Slashdot Mirror
Suspect Freed After Exposing Cop's Facebook Status
longacre writes "A man on trial in New York for possession of a weapon has been acquitted after subpoenaing his arresting officer's Facebook and MySpace accounts. His defense: Officer Vaughan Ettienne's MySpace 'mood' was set to 'devious' on the day of the arrest, and one day a few weeks before the trial, his Facebook status read 'Vaughan is watching "Training Day" to brush up on proper police procedure.' From the article: '"You have your Internet persona, and you have what you actually do on the street," Officer Ettienne said on Tuesday. "What you say on the Internet is all bravado talk, like what you say in a locker room." Except that trash talk in locker rooms almost never winds up preserved on a digital server somewhere, available for subpoena.'"
Arresting officers literally have a checklist that they use to fill out their reports. They try to hit every bullet point they can, and they tend to trump up charges. This is why the reports always sound identical -- because "slurring" and "staggering" are terms recognized within law.
Consider that many cops were once soldiers, who honed their skills in Iraq -- utilizing basic Fascist tactics and protocols, like occupying people's homes, holding without cause, and warrant-less searches. I trust the police to be honest no more than I trust an employee of Best Buy to be honest...actually, less.
"Someone booked for DUI will always be slurring their speech, staggering, have bloodshot eyes, etc. Someone booked for resisting arrest will always have been waving his arms and cursing, etc. This isn't because all the offenses are the same. It's because the officer's testimony has no relation to the truth."
Ballocks.
Utter ballocks.
Of course the alternative reason that the stories are similar is because...they're similar circumstances. Doh? People intoxicated enough to affect their driving visibly ALSO usually tend to have slurred speech, if they can't steer straight they tend to stagger when standing.
Lots and lots and lots of posts here about how unfair cops are. Yep, truly a 'who watches the watchmen' situation, but hardly new.
Of course, I've never hung out with dirtbags, never associated with people with publicly-known criminal records, never mouthed off to a cop, never done drugs, so I'm sure it's just COINCIDENCE that this never happened to me?
-Styopa