Some More Cops Who Need to Be Fired

[mcsluggo]

I liked your post, and agree with everything but the part I quoted above. I keep seeing videos of officers committing crimes against citizens only the find out that officer had been fired from a different police department for racism or something similar. The officer who unjustly arrested Sandra Bland is one of them. 

 

yeah.. this is unbelievable.  how hard can THIS hr background check be?

[visionary]

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/05/homan-square-chicago-thousands-detained?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Chicago police detained thousands of black Americans at interrogation facility

 

At least 3,500 Americans have been detained inside a Chicago police warehouse described by some of its arrestees as a secretive interrogation facility, newly uncovered records reveal.

 

Of the thousands held in the facility known as Homan Square over a decade, 82% were black. Only three received documented visits from an attorney, according to a cache of documents obtained when the Guardian sued the police.

 

Despite repeated denials from the Chicago police department that the warehouse is a secretive, off-the-books anomaly, the Homan Square files begin to show how the city’s most vulnerable people get lost in its criminal justice system.

 

The Chicago police department has maintained – even as the Guardian reported stories of people being shackled and held for hours or even days, all without legal access – that the warehouse is not a secret facility so much as an undercover police base operating in plain sight. “There are always records of anyone who is arrested by CPD, and this is no different at Homan Square,” the police asserted in a March statement.

 

But an independent Guardian analysis of arrestees’ records, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, shows that Homan Square is far from normal:

 

Between September 2004 and June 2015, around 3,540 people were eventually charged, mostly with forms of drug possession – primarily heroin, as well as marijuana and cocaine – but also for minor infractions such as traffic violations, public urination and driving without a seatbelt.

 

More than 82% of the Homan Square arrests thus far disclosed – or 2,974 arrests – are of black people, while 8.5% are of white people. Chicago, according to the 2010 US census, is 33% black and 32% white.

 

Over two-thirds of the arrests at Homan Square thus far revealed – at least 2,522 – occurred under the tenure of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the former top aide to Barack Obama who has said of Homan Square that the police working under him “follow all the rules”.

Edited August 5, 2015 by visionary

[Larry]

Oh, goody. (Chicago story.)

----------

Why is it that if a police officer breaks the law they are not getting treated the same way as a regular citizen breaking that same law? Why are they above the law? If they cant obey the law how can we trust them to enforce it correctly?

I've actually heard an explanation that at least kinda makes sense.

If the DA prosecutes the cop who he's just caught breaking the law, especially if the officer gets convicted, then every person who that cop has ever arrested, or questioned, or testified against, is going to demand a new trial.

Edited August 5, 2015 by Larry

[China]

Suspended Cops Say Video of Them Eating Marijuana Edibles During a Raid Violated Their Privacy

 

Remember the Santa Ana, California, cops who were caught on video munching on what seem to be cannabis-infused chocolate bars after raiding an unlicensed medical marijuana dispensary in May? The Orange County Register reports that three officers who were suspended after the incident are trying to stop the Santa Ana Police Department from using the footage in its internal investigation. Among other things, their lawsuit argues that the officers thought they had disabled all of the security cameras at Sky High Holistic and therefore had a reasonable expectation of privacy. The cops complain that the dispensary never got their permission to record them as they searched the premises.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Larry]

The response that occurs to me, is "are they high?"

[twa]

The response that occurs to me, is "are they high?"

 

http://www.medicaldaily.com/marijuana-use-causes-brain-damage-confirmed-241869

 

"These people can have trouble learning new things and they are going to have trouble remembering things," Seal said.

"We don't know if the changes are irreversible but we do know that these changes are quite significant,"

[Fred Jones]

I keep seeing videos of officers committing crimes against citizens only the find out that officer had been fired from a different police department for racism or something similar. The officer who unjustly arrested Sandra Bland is one of them. 

 

Unfortunately, I cannot disagree with your assessment.  Some departments, typically smaller ones, just don't have the resources to perform due diligence/full background checks on all their hires.  Not an excuse just a reality.   I think companies are the same way.  Many companies do their research and generally hire good employees and i think law enforcement is the same way.

 

But, there are departments that don't do their proper due diligence and hire people that should not be cops.

 

What is disturbing is the places that just have a bad culture.  Ferguson is a clear example.  People point to the police department, but it was the town, the courts that all had a bad culture.  I look at Baltimore differently.  Baltimore has some bad apples, but Baltimore is not Ferguson.  Baltimore has failed Baltimore.  Years of liberal agenda, years of people running the city that have run the city into the ground.  I point to them first and the PD second.

 

Now, all that said, I will say, in reference to why a cop is not charged or is found not guilty, is the cop didn't actually do anything wrong.  It may appear to the public they did something wrong, but in reality they followed the rules and did their best.  I think you have to look at each situation separately.  Yes, people have posted lots of examples of bad cops (and can post lots more), but assumptions are made, especially when you only hear one side of the story.  A quality department is going to do the right thing and keep their mouth shut.  A quality prosecutor is going to do the same.  A fair trial for anyone, cop or otherwise, means it should be held in a fair court or evidence presented to a fair DA and that DA, judge or jury decides.  Not the public, and especially not some grandstanding prosecutor.

Unfortunately, that means the public only sees one side of the story.

[The Sisko]

Alabama officer kept job after proposal to murder black man and hide evidence

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/04/alabama-police-officer-murder-black-man-self-defense

A police officer in Alabama proposed murdering a black resident and creating bogus evidence to suggest the killing was in self-defence, the Guardian has learned.

Officer Troy Middlebrooks kept his job and continues to patrol Alexander City after authorities there paid the man $35,000 to avoid being publicly sued over the incident. Middlebrooks, a veteran of the US marines, said the man “needs a god damn bullet” and allegedly referred to him as “that "n-word"”, after becoming frustrated that the man was not punished more harshly over a prior run-in...

Metro detective gets probation in alleged prostitute attack

http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/metro-detective-gets-probation-alleged-prostitute-attack

A Las Vegas police detective accused in an attack on a prostitute was sentenced Thursday to three years probation. Michael Kitchen pleaded guilty last month to attempt theft, a gross misdemeanor. That charge would be reduced to misdemeanor battery, should he complete probation.

The original charges against Kitchen — battery with intent to commit sexual assault resulting in substantial bodily harm, battery with intent to commit a crime, robbery, and attempted sexual assault — carried the possibility of life in prison...

[PleaseBlitz]

Zachary Hammond autopsy challenges police account of fatal shooting

 

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/05/zachary-hammond-autopsy-police-killing-south-carolina

 

An independent autopsy acquired by the Guardian concludes that 19-year-old Zachary Hammond, who was shot and killed by a police officer in Seneca, South Carolina, was shot from the side – challenging the officer’s account of the killing.

 

Attorney Eric Bland, who represents the Hammond family, said the independent autopsy raises questions about the police account, which said that Hammond was driving his vehicle at the officer who fired on him.

 

“When he [the officer] shot, it was physically impossible for the car to hit him because he’s next to him [Hammond],” Bland told the Guardian. “So unless a hurricane comes and blows the car over, it’s physically impossible for him to be hit by a car at that point.”

[DogofWar1]

Now, all that said, I will say, in reference to why a cop is not charged or is found not guilty, is the cop didn't actually do anything wrong.

 

Lack of a charge against an officer does not necessarily mean no wrong conduct occurred.

 

A clear example would be when cases against arrested individuals are thrown out on Constitutional grounds.  Cops are very rarely punished for relatively "minor" infractions like illegal searches or illegal custodial interrogations; you've generally got to do something egregious and violent to actually be punished.  If a case is dismissed because a cop performed an illegal search, the cop clearly did something wrong.  However, the cop isn't likely to be charged with anything.  The case is dismissed, and that's it.

 

There are also two key reasons why even when abuses are actual, real, and illegal, that they may not be charged.

 

First, the people you talk about, the cops, the police department, the prosecutor; they are all co-workers.  They're as close as any long-time co-workers; probably closer actually, since their job involves potentially dangerous situations which encourages closeness and camaraderie.  Even the police to prosecutor connection is almost co-worker-esque, the prosecutors work a courtroom, and when cases come up they get the information from the police.  They see these guys fairly often, and are on the same side, with the prosecutor trying to get a conviction for the guy the police arrested.  When there's misconduct that *could* be charged against an officer, it means that all those friend connections have to be severed, possibly permanently.  Most people wouldn't call the cops on their good friends; maybe they don't actively participate in a friend's wrongdoing, but they probably don't call the cops either.  Same concept here.

 

Police go to bat for each other, even when they shouldn't.  The other officers on the scene of the Sam DuBose shooting initially lied to sync up their stories with the officer who shot DuBose.  Those friend bonds are strong.

 

Second, the evidence of wrongdoing is generally in the hands of parties friendly to the offending officer.  Dash cams and body cams are under police control.  One of the key concerns with expanding body cam use is how do we prevent officers from turning it off or deleting videos.  The balance of evidence is changing though, with the growth of smartphone use, and it's why we only now have been able to grasp the full depth and breadth of the problem, and understand that we need more Body Cams to fill the gaps where citizens don't have cameras.  Videos can't lie; while what is seen may interpreted differently by different people, we cannot change the objective activities that occurred and were filmed.  Unless all police encounters are filmed and the films made readily available to all the parties involved (cops, defendants, judges, attorneys, etc.) we will still have plenty of situations where the evidence is under the control of police.  That won't always, or even often lead to abuses, but it does allow for abuses to happen.  If officer wrongdoing is on film controlled by the police, the odds of getting it is not 100%, unfortunately.

 

We even have cops that try to delete private citizen videos:

- http://www.rt.com/usa/248761-police-assault-delete-video/

- http://www.click2houston.com/news/officer-accused-of-trying-to-destroy-cell-phone-video-of-confrontation/30146490

- https://news.vice.com/article/denver-police-attempted-to-delete-video-of-cop-pummeling-unarmed-drug-suspect-tripping-pregnant-woman

 

When alleged misconduct happens without video/audio evidence, it often becomes a "he said, she said" situation.  The vast and overwhelming majority of the time, the officer is viewed as and held to be the more trustworthy party.  This has been abused in the past by bad cops, and other cops cover for them, and prosecutors are often left in the dark on that, and don't tend to question the police since they have to work with them essentially daily.

 

There's a LOT that goes into actually charging an officer and many of the things that have to happen are often not done because it's too much trouble (charging over Constitutional violations), but even when it's not, you've got a lot of evidentiary barriers and cliques to overcome.

[The Sisko]

^^This. I think the ideas proposed earlier that cops aren't charged/convicted because they're innocent all the time and that the articles posted about cops being convicted of misconduct show the system is working are naive. More often, the issue just gets swept under the rug as with the article I posted above about the cop planning a murder who's still on the force and this...

Heavy toll, light penalties for police who drive drunk

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/06/off-duty-police-face-drunken-driving-charges-and-lenient-treatment-with-surprising-frequency/KaH7EiTyoWx88dsLZpIaHM/story.html

[NY] STILL-A-COP??? Schenectady police officer John Lewis arrested SIXTH time

http://behindthebluewall.blogspot.com/2010/01/ny-still-cop-schenectady-police-officer.html?m=1

[Xameil]

Yeah, there are some bad apples in the Schenectady dept. However, there are many more good ones and ones that deserve respect. I lived in a rather bad neighborhood (several gangs) in schenectady and the cops there have to be ready for anything. In the past month there have been several shootings in the same area. I have also witnessed a cop who was trying to peacefully settle a HUGE neiborhood fight get jumped on by the leader of the group. Also another cop recently was hospitalized after getting his ass kicked while on duty.

There used to be alot more corruption in the Schenectady department until the State stepped in. Now the story you posted is one of the few.

Sad that a couple of bad apples in the department make the jobs of the other officers harder

[The Sisko]

There are some good cops out there. I'd dare say the vast majority of them are IF one discounts the fact that they're all too willing to turn a blind eye to brutality and other misconduct by their fellow officers. 

 

The case below is interesting because the family has asked rightfully, where's the outrage? It seems their question is directed at the #Blacklivesmatter movement but it's also interesting that the only time the #Alllivesmatter folks have anything to say is in response to the #Blacklivesmatter movement. Rarely if ever do they express any outrage when something like the case below happens. It does beg the question, if all lives matter, where are they in this and other cases? Could it be that they're not really concerned with preventing police brutality for everyone, but rather with supporting the idea that cops should be able to operate with impunity?

 

I may be in the minority among the #Blacklivesmatter crowd but I for one, am equally outraged when this happens to anyone. The only thing that affects my level of outrage is the degree to which the victim was brutalized and the degree to which the officer completely disregarded the rights of the victim and the law. Black and other people of color bear a disproportionate share of police brutality and misconduct but it should never happen to anyone, of any race. As I've said before, we won't really be on the way to solving this problem until White people realize they are just as subject to this kind of treatment as anyone else, albeit at a somewhat lower risk.

 

South Carolina officer shoots unarmed white teen during pot bust

(CNN)You think you've heard this story before. A young, unarmed man is gunned down by police, black activists are outraged -- the only difference with this scenario is that the young man is not black, he's white.

Nineteen-year-old Zachary Hammond was on a date July 26 when he was fatally shot twice by a police officer while at the back parking lot of a Hardee's fast food restaurant in Seneca, a city 40 miles from Greenville, near the North Carolina border, according to Eric Bland, the attorney representing the teen's family.

The Seneca Police Department said the officer was conducting a drug investigation and shot Hammond in self-defense.

"He was a uniformed officer, he was in a marked vehicle, was out of his vehicle on foot approaching the suspect vehicle -- weapon drawn given it was a narcotics type violation," Seneca Police Chief John Covington said to CNN affiliate WHNS.

A small amount of marijuana was found in the front passenger's compartment in Hammond's car.

"He was a 19-year-old, 121-pound kid killed basically for a joint," Bland said...

...Bland said Hammond's wounds indicate the vehicle was not moving, and the teen was shot on the rear of his shoulder and on the side of his chest. The Hammond family commissioned an independent autopsy, which found the teen's gunshot wounds indicated he was shot from behind and at close range.

 

[TradeTheBeal!]

Killed for a 20 bag. Real nice work ,South Carolina. Much like North Korea, let's hope they never get nukes.

[Gamebreaker]

Well that decides it, I'm avoiding South Carolina for the forseeable future.

Edited August 8, 2015 by Gamebreaker

[PleaseBlitz]

"Covington said the officer was attempting to arrest Hammond when the teen accelerated the car and drove toward the officer, prompting the officer to shoot in self-defense."

 

Wouldn't getting out of the way be more effective self defense than shooting the driver?  Better shoot him in the brain and hope it causes his legs to spasm and hit the breaks.

Edited August 7, 2015 by PleaseBlitz

[TradeTheBeal!]

"Covington said the officer was attempting to arrest Hammond when the teen accelerated the car and drove toward the officer, prompting the officer to shoot in self-defense."

 

Wouldn't getting out of the way be more effective self defense than shooting the driver?  Better you shoot him in the brain and hope it causes his legs to spasm and hit the breaks.

The unbelievable tension associated with running an undercover sting to bust teenage pot dealers in a Taco Bell parking lot can really affect your decision making abilities. It's the modern equivalent of being a "Tunnel Rat" in Vietnam. Only the very bravest among us would ever attempt such a dangerous mission....for $45K a year + benefits.

[PF Chang]

We will respond by maintaining our ridiculous drug laws which consider marijuana to be as dangerous as heroin. 

[MrSilverMaC]

Wouldn't getting out of the way be more effective self defense than shooting the driver? Better shoot him in the brain and hope it causes his legs to spasm and hit the breaks.

Apparently he did since he shot the kid in the back.

But we have to give the officer some slack, the girlfriend was wielding an ice cream cone. That officer was in danger of a brain freeze.

Edited August 7, 2015 by MrSilverMaC

[PleaseBlitz]

Apparently he did since he shot the kid in the back.

 

 

 

Touche.

[MrSilverMaC]

Touche.

It was buried in the middle of a few long articles, easy to miss.

[PleaseBlitz]

It was buried in the middle of a few long articles, easy to miss.

 

Oh, i read it (i actually posted it first, post 709).  I just meant, i guess it's not EITHER jump out of the way OR shoot the guy.  You can do both if you just disregard the standards for appropriate use of force. 

[twa]

Oh, i read it (i actually posted it first, post 709).  I just meant, i guess it's not EITHER jump out of the way OR shoot the guy.  You can do both if you just disregard the standards for appropriate use of force. 

 

could be both and appropriate.....time will tell

[PleaseBlitz]

could be both and appropriate.....time will tell

 

No, i don't think it can be.  The standard for use of deadly force is "when the person or people in question are believed to be an immediate danger."  This is from a Supreme Court case called Tennessee v. Garner which goes on to say "deadly force...may not be used unless necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_v._Garner

 

The hypothetical cop just moved out of the way of the car.  It is now moving in a direction that is not towards him anymore, therefore he is not in immediate danger, as cars cannot change directions instantaneously.  At that point he shoots the kid, killing him. 

Edited August 7, 2015 by PleaseBlitz

[MrSilverMaC]

could be both and appropriate.....time will tell

Pretty sure the independent forensics team determined that the car wasn't moving. That already makes the officer a liar. But of course as I pointed out, he did have the gf's ice cream cone to content with. That's worth shooting a y.o 19 in the back for if there was ever a reason.

Oh, i read it (i actually posted it first, post 709). I just meant, i guess it's not EITHER jump out of the way OR shoot the guy. You can do both if you just disregard the standards for appropriate use of force.

What good are standards if you can't disregard them at the crucial moment they were implemented for? Edited August 7, 2015 by MrSilverMaC