I was reading a story about 4 police officers that were charged for beating an undercover cop during some protests in 2017 (St. Louis Post Dispatch story). While I think that this is a clear example of a controversial encounter between the police and somebody they thought was a civilian, the part that gave me pause was the text messages between the indicted police officers. You can read a larger selection at the bottom of the linked article, but some of the correspondence is just over the top. How are these people in these positions? They are supposed to serve the populace. Fuck.
*Operation Lucky Bag began in 2006, supposedly as a way for police to put away people with existing rap sheets. Undercover officers would plant a bag, usually with money or other valuables inside, in a public place. They’d wait for someone to “steal” the planted property then make an arrest.
In 2013, several people adversely affected by Operation Lucky Bag filed a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD.
“I just don’t understand why this is still going on in this city—I really don’t,” Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Melissa Crane said during (an) arraignment hearing. … of the first 220 people arrested after the program’s implementation in February 2006, more than half did not have a prior criminal record.*
So they set up the stings to sweep up habitual criminals, but it turns into a typical catch-everyone operation.
And what they were being arrested for wasn’t even a crime. While the law does require you to turn in found property like this, it doesn’t require you to turn it in to the first cop you see on the street. Some of the people arrested argued—pretty damn plausibly—that they were going to take the bag to a police station or try to contact the owner themselves. I found a couple of credit cards a a drivers license, along with about $40 in cash, on thee National Mall in Washington DC some years ago. I stuck it in an envelope and mailed it to the address on the driver’s license. Got a very nice note in reply.
In the close competition for America’s Worst State, Arizona stakes its claim once again with this case of police brutality.
The officer most involved “was suspended for 30 hours and remains an active officer on the force.” But of course, there’s no institutional component to police misconduct; it’s just a few bad apples.
I came to post this. The incident was in July 2017 and it’s coming up now because the victim is suing. Only question is, what took him so long.
The afternoon drive talk show guys put on their retired go-to cop who said, “Man, if you’ve tasered someone even two times and it hasn’t resolved the situation, you need to switch to a different tactic, and that last one is just…” and couldn’t finish the sentence.
What a horrific story. I recommend that people read the whole article, even though it’s quite long.
Not sure where you got the 30-hour suspension, though. If you scroll to the end, you’ll see that the junior officer, Nesto, who did not know what the woman had reported, and who did not turn off her bodycam, received a 10-day suspension.
Officer Landucci received a 90-day suspension, in an agreement between him, the police chief, and the police union.
The third officer, Cedeno, was not punished because, while the investigation was proceeding, he was injured in an on-duty car accident and left the force. The department is obligated to report the fact that he was under investigation to any other law enforcement organization that he might apply to in the future.
These cops should be subject to criminal prosecution, in my opinion, and should also be sued down to their underwear. Prosecutors don’t seem interested in the former possibility, and qualified immunity will probably protect them from the latter.
I cannot wrap my head around this. Ignored a victim, threw away a weapon, did not run the name for warrants, turned off body cams…any one of those should be grounds for dismissal for general incompetence and stupidity. This is the kind of thing that should cripple a department. These officers should fired, the officers that trained and supervised them should fired.
*Mykel Mosley walked out of the Vancouver Mall and saw something that made him angry: a pickup flying what he says was a Donald Trump flag. The African-American teenager yelled out an obscenity about Trump.
Two men got out of the truck, and chased Mosley, one of them spinning him briefly to the ground. A video, posted online, shows some of the May 11 confrontation and its aftermath — including [COLOR=“Red”]Mosley’s being turned over by mall guards to police who arrested him.*[/COLOR]
It seems that yelling “Fuck Trump!” is a crime, but physically attacking the person who yells it is expected and OK. I mean, I have been in Vancouver USA a few times, but never really noticed how much of a disgusting shithole it is.
(One of the attackers mention there is Toese – but he is one of them “Proud Boys”, so his fuckwipery and violence is countenanced.)
Well, at least we haven’t fully transformed into the DPRK (yet) where deprecating Dear Leader gets you shot out of hand. As I said in another thread, can shooting a par 38 and doesn’t shit be far behind?