There’s a real person whose job title is “baconographer.”
Alberto Gonzalez advises Mexican government to try drug cartels in public, because, “Doing things in private breeds corruption.”
Michigan judge sentences mother to 30 days in jail because she can’t afford to pay for her son’s sentence to a juvenile detention center.
Police raid a couple’s home looking for a drug suspect who sold an informant half an ounce of marijuana. Turns out, the suspect had already been in jail for the past three months. They did at least knock in this one.
Group of five 18-year-olds get the equivalent of a $9,000 fine for splitting a six-pack of beer.
Florida bill would make it easier for bad cops to return to their jobs. Bonus points: Article actually includes the phrase, “overzealous internal affairs investigators.”
Lawn darts are back! Sort of.
Sean Hannity: “I’ve been so pro-death penalty my whole life — but the Innocence Project, you know, by Barry Scheck, has kind of made me question, as a pro-life guy, that maybe that’s not a good idea. We’ve made too many mistakes.” I’m not kidding. Good for him.
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on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 at 9:17 am by Radley Balko
and is filed under General Criminal Justice, Nanny State, Police Militarization, Police Professionalism.
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TheAgitator.com
Holy shit, Jarts are worth money now?
Damn…Grandma had a CRATE of the things for us grandkids. Between those and silver salutes..ahh..good times.
Re: Hannity
The next line:
Radley, do you absolutely oppose the death penalty on moral grounds or do you dislike it because innocent bystanders are sometimes executed by the state?
Re: Florida bill. Hm. On the one hand, it seems obvious that you don’t reinstate bad cops. On the other hand, if internal affairs violated the rights of the policeman being investigated, shouldn’t that officer have recourse? On the third hand, this site has reported several officers who were fired as whistleblowers and such, and this law could potentially help them. On the fourth hand…
Maybe I’m overthinking this.
Re: Hannity: He’s still a jerk, but good for him anyway.
The raid on the guy already in jail:
The ‘investigator’ that applied for a warrant on a man already in jail should be fired. I have to ASSUME he either lied to get the warrant, or knew the judge would just rubber stamp it.
The ‘Judge’ that rubber stamped the warrant should be investigated.
The cops that executed the warrant…. I have no problem with these guys! The camera footage clearly shows them knocking the patiently waiting for someone to answer. Then when someone DID answer… they explained themselves and entered with guns down. They did not act like aggressive thugs at all. There was no attempt to escalate the situation.
Cops should start getting angry at investigators and judges that put them in these situations in the first place. I know I’d be pissed if some incompetent investigator made me look like a ‘Keystone Cop’.
Florida Bill:
If you unwind all the double speak, I think the bill is good. It allows whistle blowers and ‘good cops’ who are being railroaded to get jobs in better run departments.
The Police Culture, identified by strict adherence to the blue line, is principally supported by two entities: Law enforcement management that insists on fully internal control over officer discipline, and Police Support organizations, like “The Fraternal Order of Police”, who directly feed off the Police Culture.
Chance is correct on his third hand supposition. Most often if a cop was let go because of an Internal Affairs investigation, you can bet he was not holding the Thin Blue Line with rest of the clown suited thugs.
“I don’t care how expensive it is. If you rape a child or kill somebody, and it’s on video — now, my standard is increasing. If you’re on video, and we’ve got, you know, 1,000 percent proof, I have no problem. You go.”
This is my problem with people foaming at the mouth to execute people. They clearly have no comprehension of how the judicial system works. You NEVER have that level of proof, most convictions are based on confessions or eye witness testimony, both of which have been demonstrated to be weak enough that they should be treated as ‘circumstantial’ evidence.
Bob. “Circumstantial evidence is a collection of facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown.”
DNA Evidence is technically circumstantial evidence.
Courts (and the law) do not treat this sort of evidence as any different. It is the jury’s job to balance the weight of the evidence.
Re: Florida Bill
I’m kinda with Bob on this one. As I was reading the story, thinking about the position that Police Unions et al usually take, they’re usually defending EVERY cop that does something wrong… except for the guys that ‘dishonor the badge’ by not following the code of the thin blue line.
I guess if I ever saw any evidence of ‘overzealous’ IA investigators, I might believe that there are departments that are overly cautious with the officers on the job, that get rid of bad cops without due process, that actually get those thugs in blue off the street. But since most of the evidence we see of cops being run out of departments is whistleblowers, I have a hard time thinking that the opposition to this bill is really about letting what most of us would consider ‘bad cops’ stay on the force.
“and it’s on video”- So I take it Sean was at the forefront of the movement to try and convict the cops who pummeled Rodney King?
Also how many premeditated murders are caught on tape?
Besides which, how many kiddie molestation cases involve a video of the perp in the act? Wait, don’t answer that.
HOLY FUCK!!!!
That Gonzales story gave me an irony overload, my brain is shot for the rest of the day.
Alberto Gonzalez advises Mexican government to try drug cartels in public, because, “Doing things in private breeds corruption.”
Sweet Buddha, I think my hypocrisy detector just imploded into a singularity.
With regards to the death penalty, it kind of makes me feel queasy to agree with Hannity (though I’m probably still more against it then he is):
I’m in favor of it in theory. In practice, after seeing example after example of the State’s injustice carried out on its citizens, I don’t trust the legal system enough to have the power to put someone to death.
Brian says:
“Bob. “Circumstantial evidence is a collection of facts that, when considered together, can be used to infer a conclusion about something unknown.”
DNA Evidence is technically circumstantial evidence.
Courts (and the law) do not treat this sort of evidence as any different. It is the jury’s job to balance the weight of the evidence.”
This is where the investigation should START, not end. Let’s use a confession as an example. There are 2 ways to confess, either falsely, using the information conveniently provided to you by the police… or actually, where your confession provides new evidence the police were not aware of. New evidence can be further investigated and confirmed… THAT would be an iron clad case that didn’t rely on circumstantial evidence.
But that’s not how the police work. They get the confession… they figure it’s over. That’s not only unscientific, but is incompetent investigating.
We all know the drill, police interrogations are not designed to find the truth, they are designed to create evidence against whomever is being interrogated.
A note about DNA evidence as well…it’s a great way to exclude someone, but we DO NOT examine every single loca on a DNA strand, and as such it’s only a pretty good way to nail down a suspect. Forget all the hoopla about “statistically impossible” false positives, there have already been several…
Keep in mind that more detailed dna testing takes more cash, and the gov wastes no money on foolish things like that.
Regarding the lady in “debtor’s prison”, this is unbelievable. The situation is not only akin to debtor’s prison, it is also similar to the plight of sharecroppers who could never get out of debt to the company store.
Bacon is very useful, and this blog can use some more.
Baconographer.
I present to you my invention!
Baco-Flakes Breakfast cereal!
A combination of wheat and rice flakes with tiny bits of bacon rolled right in!
Warning! Baco-Flakes must only be used with cream or half and half, attempting to use whole milk or (gasp) ‘reduced taste’ milk will not produce the same sense of euphoria when eating Baco-Flakes.
So cops are unhappy about how other cops are treating them? I can barely contain my sorrow.
Modern courts do not treat circumstantial evidence any differently than direct evidence. For quite a long time some courts did treat such evidence differently, applying the “reasonable hypothesis” test to circumstantial evidence. See Easlick v. State, 2004 OK CR 21.
@Bob (#14): I don’t think you understand circumstantial evidence. A confession on the witness stand would be direct evidence. An eye-witness’s testimony that he saw the defendant stab the victim would be direct evidence. A bloody knife with the defendant’s fingerprints on it, found next to (or even in) the body of a murder victim is circumstantial evidence of the defendant’s identity as the killer, no matter how damning it may be. Most reliable evidence is circumstantial evidence (which is one reason courts now look at circumstantial evidence on the same footing as direct evidence). Direct evidence, especially in criminal cases, is rare.
“If you have the IQ of a monkey please don’t buy lawn darts.”
So if you have a really high IQ, you cannot buy jarts?
I fully support a Debtor’s Prison providing we start with the biggest debtors first. Why is Congress looking at their shoes? What? $10 Trillion?!?!?!
OT, but has anyone seen the onion’s news story today? It touches a subject near to the agitators’ hearts.
Brian @8 “Circumstantial evidence is a collection of facts”
the problem is some evidence is presented as fact, when it is not. A jury is assigned to decide the weight of the evidence even if it is not actually fact.
Ok, I was a little loose in the use of the term ‘circumstantial evidence.’
However, that simply means ‘direct evidence’ as you put it, almost never exists. A guy confessing ON THE STAND is direct evidence of nothing other than he is willing to confess on the stand.
Just because the Judicial System considers that ‘direct evidence’ doesn’t mean it’s right.
If I take the stand, and for whatever reason… testify that I shot Kennedy from the Grassy Knoll… what is that ‘direct evidence’ of? It’s CIRCUMSTANTIAL evidence that I’m lying. But the only thing that it directly proves is I’m willing to confess to that on the stand.
Further, how many confessions are ‘on the stand’?
My point is the mechanics of confession should be to produce investigation that then produces evidence. That evidence would technically be circumstantial… but it would be PHYSICAL evidence, like a bloody knife with finger prints on it.
I apologize if my use of terms may be in error.
LOL! The Onion report is hilarious!
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/dna_evidence_frees_black_man?utm_source=a-section
LOL! Look at the text on the screen… “Tracks led to a cave where Marshal (The black man) may have spent winters”
And of course, they won’t rest until they “…find the black man who did this!”
Regarding the police raid, you gotta wonder, when something like this happens, how these guys actually even managed to get a paying job. It’s not bad enough when they screw up a raid, but the explanation they give after the fact is usually incredibly lame. In fact, in order to give such a dumb ass comment, they must think everyone on the planet is as stupid as they are.
“We try to make sure everything is as painless as possible,” Woodward said. “Sometimes innocent people are at the same place as suspected criminals.”
Not if they’re already in custody, you dumb shit.
I love lawn darts. It used to be so much fun to bring them outside and watch all the little neighbor kids scream and frantically run off to find a place to hide like roaches when the lights go on.
If she bought a six pack to share with five of her friends, why was there one left?
I think Hannity’s comment should be taken to mean he wants evidence that is so incontrovertable that it cannot be denied before someone is executed, not a literal expectation of a video recording of the crime.
Of course, preserving all the video evidence in every case might lead to a few more cops behind bars. I’m not sure how Hannity might feel about that.
@ Dave (or is that Freddie) Krueger # 27:
And how did the neighbor kids react when you turned on the barbeque and picked up the fork?
;)
If you try to look up “Jarts In Your Heart” (the website mentioned in the Jarts article) you will find the link directs you to Walmart, and it sells the “safe” version, without the pointy metal tips.
RE: Alberto Gonzalez,
Seriously? Was he able to keep a straight face while saying that?
I would love to have a set of real Jarts again. I have no idea what happened to ours. That website is dead, but if anyone discovers where used sets may be purchased, please let me know.
Minor threadjack:
From Reason Hit & Run:
REAL EMERGENCY WORKERS pay for their mistakes.
Re Florida, credit where credit is due:
“Sheriffs, police chiefs lobbying against proposed law”
Baconographers! Dey took er jobs!
“People have made clothes dedicated to the fried delight.”
I have a button that says “I <3 Bacon”. People are always amazed at such public displays of pork-love. If only we can all have clothes made OF the fried delight then we can all “eat our shorts”.
I’ve always thought that unrecognized irony should be toxic, so after saying something like Gonzalez’s line, they would collapse and have to be rushed to the hospital to be treated for irony poisoning.
I deal with the prison authorities (DOC) in Maryland often. They are so stupid I don’t trust them to execute the right person. I’m not saying that I’m worried they would execute the guy for a crime he didn’t do. I’m worried that they will execute a guy who isn’t even sentenced to death. They are fucking stupid.