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[LakeEarth]

... the officer asked if he and his partner could search the car.

The officers found ...

Goddamn it. I know it's one's first instinct, but you have nothing to gain by saying yes.

 

[siddx]

Sickening and disgusting. And it's also infuriating because it damages the reputations of the cops who are dedicated and moral. When people are at a point where they say silly naive things like "disband the police force" you know it's gotten really really bad. And all those cops doing their job with honor and not abusing their power suffer from their shitty criminal co-workers who deserve a jail cell not a badge.

 

[The Adder]

Goddamn it. I know it's one's first instinct, but you have nothing to gain by saying yes.

Except not getting shot.

 

[BigDug13]

It's becoming more and more evident that the US is not the place to call home any longer. Making myself worldwide marketable and getting the F out has been my priority.

 

[MidgarBlowedUp]

Every cop should be required to have audio and or video recording of every thing they do while on the clock. Not their breaks or anything just every time they stop and question someone.

 

[Piecake]

Holy shit. What happened to that child? This is so abhorrent. Wow.

Probably sold it for cash.

Seriously though, what probably happened was they turned the kid over to child protective services. That is what the first town threatened to do to that family is throw them in jail and take their kids if they didnt give them all of their money. Well, one parent must have called their bluff (it wasnt), got arrested and had their kid go into CPS.

Every cop should be required to have audio and or video recording of every thing they do while on the clock. Not their breaks or anything just every time they stop and question someone.

There apparently has to be a pretty severe punishment or else shit like this will probably happen.

The Cop from the first town:

The lawyers figured that such misconduct had already been recorded. In Tenaha, the police station and cars were outfitted with video-surveillance equipment. And Boatright, for one, said that on the night of her detention Washington told her that the whole thing was being captured on film. Garrigan had requested footage of traffic stops made by Washington and his partner, along with related video from the station, but got nowhere. Then, after the Tenaha lawsuit caught the attention of the national media, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice launched its own criminal investigation into the alleged abuses. Several months later, in October, 2009, large stacks of optical disks were finally turned over. Garrigan and Guillory now had hundreds of hours of digital footage to sort through. Garrigan hired a colleague’s adult son to sit at a large oval wood-veneer table with a laptop and a supply of Starbucks, sorting through it all. (He’s still at it.)

Curiously, most of Barry Washington’s traffic stops were absent from the record. In those instances where Washington had turned on his dashboard camera, the video was often of such poor quality as to be “useless,” Garrigan says. There was hardly any footage of his clients, including Jennifer Boatright and Ron Henderson.

In James Morrow’s case, a sliver of video was identified from Constable Randy Whatley’s camera feed, which captured part of the man’s detention by the side of the road. Washington could be heard instructing Whatley, “Would you take your K-9? If he alerts on the vehicle, I’m gonna take his mama’s vehicle away from him, and I’m gonna take his money.”

“Oh, yeah,” Whatley replied. “O.K.”

“I’m gonna take his stuff from him,” Washington repeated.

The rest of the video was mostly muted, and a judge later deemed it “somewhat obscured by the placement of Washington’s car between the camera and Morrow’s car.”

Some useful footage turned up that involved one of their original plaintiffs, a soft-spoken man named Dale Agostini, who was born in Guyana and was the co-owner of an award-winning Caribbean restaurant in Washington, D.C., called Sweet Mango. In September, 2007, he and his fiancée had had their infant son taken from them hours after Barry Washington pulled them over for “traveling in left lane marked for passing only,” according to the police report. No evidence of drugs or other contraband was found, and neither parent had a criminal record. Even so, Washington seized a large sum of cash that Agostini, who has family in the area, said he’d brought with him to buy restaurant equipment at a local auction. Lynda Russell, the district attorney, then arrived at the scene, sending Agostini and his fiancée, a nursing student at the University of Maryland, to jail for the night.

He sure acted all high and mighty in his testimony, but on some level he knew he must be doing something wrong since didnt turn on the dashboard camera to record it.

Either that, or they thought what they were doing was right, but simply destroyed evidence since they werent willing to take the chance of being convicted.

Some great lawmen in that town, thats for sure.

 

[Parch]

The american legal system continues to be mind-boggling ridiculous, unfair, and corrupt a lot more often than it should.

 

[sooperkool]

Cops were the football players in high school

I'm offended, I was a football player in high school.

 

[commedieu]

I'm offended, I was a football player in high school.

So was I. I'm not offended because I'm not abusing people, like my friend, who was a roid headed jackass, who is now a sheriff and brags about the little mexicans he beats up.

You understand that unless specifically noted, most human conversations are pretty general.

 

[Cronox]

This is kind of nuts. The abuse by these policemen and the officials who support them is frankly embarrassing for a first world country. To the point where it's hard to do much but shake your head, because the fact that this exists, against common decency and sense, makes it seem almost impossible to fix.

 

[jaxword]

This is incredibly disgusting. I hope the whole thing blows wide open and people get canned.

The same thing is going to happen that happens to every policeman who breaks the rules.

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

Of course they're gonna prey on the poor. They don't have access to quality legal services.

This won't happen to a rich person without a fight from well paid lawyers.

And the fact that police are used for tax revenue is some Robin Hood shit. Taxes are terrible I get it. But cut services or raise taxes. Can't have your cake and eat it too.

That doesn't help working/middle/well-offs much, the ones who can be fired for that mark on their record or at best suffer brutal financial setback from having cars or even homes grabbed up on drug charges. When I heard of this from Barry Cooper turning on the Texas narcotics scene, I had never dreamed it would have not only survived but thrived into enforced bribery.

The same thing is going to happen that happens to every policeman who breaks the rules.

The ones on the books or the ones unwritten by the footpads doing this? Snitches get stiches no matter which side of the badge you're on when it's this corrupt.

 

[vikki]

Reading stuff like this really disturbs me. What do we do about something like this? I hate reading about the corruption in our legal system, but I also wonder what can we do? Is there anything?

 

[GaimeGuy]

My brother was arrested for marijuana possession and the $300 cash he had in his wallet was confiscated by the police. Lawyer told him that if he filed with the courts to get it back, there's a chance the prosecutor could deny it and pursue an intent to sell/distribute charge. So my brother chose not to pursue it.

This stuff isn't new, and the police and courts get away with it because of our "tough on crime" culture.

 

[Piecake]

My brother was arrested for marijuana possession and the $300 cash he had in his wallet was confiscated by the police. Lawyer told him that if he filed with the courts to get it back, there's a chance the prosecutor could deny it and pursue an intent to sell/distribute charge. So my brother chose not to pursue it.

This stuff isn't new, and the police and courts get away with it because of our "tough on crime" culture.

That sucks, but it sounds like there is a key difference between what happened to your brother and these cases. That being that they robbed your brother because they could get away with it and it would be their world against his. These cases are all about police departments and prosecutors using 'legal' means to confiscate people's property to enrich the department and/or themselves.

Hell, the first town is basically a shake-down operation. Give me all your money or we won't arrest you for doing nothing wrong. And the other cases are just absurd, like that philly where police could confiscate an old couple's house because their son sold some weed on the porch.

Its not just basic corruption, its using legal means to go far beyond that to basically ruin innocent people's lives by confiscating all of their money and property 'legally'

 

[entremet]

That doesn't help working/middle/well-offs much, the ones who can be fired for that mark on their record or at best suffer brutal financial setback from having cars or even homes grabbed up on drug charges. When I heard of this from Barry Cooper turning on the Texas narcotics scene, I had never dreamed it would have not only survived but thrived into enforced bribery.



The ones on the books or the ones unwritten by the footpads doing this? Snitches get stiches no matter which side of the badge you're on when it's this corrupt.

I don't consider middle class rich at all either. Good lawyers are very pricey and most middle class folk have a mortgage and barely 6 month of living of expenses in liquid assets.

 

[sooperkool]

So was I. I'm not offended because I'm not abusing people, like my friend, who was a roid headed jackass, who is now a sheriff and brags about the little mexicans he beats up.

You understand that unless specifically noted, most human conversations are pretty general.

Yep, I do. So I used a very general statement like, "I'm offended". But anyway, I don't want to take away from the conversation.

 

[-PXG-]

I'm literally sick to my stomach. This is beyond horrible