their incarceration should include a prisoner uniform with the lettering “Former Policeman” stitched across the back so that they could get to know their former victims better while in prison.
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I don’t understand Police unions. If the Police cannot strike (by law, they are prohibited from doing so in the name of public safety), then what kind of power can the union have? Are they responsible for the Donut shops staying in business? I seriously don’t get where these unions get their power from.