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$125,000 Settlement Given To Man Arrested for Photographing NYPD
mpicpp sends word of a $125,000 settlement for a man who was arrested for photographing members of the New York Police Department. On June 14th, 2012, the man was sitting in his car when he saw three African-American youths being stopped and frisked by police officers. He began taking pictures of the encounter, and after the police were done, he advised the youths to get the officers' badge numbers next time. When the officers heard him, they pulled him violently from his car and arrested him under a charge of disorderly conduct. The police allegedly deleted the pictures from his phone (PDF). Rather than go to trial, the city's lawyers decided a settlement was the best course of action.
Answer:
When either one does viciously illegal shit, they get away without punishment, and somebody else pays the fine!
Black people have had to deal with this in the States since well, always.
And now with the cops feeling all big and powerful with their military surplus toys, they are harassing white people, arresting them for no good reason and even physically harming them.
We will start to see changes now - I hope. Although, there are still too many (mostly old people) who still think the cops will not harm you if you do nothing wrong. The subject of the article did NOTHING wrong, but yet he was injured and arrested.
By the way, the President of the US is THE top of the Executive branch - meaning HE is in charge of ALL the police around the country - if I remember my high school civics correctly (yeah, I'm that old and it was back when education was about having an educated electorate and not training for McJobs).
Shame on you Obama. And Double shame for being a Black guy and NOT doing something.
Rights: You know... your right to remain silent (unless told to "start talking", or forced to talk with torture), your right to attorney (after they get done with you), your right for a fair trial (unless charged with the espionage act, thrown into gitmo, or blown up by drone strike), etc. You have plenty of rights*. You live in the land of the free and home of the brave!
*some exceptions apply. Void where prohibited by law (aka constitutional free zones) or where simply inconvenient (e.g. NSA, TSA, etc).
Contracts between a private individual and a government entity are not protected by any such privacy considerations. The public has a vested interest, and a right, to scrutinize their government's conduct and to know why it's tax money is being paid to a private individual.
What I love is none of this 'terms kept confidential' nonsense that is so typical in court settlements.
The public has a right to know.
You do realize that settlements are basically private contracts right? Are you really saying that I must publicly disclose the terms of any private contract I am a party to, just because the "Public has a right to know"?
No, No, they don't have a right to know. I may allow you to use my intellectual property and by contract disclose it to you for your use, but that doesn't mean everybody in the world is now entitled to see everything.
When a crime is involved (such as unlawful arrest, harassment, theft of property, etc. the cops engaged in), the public has a right to know.
When one of the parties IS the state or one of its many agencies, the public has a right to know.
When the public courts handle a case on the matter, criminal or not, for however long, the public has a right to know regardless of whether the case is settled by the court of by the parties outside of the court.
I take it you've never been Black, right?
And you've also never heard of 'Stop and Frisk'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
America will not have faith in big government until cops who do things like this, lose their jobs because of unexcused absenses due to their felony prison sentences. Who is preventing these prosecutions? Are Repubs giving extra criminal powers to police, in order to increase scepticism of govt?
Exactly. Leave New York and go somewhere safe and free and rights are respected. I'd suggest somewhere in the safe Midwest, close to a major city so that you have services and activities that are of interest, but not too close so that you are under the actual jurisdiction of the big city's police department. I hear the St. Louis area is nice and quite. Maybe Ferguson?
It's not a New York City problem or even a big city problem, it's a law enforcement problem.
The taxpayer is on the hook for CRIMES committed by cops.
From Gen. Alexander's willful and wanton (and unpersecuted) perjury on down to cops killing and chilling there is NO accountability in this country if you're on of "the good guys."
Think of how messed up this is for a minute. The police deleted the pictures from his phone. They tampered with evidence by gaining unauthorized access to his phone. The power we allow law enforcement nowadays, we are all at the mercy of moody people with guns who can peer into and modify your personal belongings. Oh also the law is not on your side on this, I'm glad the dude decided to "forgive" them.
1. Nationally require body cameras always rolling while on-duty. Knowing you won't get away with unprofessional behavior = priceless.
2. Total national outlaw of plea deals because coercion is morally indefensible. This is supposed to be the "land of the free" not North Korea.
3. Total ban on performance/incentive structures having effect of perverting justice. This includes linkages between career status/advancement and prosecution rates and officer ticketing/arrest quotas.
4. Total ban on mandatory minimum sentencing.
Selective enforcement of laws is essential for our Masters to retain power. They need to have something to barter for compliance with tyranny.