E'ville cop GUILTY!

[LOsborne]

Well, would ya lookie here:

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/jul/27/montgomery-wont-testify-trial-defense-rests-withou/

It seems the get-outa-jail-blow-job will no longer be a standard police tactic here in the Devil's Playground. Hats off to the two women (among dozens who've been there) who had the courage to bring charges.

[Palehorse]

To paraphrase Joe - - - "Now there's a friggin' surprise!"

[The Troll]

Well, would ya lookie here:

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2010/jul/27/montgomery-wont-testify-trial-defense-rests-withou/

It seems the get-outa-jail-blow-job will no longer be a standard police tactic here in the Devil's Playground. Hats off to the two women (among dozens who've been there) who had the courage to bring charges.

  Is it me, or is there more meathead and bully cops than there was when I was younger.  Damn I hate the new paramilitary, thugs they call officer, police officers, peace officers.  I call they meathead thugs and revenue collectors.

[Palehorse]

Some of this nations most prolific criminals carry a badge and a firearm.

[Henry Hawk]

and so do many, many, many fantastic, brave, honest, hard-working Americans....

[The Troll]

and so do many, many, many fantastic, brave, honest, hard-working Americans....

  Tell me one who hasn't streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech the law for himself.  None.

[Henry Hawk]

  Tell me one who hasn't streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech the law for himself.  None.

Define that.....are you talking about a cop who may park in a no parking zone to eat lunch or are you talking about something MUCH bigger?

that would be like a factory worker bringing home work gloves to use at home....

it just pisses me off how most of you guys on here are SO down with our law enforcement because of a few bad apples....you find bad apples in EVERY work place you look....I'm not protecting the asshole cops who abuse and violate their powers....but the VAST, and I say VAST majority of those guys are extremely decent human beings...and I for one am very grateful to those who "chose" to serve...

[The Troll]

Define that.....are you talking about a cop who may park in a no parking zone to eat lunch or are you talking about something MUCH bigger?

that would be like a factory worker bringing home work gloves to use at home....

it just pisses me off how most of you guys on here are SO down with our law enforcement because of a few bad apples....you find bad apples in EVERY work place you look....I'm not protecting the asshole cops who abuse and violate their powers....but the VAST, and I say VAST majority of those guys are extremely decent human beings...and I for one am very grateful to those who "chose" to serve...

   Or like the engineers who took pens and pencils, and goes into the plant to tradesmen and ask for valves and fittings and other "little small things" to fix something at home.  How about them.  I knew them.  There were a lot and I helped them and I didn't turn them in.  Gloves, I bought them for my plumbing business by the dozen lots off my wholesaler.  The same with fitting, hoses and the other things if bought and took them off my taxes.

  So don't give me that old bull shit about all of the good cops.  I have meet few.  Right now I can think of two that are living.  And all of that bull shit,  "to serve the people.  The people I knew that became cops, loved that power to bully, guns and were natural nib-shits always wanting to stick their nose in someone elses business.  All cops and I do mean All Cops love that power to intimidate, bully and the authority.  All of them.

[Y]

...it just pisses me off how most of you guys on here are SO down with our law enforcement because of a few bad apples....you find bad apples in EVERY work place you look....I'm not protecting the asshole cops who abuse and violate their powers....but the VAST, and I say VAST majority of those guys are extremely decent human beings...and I for one am very grateful to those who "chose" to serve...

Unfortunately, Hank, as on most political and social things you expound upon, you don't know what you're talking about.

And, as usual, you have it bass-ackwards.  When you understand all the actions that encompass police corruption and misconduct, and how extremely difficult it is to root out with our present system, you should understand that it runs rampant in America.  Here area couple of short reads which, hopefully in some small part, will enlighten you:

Police Corruption and Misconduct - History, Contemporary Problems, Further Readings
Police, Law, Civil, Misconduct, Federal, Officers, Rights, and State

The violation of state and federal laws or the violation of individuals' constitutional rights by police officers; also when police commit crimes for personal gain.

Police misconduct and corruption are abuses of police authority. Sometimes used interchangeably, the terms refer to a wide range of procedural, criminal, and civil violations. Misconduct is the broadest category. Misconduct is "procedural" when it refers to police who violate police department rules and regulations; "criminal" when it refers to police who violate state and federal laws; "unconstitutional" when it refers to police who violate a citizen's CIVIL RIGHTS; or any combination thereof. Common forms of misconduct are excessive use of physical or DEADLY FORCE, discriminatory arrest, physical or verbal harassment, and selective enforcement of the law.

Police corruption is the abuse of police authority for personal gain. Corruption may involve profit or another type of material benefit gained illegally as a consequence of the officer's authority. Typical forms of corruption include BRIBERY, EXTORTION, receiving or fencing stolen goods, and selling drugs. The term also refers to patterns of misconduct within a given police department or special unit, particularly where offenses are repeated with the acquiescence of superiors or through other ongoing failure to correct them.

Safeguards against police misconduct exist throughout the law. Police departments themselves establish codes of conduct, train new recruits, and investigate and discipline officers, sometimes in cooperation with civilian complaint review boards which are intended to provide independent evaluative and remedial advice. Protections are also found in state law, which permits victims to sue police for damages in civil actions. Typically, these actions are brought for claims such as the use of excessive force ("police brutality"), false arrest and imprisonment, MALICIOUS PROSECUTION, and WRONGFUL DEATH. State actions may be brought simultaneously with additional claims for constitutional violations.

Through both criminal and civil statutes, federal law specifically targets police misconduct. Federal law is applicable to all state, county, and local officers, including those who work in correctional facilities. The key federal criminal statute makes it unlawful for anyone acting with police authority to deprive or conspire to deprive another person of any right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States (Section 18 U.S.C. § 241 [2000]). Another statute, commonly referred to as the police misconduct provision, makes it unlawful for state or local police to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct that deprives persons of their rights (42 U.S.C.A. 14141 [2000]).

Additionally, federal law prohibits discrimination in police work. Any police department receiving federal funding is covered by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. § 2000d) and the Office of Justice Programs statute (42 U.S.C. § 3789d[c]), which prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion. These laws prohibit conduct ranging from racial slurs and unjustified arrests to the refusal of departments to respond to discrimination complaints.

Because neither the federal criminal statute nor the civil police misconduct provision provides for lawsuits by individuals, only the federal government may bring suit under these laws. Enforcement is the responsibility of the JUSTICE DEPARTMENT. Criminal convictions are punishable by fines and imprisonment. Civil convictions are remedied through injunctive relief, a type of court order that requires a change in behavior; typically, resolutions in such cases force police departments to stop abusive practices, institute types of reform, or submit to court supervision.

Private litigation against police officers or departments is difficult. Besides time and expense, a significant hurdle to success is found in the legal protections that police enjoy. Since the late twentieth century, many court decisions have expanded the powers of police to perform routine stops and searches. Plaintiffs generally must prove willful or unlawful conduct on the part of police; showing mere NEGLIGENCE or other failure of due care by police officers often does not suffice in court.

Most problematically of all for plaintiffs, police are protected by the defense of immunity—an exemption from penalties and burdens that the law generally places on other citizens. This IMMUNITY is limited, unlike the absolute immunity enjoyed by judges or legislators. In theory, the defense allows police to do their job without fear of REPRISAL. In practice, however, it has become increasingly difficult for individuals to sue law enforcement officers for damages for allegedly violating their civil rights. U.S. Supreme Court decisions have continually asserted the general rule that officers must be given the benefit of the doubt that they acted lawfully in carrying out their day-to-day duties, a position reasserted in Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 121 S. Ct. 2151, 150 L. Ed. 2d 272 (2001).[/b]

Police Corruption and Misconduct - Contemporary Problems

Despite legal safeguards and well-intentioned reforms, police problems have continued to produce headlines. The exact scope of misconduct is unknown. Misconduct complaints can be quantified on a city-by-city basis, but these data are often subjective, and far more complaints are filed than ever are evaluated at trial. Corruption is even harder to measure. As the National Institute of Justice acknowledged in its May 2000 report, The Measurement of Police Integrity, most corruption incidents go unreported, and data that do exist "are best regarded as measures of a police agency's anticorruption activity, not the actual level of corruption."

During the late 1990s, highly-publicized cases in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Detroit, and Cleveland exposed an apparently new trend: police drug corruption. In the Cleveland case alone, the FBI arrested 42 officers from five law enforcement agencies in 1998 on charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. In a 1998 report to U.S. Congressman Charles B. Rangel, the federal GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE (GAO) found evidence of growing police involvement in drug sales, theft of drugs and money from drug dealers, and perjured testimony about illegal searches. The GAO survey of police commission reports and academic research suggested a troubling new dimension previously not seen in studies of police corruption. Traditionally, police corruption had been understood to involve individuals acting alone, but the new trend revealed officers working in small groups to protect and assist each other.

In 1999, this pattern emerged in one of the worst police corruption scandals in U.S. history. The scandal involved the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart precinct and particularly its elite anti-gang unit, CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums). Following local and federal investigations, CRASH was dismantled, some 70 officers were investigated, and several either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of crimes ranging from drug theft and peddling to assault, fabricating arrests, and filing false reports.

The Rampart scandal bore heavy costs, financially as well as in human terms. Several dozen criminal convictions credited to the work of the corrupt officers were overturned. By 2003, the city had already paid $40 million to settle lawsuits. In a settlement with the federal government in 2000, the Los Angeles City Council accepted a CONSENT DECREE that placed the city's police department under the supervision of a federal judge for five years to implement and monitor reforms.

However, reform is no panacea. Even New York City's extensive reforms were called into doubt by two high-profile police cases in the 1990s. Both highlighted the difficulties inherent in prosecuting even apparently clear-cut misconduct. The first, in 1997, involved Haitian immigrant Abner Louima, who was shockingly beaten in a police cruiser and sodomized in a bathroom with a broom handle by four NYPD officers. Louima ultimately settled a civil case against the department for $8.7 million in 2001, one of the highest police brutality settlements ever paid and the highest by New York City since paying a $3 million settlement in the choking death of Anthony Baez in 1994.

Yet, despite much public frustration, prosecution of the officers was less conclusive. Officer Justin Volpe pleaded guilty to leading the SODOMY assault and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. However, in 1999, his fellow three officers were acquitted on charges of assault in the police cruiser; one of them, officer Charles Schwarz, was convicted of violating Louima's civil rights for holding him down during the bathroom assault. In 2000, all three were convicted of obstructing justice for their actions in covering up evidence of the attack, but these convictions were later overturned in United States v. Schwarz, 283 F.3d 76 (2d Cir. 2002). Ordered a new trial on the civil rights charge, Schwarz reached a plea bargain in September 2002, agreeing to be sentenced to a 5-year prison term.

The second New York controversy involved the killing in 1999 of an unarmed man. Four undercover police officers shot Amadou Diallo 41 times after stopping the Guinean immigrant in the vestibule of his apartment building, where, they said, he reached into his back pocket. Large public protests attracted activists such as Susan Sarandon and former New York mayor David Dinkins, who argued that the department's so-called Aggressive Street Crimes Unit was in fact far too aggressive. In 2000, the four officers were acquitted in a trial that supporters said vindicated them but which critics blamed on lax prosecution.

Outside the courts, mounting resentment over discriminatory misconduct by police officers has occasionally led to rioting. In contemporary experience, the Los Angeles riots in 1992 followed the acquittal of white police officers charged with the videotaped beating of black motorist RODNEY KING. In April 2001, three days of rioting in Cincinnati followed the acquittal of a white police officer on charges of shooting Timothy Thomas, a 19-year old unarmed black man.

Cities, courts, police departments, and criminologists all continue to examine ways to bring meaningful reform to police departments. Some critics have argued that misconduct and corruption are age-old problems that resist all efforts at eradication; the best society can do, in this view, is monitor and correct. Others trace recent problems to public policy that emphasizes aggressive policing of drug, gang, and street crimes. Whatever the cause and the solution, until more efficacious remedies are found, some citizens will still require protection from the very people appointed to protect and serve them.

...And all of that bull shit,  "to serve the people.  The people I knew that became cops, loved that power to bully, guns and were natural nib-shits always wanting to stick their nose in someone elses business.  All cops and I do mean All Cops love that power to intimidate, bully and the authority.  All of them.

Troll has his finger on the pulse of the problem - the 'power trip'. 

I've seen no evidence which supports the idea that, generally, normal well-adjusted persons are the ones becoming, or remaining, LEOs - and reams of evidence that points out that they aren't.

[LOsborne]

Y, you are busy handing out surprises today. I never expected to find anyone on here who shares my view that the personality traits which make a person want to be a cop, are the same ones that make a psychopath. One division of my company provides "executive" security. Ya oughta see the applicants I get! I make my people do the pre-screening interviews in pairs, for their own protection.

For the record, the people I hire for this division have much more in common with Wal-mart greeters than with soldiers. They must genuinely like people, and display NOT ONE knee-jerk reaction to the little test scenarios we set up. In the years I've been here, none of them has discharged a weapon outside the range where they re-qualify every four months. I do get the occasional complaint from a client that they aren't "forceful" enough. I always ask, "have you had suffered any injuries or losses?" Invariably, the response is "well.... no."

[The Troll]

Y, you are busy handing out surprises today. I never expected to find anyone on here who shares my view that the personality traits which make a person want to be a cop, are the same ones that make a psychopath. One division of my company provides "executive" security. Ya oughta see the applicants I get! I make my people do the pre-screening interviews in pairs, for their own protection.

For the record, the people I hire for this division have much more in common with Wal-mart greeters than with soldiers. They must genuinely like people, and display NOT ONE knee-jerk reaction to the little test scenarios we set up. In the years I've been here, none of them has discharged a weapon outside the range where they re-qualify every four months. I do get the occasional complaint from a client that they aren't "forceful" enough. I always ask, "have you had suffered any injuries or losses?" Invariably, the response is "well.... no."

  Ho did you see this last Sunday on MSNBC in the afternoon "Sunday News"  Where they have two lawyers talking about the miscarriages of laws.

  The first one was this man have collected old pin ball machines and other arcade machine and opened a Arcade Museum.  He operated for 3 years when he received a notice from the city counsel that he had to close his store or face a $1000 a day fine.  Someone found a law from 1943 that made pin ball machines illegal.  This man had put all of his money into his store and was a popular destination for tourist.

  When they interview a counsel member why this was, the said that took time in government to make decision in matter like this.  Give me a break.

  But the cases of all cases of Police abuse and bulling power.  This motorcyclist was pulling up to a stop light when a civilian car and a man in civilian clothes gets out with a loaded Glock Automatic pistol, with his finger in the trigger guard and gave the motorcyclist a ticket for speeding.

  End of deal?  No.  Guy with cycle has camera in helmet and tapes all of this. and puts it on the internet.

  The next day a judge signed search warrant is served on cycleguy and his house is searched and all of his computer equipment is taken as evidence.   He is arrested for breaking the law of taping the voice of the officer without his permission.  A possible 60 year prison sentence. 

  Both lawyers said this was definitely a over reach of the law and said, they would like to know the judges name that signed the warrant and would sue the butt off the cop.

  Like I said, they are all bullies, thugs and meathead.

[Locutus]

Y, you are busy handing out surprises today. I never expected to find anyone on here who shares my view that the personality traits which make a person want to be a cop, are the same ones that make a psychopath. One division of my company provides "executive" security. Ya oughta see the applicants I get! I make my people do the pre-screening interviews in pairs, for their own protection.

For the record, the people I hire for this division have much more in common with Wal-mart greeters than with soldiers. They must genuinely like people, and display NOT ONE knee-jerk reaction to the little test scenarios we set up. In the years I've been here, none of them has discharged a weapon outside the range where they re-qualify every four months. I do get the occasional complaint from a client that they aren't "forceful" enough. I always ask, "have you had suffered any injuries or losses?" Invariably, the response is "well.... no."

You've now found two people who share that view.  I've always maintained that it takes the same mentality to be a cop as it does to be a criminal.  The only difference twixt the two is which side of the law they're operating under.

[Anne]

 

  Ho did you see this last Sunday on MSNBC in the afternoon "Sunday News"  Where they have two lawyers talking about the miscarriages of laws.

  The first one was this man have collected old pin ball machines and other arcade machine and opened a Arcade Museum.  He operated for 3 years when he received a notice from the city counsel that he had to close his store or face a $1000 a day fine.  Someone found a law from 1943 that made pin ball machines illegal.  This man had put all of his money into his store and was a popular destination for tourist.

  When they interview a counsel member why this was, the said that took time in government to make decision in matter like this.  Give me a break.

  But the cases of all cases of Police abuse and bulling power.  This motorcyclist was pulling up to a stop light when a civilian car and a man in civilian clothes gets out with a loaded Glock Automatic pistol, with his finger in the trigger guard and gave the motorcyclist a ticket for speeding.

  End of deal?  No.  Guy with cycle has camera in helmet and tapes all of this. and puts it on the internet.

  The next day a judge signed search warrant is served on cycleguy and his house is searched and all of his computer equipment is taken as evidence.   He is arrested for breaking the law of taping the voice of the officer without his permission.  A possible 60 year prison sentence. 

  Both lawyers said this was definitely a over reach of the law and said, they would like to know the judges name that signed the warrant and would sue the butt off the cop.

  Like I said, they are all bullies, thugs and meathead.

Should be easy enough to find out. The warrent has to be shown to the person who is being served and he could suppy the information or get a copy from the courthouse. In Indiana it is illegal to tape anyone without their knowledge.

[Anne]

You've now found two people who share that view.  I've always maintained that it takes the same mentality to be a cop as it does to be a criminal.  The only difference twixt the two is which side of the law they're operating under.

But that is a great big difference.

[followsthewolf]

Sounds like a wholesale indictment to me.

I must have been fortunate; in my experience, I haven't encountered such huge numbers of sadistic law enforcement officers as all of you seem to have known.

Unless, of course, they were directed by those who were duly elected by the people to direct that enforcement arm of the executive branch.

Matter of fact, I owe my life to the actions of several law enforcement officers, who put themselves in harm's way to help.

And, geez. They didn't even know me.

Isn't that strange.