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Two Programmers Expose Dysfunction and Abuse In the Seattle Police Department
reifman writes: Programmers Eric Rachner and Phil Mocek are now the closest thing Seattle has to a civilian police-oversight board. Through shrewd use of Washington's Public Records Act, the two have acquired hundreds of reports, videos, and 911 calls related to the Seattle Police Department's internal investigations of officer misconduct. Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.) Of the 11 most-investigated employees—one was investigated 18 times during the three-year period—every single one of them is still on the force, according to SPD.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed. Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained. This is partly why the Seattle PD is under a federal consent decree for retraining and oversight. You can check out some of the typically excellent Twitter coverage by Mocek from his #MayDaySea coverage.
How can we trust them since /. hates PHP so much?
You mean when the police investigate their own misconduct they find there was none?
I'm shocked I tell 'ya.
And the police wonder why they're no longer treated with respect, while being people who regularly abuse their power and ignore the law. All cops need to start wearing body cameras at all times. Because it has reached the point where taking them at their word is a stupid idea.
If the police choose to ignore the law, they should be charged like the rest of us.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
If you think government abuses is something limited to a concern of the left then you a totally out of touch with reality and the libertarian wing of your own (assumed) party.
On the one hand, routine dismissal of serious allegations suggests protection of corruption.
On the other hand, allegations do not imply guilt. Any criminal that dislikes being caught by the police can make such allegations.
I will reserve judgment until the evidence is available.
You are on the wrong side of history, fascist.
These nerds.
Oh, look, fascists defending corrupt police forces.
How cute.
When the police ignore the law without consequence, someone needs to be doing something, because clearly the damned police are incapable of it.
Sorry, but crooked cops are just criminals like the rest of them ... and they deserve the same treatment.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Two Seattle programmers were arrested on alleged drug charges, and passed away while in police custody. The SPD will investigate the incident.
Well, these allegations just don't pass the common sense test. Almost any organization is going to have at least 5% annual attrition, and many organizations have far higher rates. So out of 1028 employees, about 200 would be expected to leave during the 4 year period covered. Yet they expect us to believe that the actual attrition was ZERO? Somebody is either mangling the statistics, or outright lying.
1) Not only should he be fired - if only to save money on investigations, but ....
2) the idiots that did not fire him after the 10th investigation should also be fired for incompetence.
P.S. I am of course assuming that all 18 complaints weren't from a single incident or from a single person, or members of a single drug gang. But that should not be that hard to detect.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
After reading your post history, I'm not sure your leaving will be noticed
Don't worry, I'm sure the Seattle city commissioners or administrators or whomever is in charge of running the city will find a way to lynch the lefties for you. And then change laws that are meant to make government transparent so that no one will know of any wrongdoing or misdeeds in the city's government at all. Maybe after they've gotten rid of sunshine laws, they'll send the cops themselves to take care of the "problem". How would that suit you?
(No, I don't really think all cops are bad and would do such a thing.)
captcha: convex
Isn't Seattle already under a "consent decree"? (That's basically when the Feds descend on a police force - ala Ferguson - because they want to clean it up.)
http://www.seattletimes.com/se...
And isn't there already a full body - with it's own web site - monitoring it?
http://www.seattlemonitor.com/
You might want to subscribe to this one instead.
Uhhh, I think it reads that all of the 11 most investigated officers are still on the force. You are applying the predicate of one sentence to the subject of the previous one. By your logic (applied to this post) the 11 most investigated officers are mixing up their sentence structure.
Because poor people are generally unhappy and have little to lose? Because most black people are poor given their starting point in life and how difficult it is to rise out of a poor upbringing?
Blah blah blah.
You do realize that an accusation doesn't mean it's true, right? There's things like evidence and other things that are required to sustain the conviction.
Just because a cop "appears" to use excessive force doesn't mean it wasn't justified in the end. Or perhaps the victim believed he was brutally assaulted because he got in the end a bruise.
And that's the problem with the article - it's all couched in language that basically says "we think this happened, we believed the victim, the police are hiding something" than "this is really happening, here's the evidence of it, and despite this, you can see this police officer is still actively serving".
Yes, I advocate more cameras on both sides, as well as the standard that lack of camera footage shall be interpreted in a way most beneficial to the other party (i.e., against the officer).
And that's the real problem - it's all he-said she-said, with no evidence. In a lot of places said officers who were dismissed could sue to get their jobs back and win because of lack of evidence.
And yes, most officers lie. The only way to keep them honest is video because in a he-said she-said, the one who appears more credible wins, and that's rarely a bystander.
Can they expand their investigation to include other jurisdictions? This kind of information needs to be available (and compiled) for every police jurisdiction in the country. If we can do that we might get some accurate records of police actions since the government is disinclined to do so (even though they passed a law requiring it 4 or 5 years ago.)
"Growing old is inevitable; growing up is optional."
Don't assume all libertarians find the police beyond reproach, or support the republican party!
Wonder if those two are getting harrasements and anonymous threats...
Leftists...
Nice drive-by! And on first post!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Why do dim-witted and unlawful results surprise anyone? This failure starts at the beginning with the hiring process.
Law is one thing and order quite another. My view of the cops is that they are aware that they can no longer hold the line and are in a sort of panic. What is orderly is often confusing and very subjective whereas what is legal is usually more sharply defined. Part of the problem is money. Tax payers don't like to pay taxes and as a consequence we do not require college degrees for cops. The consequence is that we end up with some pretty primitive personalities working as cops. Sloppy language results in sloppy thinking. For example police have to be instructed on how to stay safe and stay alive. But the cops on the receiving end of the training falsely translate that training into an idea that they must have absolute safety. Absolute safety is not available for any type of employment much less being a cop. That is why we are seeing cops that are a bit quick to get violent and their training amplifies the problem. For example if they shoot a suspect one time should they really be trained to keep shooting until the subject is down and not moving at all? The public is also at fault as in days gone by any person who ran for any reason was subject to being shot so very few people tried to run. Now running from cops is common and the cops do not shoot simply because a person is running and that exposes cops to a lot more risk. And these three strikes laws cause a lot of violence as well. A bad guy has nothing to lose by running if a third incident will get him life without hope of parole. Cruel and unpleasant jails also assure and create violence as resisting arrest is sort of logical if one is about to be dropped into some kind of degrading hell pit. There is plenty of guilt to go around and as much guilt falls on the tax payers as upon the criminals.
How do you know they are leftists?
How are the statistics they quote affected by their political leaning?
Do you see nothing of concern with regard to the Seattle Police Department based on what you read in the fine story?
Whoops. Too late.
Look, I get that the assumption from TFA is that the 99% exoneration rate is too high, but what have we in the way of substantive evidence that this is actually so? [crickets]
Yeah, thought so, and that is a problem. It's always a case of who do you believe, the cop or the criminal, when investigating cases of corruption and brutality, and it is more than reasonable to assume that, more often than not, the criminal is full of shit. So how do we do justice to those who actually do have a valid grievance? Body cams would be a good start. They would do far more to defend good cops than catch bad ones, so let's stop dithering and make this commonplace tech a requirement.
The police have a tight group dynamic which is typical to any group who see's "live action". They look after each other which is the right thing.
The main problem here is that the officers are very focused on the dark side of society. They are often not treated well and you see how that affects more regular people when they only hear bad news and people may attack them etc, even when just for a short while. Imagine dealig with that as a career day in and day out.
The police needs to be involved with positive help as well as the chasing law breakers part. A balance must be acheived or it will become very very hard to find those few in society who not only want to be an officer but have such parity in life that they can sustain all the negative for any duration without becoming it.
You get what you put your attention on. They focus on law breakers and become it themselves. That focus has to be changed.
Leftists harassing cops - fun times. Now that I know this site might as well be Kos, it's time to go forever.
More like cops harassing everyone, especially Black people. I didn't realize abuse of power was only a concern for the Left. Patriot groups have nothing to fear from government overreach I guess.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
There are any number of abuses that can go on behind the shield, cops can be among the best criminals because they know the job and know how not to get caught, they know forensics etc etc etc. There are dirty cops out there and unfortunately in this day and age the good ones are the minority. I don't think cops in Seattle with dysfunction and abuse is a localized problem to either the department or the region, it is a national problem.
Or you can put on your tin foil hat with the following scenario that is taking place.
Discredit all local/state jurisdictions and abolish them.
Put in place a national police force that is under control of the fed.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Oh please fuck off. We have enough nonsense from pro-police apologists like you, thanks.
Don't assume all libertarians find the police beyond reproach, or support the republican party!
The Libertarians have been the far right of the Republican Party since they nominated Ron Raul as their presidential candidate. At the time of Paul's nomination he had most conservative voting record in congress since the end of WWII.
Nah, just us. http://i.imgur.com/TtcWPII.jpg
and everyone arrested claims inappropriate use of force. Unless someone goes case by case, these statistics mean nothing. Both sides are biased, that's why police body cameras and bystanders recording video are such hot topics lately.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
The GP did.
Which puts him on the wrong side.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Thought the same but then how likely there is no abuse at all which would have made findings a consolation for police force. Then again how does stratification of punishment looks like - is there anything but hanging in the register?
I'm not going to pretend I know which side is correct, if either. But to play Devil's advocate, I'd bet dollars to donuts the vast majority of the people making these completes are criminals or otherwise people on the police radar. As such, they are motivated to claim police brutality -- especially since Rodney King, which made it en vogue.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
You're obviously totally lost. Maybe you'd be more comfortable at a wingnut propaganda site that will reinforce your right-wing delusions. Free Republic, Zombie Breitbart, and Fox News are good possibilities for people like you who don't want to be troubled by reality.
why does it matter to the story that they were programmers? there is nothing about programming in the summary, so it looks like a completely irrelevant detail.
Right wing authoritarians think anyone who questions authority is a tricksy leftist. They're morons.
Kick'em in the nuts, Kick'em in the nuts. (Chris Rock c: 2000)
It seems once people are in a position of power, the idea of proper behavior seems to evaporate.
Moving past that, why cant we have a standard Body of govt. or something to review and action on these issues?
like a national review Board.
And people wonder why the police forces of the word get so much crap.. Well the story in this case truly contributes to that notion that the very officials whom we trust for protection are really JUST NOT THAT. Perhaps a better way would be. Some are, MOST ARE NOT.. Unfortunately here is a clear example of that..
This ^. Nearly every criminal arrested files a complaint about something, regardless of merit. Assuming accusations are fact is a blatantly biased way of skewing that data against the police. I completely agree that there are dirty cops out there, but assuming every accusation is true is at best naive and at worst, knowingly manipulating the results to lie.
And here's where the authoritarians reveal themselves to be worthless racists that need to be marginalized.
Aren't police protected by unions, and unions tend to be very left leaning?
In 569 allegations of excessive or inappropriate use of force (arising from 363 incidents), only seven were sustained—meaning 99 percent of cases were dismissed.
Okay, those are some numbers. Are they good? Are they bad? What percentage of dismissals would be "good" if - as is implied - this statistic is indicative of something being wrong?
In a less rhetorical tone, how does this compare to other similar-sized forces around the country?
Exoneration rates were only slightly smaller when looking at all the cases — of the total 2,232 allegations, 284 were sustained.
Exoneration rates might be "slightly smaller" - 87% down from 99%, which isn't that slight - but if you look at it the other way, the "sustainment" rate is over 10x higher. Tricky things, numbers.
Among some of Rachner and Mocek's findings: a total of 1,028 SPD employees (including civilian employees) were investigated between 2010 and 2013. (The current number of total SPD staff is 1,820.)
Okay, sounds pretty bad. What were they investigated for? Do all the automatic procedures that get launched when someone discharges a firearm, for example, count as an investigation? What if there was a leak of information, and that one investigation initially covered 500 members of staff before quickly being whittled down to Gary in HR?
Without more context and some comparisons to other forces, I'm not really sure how much I should be tutting and shaking my head in dismay.
It's like when someone tells you that all the lego bricks in the world would cover London to a depth of six inches. At first glance, wow, that's a lot, but then I realise I really had absolutely no idea of what the number might be with which to compare the truth.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
I suppose you think White people are the greatest thing since sliced white bread...
Actually, criminals hardly ever file complaints. They are worried about trying to make nice with prosecutors. It's generally the INNOCENT people who file the complaints.
Most police crimes are never reported. Why bother making a complaint when you know nothing will be done?
All this talk about the police, and how bad they are. Sure, there are some bad ones, but on the whole, I do not fear the police. It is the niggers I fear. THAT is the conversation this country needs to have. Why the niggers are completely out of control, and what needs to be done about it.
Maybe if you stopped calling them niggers, they'd be nicer to you. Know what I mean, asshole?
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Any time there is a complaint there is an investigation. It is normal for employees to be investigated many times while working at a PD, because people complain more about police than, say, firefighters.
"criminals or otherwise people on the police radar."
And, in this day and age, just what does it take to show up on "radar"? For instance - DHS has stated that "extremists" includes veterans, Christians, survivalists, sovereigners, on and on and on. Oh - note that it's not just "Christian fundamentalists" anymore, but "Christians" in general. Funny that one - all the gays are clamoring to be accepted into the churches - which makes gays extremists now too!
I'm on the "radar" multiple times. I don't even try to get through an airport. I'd have to kill someone.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I think that most people understand there are a certain percentage of truly bad cops who will tamper with evidence, lie, etc. to get what they need. The thing that's new is the Internet, social media, and the ability for guys like these to collect and publish records. If a bystander hadn't taken (or published) the video of that guy in South Carolina being shot, the cop would still be working today and no one would have said a thing. It used to be extremely rare that something like this surfaced, and it often took a major news organization to do the kind of investigating and analysis.
You can't go into law enforcement without having at least some tendencies towards being a bully. I think that, plus the unlimited authority police get, plus the fact that they deal almost exclusively with "bad" people produce the police that make the headlines. I don't know how most are able to keep their bully tendencies in check when they never work with good people, plus racism and fellow officers reinforcing bad behavior probably have an effect over time as well. The end product of that is the stereotypical "bully with a badge" that gets the most media attention.
In the age when anyone can post video of bad police behavior, the only answer is to have tamper proof cameras on police every time they interact with the public. It's too easy for people to make false claims, and it used to be too easy for the police to sweep things under the rug.
are out in force. The buried a valid complaint about the Republican/Comcast political machine that runs Seattle. They refuse to allow us to have Internet access. They keep it from us. I access nearly a hundred times faster in rural Georgia seventeen years ago than I now have in Seattle. They want to keep us in the dark and feed us shit. That is why they're so against the Internet.
how did trolling by calling a skeptic "fascist" get Insightful? are we going full blown dailykos here?
I have to pick a side of statist vs. statist?
Paul Castellano vs. John Gotti. Pick a side.
The only evidence uncovered is that the PD has a robust system for reporting and investigating claims.
That's not quite true - the evidence suggests only that they have a robust system for reporting and recording claims. I've not seen any evidence to suggest that they robustly investigate them and the OP claims that there is evidence of them using unnecessary force and racist language without repercussion which, if substantiated, would be clear evidence of very poor investigation.
I completely agree that having a large fraction of claims refused is not evidence that the system is not working. It does suggest that the system should be investigated to understand why there are such a lot of dismissed complaints because either cops are having to endure a lot of frivolous discipline cases or they are getting away with serious misconduct. Either possibility is bad but the statistics provided do not distinguish between the two cases.
What's wrong with ProPolice? It's useful software.
Without a link to see what you mean, it sounds to me like English may be your second language and you misunderstood the intent of a statement.
If the statement was along the lines of (and this is how I parse what you imply was said) "Extremists include veterans, Christians, Survivalists, etc. etc.", it would assume they are saying that it could be anybody, and don't just think, oh that guy's not an extremist, he's just a Christian.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
Discharge your weapon, it's investigated. Doesn't matter if you were shot 12 times before you fired a single round.
You say that like being "Fed" means it isn't going to happen. But in reality, it is going to happen from higher levels than LOCAL. Locally bad police are isolated, federally bad police means you'll NEVER get fairness/justice if wronged. The problem with Leftwing view is that bigger is better, and I disagree with that premise from the start.
Assuming the Fed police isn't corruptible is the last thing I would do.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Stupid troll, or racist idiot?
Poe's Law in action!
Sorry, but crooked cops are just criminals like the rest of them ... and they deserve the same treatment.
You mean worse treatment, when a law is broken by someone who has sworn to uphold it then the penalties should be more severe.
So actually bothering to read the government's account of what it has done makes you a "leftist" then? And then telling other people what you found is "harassment"?
It must be easy to whip up that old self-righteous anger when you're so -- let's say, "semantically flexible".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Nearly every criminal arrested files a complaint about something, regardless of merit.
Citation needed.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Leftists are authoritarians who hate authority on themselves, but want it on everyone else. Just like Rightwingers.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I have no doubt a lot of allegations they get are vexatious. However they are likely obligated to investigate just about all of them. So in one sense it is good that so many investigations have taken place (i.e. they are following rules/guidelines).
However still it does make you wonder with just the numbers involved.
I know for things like FOI there are exemptions for vexatious requests, just as I am sure there probably is for allegations. However I know to meet those requirements the bar is so high as to it is almost never exceeded, so you are required to go through the motions even if you know it is something pretty dumb.
Even if the particular allegation was that a the indicated officer identified themselves as Mr. Oinkerton, and proceeded to beat me without provocation using a bag of donuts, they would probably have to have an official investigation, even if everyone knows it is BS.
And in unrelated news, 2 local programmers were swatted in a dawn raid that saw all their computers confiscated and accidentally broken. The two young men are being held indefinitely until the police are certain they can be cleared of all charges.
people to hire.... in order to get them off their backs.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/cops-hire-pesky-programmer-who-bugged-seattle-for-more-transparency/
The guy that works in the local corner store also has a non-zero probability of getting shot when he goes to work in the morning. Yes, it's terrible when bad things happen to cops, but it doesn't mean that we should ignore that a not insignificant number of bad things are committed by cops. Keep in mind that 1.4% is just reported incidents, and that there are probably plenty of "better keep quiet or you'll get a worse beating" situations out there.
I think the police must and can change. The bullying can be kept to a minimum, through screening and training. The training also needs to change.
One problem is higher up. It's not just the police, it's local governments. For example, a few weeks ago, I got a letter about my grass being too high. In a neighboring city, the bureaucrats actually escalated an unmown lawn into jail time! They had kept a dossier of lawn care violations dating back nearly 20 years! Wow, welcome to East Germany. I had mowed 2 weeks before, but it had rained a lot recently and the city's own medians were not in compliance. But none of that mattered. The tone of the letter is what I find most troubling. It was insulting, threatening, demeaning, and belittling all in one. There was no due process, the property was simply declared in violation. I had no idea what the height limit was until the letter informed me that it was 12 inches, and only a vague notion that there probably was a city ordinance about it. The letter informed me that the city could fine me up to $2000 per day that the property was in violation, If I don't pay, they can file a lien and may sue me. Also, it seems I'm on probation for a year, as the letter also said I would not receive another warning for 12 months, they'd just start the punishment the next time the property was found in violation. Pretty heavy handed for a little grass. I doubt whether they can really do all the terrible things they say, and it may be in part a scare tactic. They also stated in the letter that the purpose is "that the property be maintained in an attractive and pleasant manner free of all nuisances. Premises that become unattractive because of of high vegetation or other nuisance invite deterioration, vandalism and infestation and undermine the integrity of the neighborhoods and commercial areas where they exist." That's damned insulting, lecturing me about that. I have done much to clean the property up. It had a lot of trash scattered around before I moved in, and I have disposed of it all. Nor do I agree with their premise that high vegetation is a nuisance, or that over 12 inches is "high". So, according to that, my grandparents, who were farmers and good people, are public nuisances because they never mowed their yard? They had 4 foot high grass, and a vegetable garden. As a citizen with a clean record, I deserve better treatment than that.
Finally, the letter concluded with a list of lawn mowing services I could employ, with a disclaimer that they do not endorse any of them. Yeah, right! That list struck me as highly improper. So, the city is being run as a racket for lawn care profiteering? With a city being run like that, is it any wonder that their cops aren't totally fair either? What I would like to see is the people rise up against such petty racketeering. Citizens who want to keep our hard won rights should descend upon the city of Grand Prairie Texas for jailing a man for not mowing enough, and set them straight. No escalation of civil violations into criminal ones. No de facto debtor prisons. Sadly, I have not heard that anything further is being done in this case. Looks like the episode is going to be forgotten, and Mr. Yoes will not receive any apology or compensation. Maybe the media attention they got is enough to scare the bureaucrats from pulling that one again.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
Comment removed based on user account deletion
You're obviously totally lost. Maybe you'd be more comfortable at a wingnut propaganda site that will reinforce your leftt-wing delusions. Salon, Slate, MSNBC and HufPo are good possibilities for people like you who don't want to be troubled by reality
FTFY
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
Link messed up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x5ZRAVXxr8
There are any number of abuses that can go on behind the shield, cops can be among the best criminals because they know the job and know how not to get caught, they know forensics etc etc etc. There are dirty cops out there and unfortunately in this day and age the good ones are the minority. I don't think cops in Seattle with dysfunction and abuse is a localized problem to either the department or the region, it is a national problem.
Not only that, but when they do get caught, they get a free pass from their fellow pigsxxxx cops who refuse to arrest them, from the district attorneys who refuse to prosecute them, from judges who pretend to believe blatant lies, and from the juries who talk themselves into believing blatant lies.
http://www.vice.com/read/testi...
Testilying: Cops Are Liars Who Get Away with Perjury
February 3, 2013
By Nick Malinowski
Leftist, rightist. I'm going to be a "centerist". That way I can only ever be half wrong.
Guys,, seriously,, this type of language is UNACCEPTABLE when referring to our fellow man..
I have no options to stop it other than voicing my opinion.
Like Rodney King said "cant we all just get along" (not a JOKE)
I mean seriously the civil war ended a LONG TIME AGO. Why cant we just leave it there??
We are all men, women, children of the same to some extent. Why do we seek ways to screw ourselves?
Why do we have to single out the individual or group of individuals to place blame on? It's like the presidentail race, accept there is no comfort in loosing or winning it just simply exists..
Yes I know my spelling is bad, unfortunatly my anger seems to be getting the best of me, as I read further down this rabbit hole.
This is not how human beings should interact. Moving past that, how did we get into a racial war over issues with another fucked up police force?
look @ it like this, if no one commits any crimes, breaks any laws, and the police cant rake in the Fines/fees associated what happens to the police force?
That being said, would it be a fair statement to say that "it's in the cops best financial interests, to surface issues whether or not they exist?" As even the process of surfacing has some cost associated with it, and how much of that cost actually goes to the cops themselves, what percentage?
I cry BS, even if sociatey got their shit straight, and the ammount of fines/fees collected is fallign rapidly, how does that disuade the possibility of fabrication to incite a financial collection?
It dont..
Now that seems pretty evident.. Look at your local news, or even CNN!
I'm not going to pretend I know which side is correct, if either. But to play Devil's advocate, I'd bet dollars to donuts the vast majority of the people making these completes are criminals
I've complained about police several times, and I wasn't arrested but I thought they were behaving in an unprofessional and illegal manner. I spend days on my complaints, and got nowhere.
The stop and frisk laws in New York City (which were discussed before on Slashdot) have given us an enormous database of complaints by people who were clearly innocent, and of cops who were clearly abusive. Like a black college teacher who was minding his own business on his own stoop when a cop came over and (illegally) demanded to stop and frisk him. These were cases that were investigated by lawyers and had testimony in court, so we know what happened. And now more of these cases are on video.
or otherwise people on the police radar. As such, they are motivated to claim police brutality -- especially since Rodney King, which made it en vogue.
What the cops and DAs mean when they say this is, "We don't have evidence to arrest and convict him, but we want to harass him anyway and maybe pin a false charge on him."
Think about that for a second. You don't have evidence but you want to convict him anyway. Who are the criminals here?
Another good story in Vice. Just remember, perjury is a felony, these cops are committing crimes on the witness stand, and the district attorneys and judges let them get away with it and encourage it.
http://www.vice.com/read/testi...
Testilying: Cops Are Liars Who Get Away with Perjury
February 3, 2013
By Nick Malinowski
(Former NYPD Detective Carlton Berkley says that police routinely lie in order to justify arrests, and district attorneys and judges knowingly accept those lies.)
On November 17, 2012, a 40-year-old father from Harlem, Greg Allen, defending himself pro se (Latin, he says, for when you fire your attorney), won acquittal in a case brought against him by the Brooklyn District Attorney and the New York City Police Department. The Judge determined that the witnesses, two officers from Brooklyn’s notorious 73rd precinct, had lied.
The police officers, William Gardner and John Blanco, had accused him of disorderly conduct and obstructing government administration (crimes he did not commit), and the cop’s own video evidence showed his innocence. The police and the district attorney prosecuted the case anyway even though their own videotapes exposed the police testimony as a fabrication. They refused to back down from their original story. The judge didn’t buy it.
"It's like you're sitting there in the courtroom watching a video with the judge and the cops, and the cops are just saying something totally different than what the video shows," Allen says.
So used to this absurd process was the young prosecutor, Seth Zuckerman, that he never flinched as the cops went through the charade. Perhaps more tellingly, the district attorney’s office, Zuckerman’s bosses, didn’t drop the case even after learning that their only physical evidence contradicted the officer’s story of the arrest.
A few weeks later, US District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin upheld claims of NYPD misconduct in another case, finding the testimony made by police officers Miguel Santiago and Kieron Ramdeen not credible. Scheindlin sort of piled it on. The officers’ account “makes nosense,” it was “implausible,” she said. She noted that Santiago had previously lied in the scope of his police work, issuing summonses to an innocent person to help a friend of his in a bizarre revenge scheme.
Scheindlin’s ruling hinged on the fact that officers in the Bronx, Santiago and Ramdeen among them, routinely invented justifications for stopping people outside certain buildings in the borough and at times made arrests without cause. People doing nothing wrong were stopped, harassed, illegally searched, and arrested at the whim of the officers who then created legal justifications for their actions after the fact.
First- and second-degree perjury is a felony, and yet none of these cops will face any charges for straight up lying in a courtroom under oath. The rules are different for cops. As infuriating as that might seem, this pattern of behavior has been known fact for decades.
as soon as these citizens shut down SPD body cam program, the security-fetishist caucus at the state level started their HB 1917 to exempt police from our public records law
Piss on HB 1917. Here's to it going nowhere
Yes. And when there's no accountability (as is the case pretty much everywhere in the US), crooked cops become the norm rather than the exception.
"especially since Rodney King, which made it en vogue"
En vogue?
Rodney King did not make a fucking fashion statement; he got the shit beaten out of him like I'd never seen before by several officers, who punched, kicked, and Tasered him with several dozen baton blows thrown in for good measure.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
No one except you has said anything about a national police force. Where the hell did that come from?
The post is about how the Feds are not doing their job and letting the cops get away with bad behavior. How would a national police force, which you imply would be unaccountable, be any different then a local police force that doesn't obey the law?
Do you have any point to make except flaunting your delusional conspiracy theory? Off you meds? WTF?
Why is Snark Required?
The left-wing assumes people never abuse a system, and are shocked when they are forced to acknowledge that it happens.
The right-wing assumes everyone will abuse a system, whatever it is, and usually starting with themselves.
If you want to live as a citizen in a democracy, you have to hold officials responsible. When the police decide that they are above the law, it is up to us to show them that the law applies to everyone.
On the other hand, if you want to be a peon in a police state, just go ahead and support the status quo. Let the TSA steal you stuff when you fly. Let the NSA put you on a watch list based on a mass surveillance algorithm that no one will ever review. Or get on a list by posting something on Slashdot. It's your choice.
Why is Snark Required?
The reason SPD has even has all these internal reviews is because they have been cleaning house and act. There was a Justice department review board in place over the past few years and an interim chief for over site.
The city council and mayor along with department heads have been actively engaged over the past 3 years improving community policing, revising use of force, and have a program for officer body cameras way ahead any of the black lives matter incidents.
Finally, all the programmers have done is collected data that the departement documented for itself. If the department felt there was no need for investigations that data would not exist. Hardly the "closest thing to a review board. Hyperbole and social justice warriorism?
Not only that, but when they do get caught, they get a free pass from their fellow pigsxxxx cops who refuse to arrest them, from the district attorneys who refuse to prosecute them, from judges who pretend to believe blatant lies, and from the juries who talk themselves into believing blatant lies.
http://www.vice.com/read/testi...
Testilying: Cops Are Liars Who Get Away with Perjury
February 3, 2013
By Nick Malinowski
Yes, fighting them in court is a fruitless venture and will come back at you, or maybe mafia put them up to it to begin with. They can get away with a lot in a place like NYC, but every place has a weakness, could be someone watching say 20+ years of cover-ups and/or a small town with a very fragile economy or maybe the town was built over or next to something of value. Shame that one knows not to expect to find justice in a court room anymore.
Not police unions. As right wing authoritarian as they come. Look how all the tea party nut job governors who attack unions and government workers generally always leave police unions out of it.
Oh !@#$ off..... The left assumes that the people that abuse the system are the people actually benefiting. Who abuses it more, welfare recipients or defense contractors? It sure looks like those defense contractors to me....
Really, we know people abuse the system. We're not morons. We just don't automatically assume it's the poor abusing the system.
How about anti-authoritarian, in all its forms?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It seems like the local newspapers should be interested in this document stash: it seems like a good source of data for a bit of investigative journalism and could be turned into quite q few interesting articles. So they should team up with these two programmers to help parse through the data, just like journalists teamed together to analyze the Snowden documents.
It also seems like they need a way to make this data more searchable and organized which is again a problem that journalists faced many times (Snowden, Luxleaks, Swissleaks, Sony). So if there's not some open-source code for organising such data already there should be by now. Anyway contacting people involved with one of these older data stashes could help figure out how to organize this one and make the most of it.
(No, I don't really think all cops are bad and would do such a thing.)
I do and they would in an instant.
"The left-wing assumes people never abuse a system, and are ***officially*** shocked when they are forced to acknowledge that it happens."
"The right-wing assumes everyone will abuse a system, whatever it is, and ***want to make sure it is*** themselves."
Fix it for you.
emt 377 emt 4
Fair enough - browse the document here:
http://www.webcitation.org/5gY...
I just looked at it again, and I find environmentalists listed. Animal rights activists. Hacktivists. Note that this is merely a "reference aid" - there is other material that accompanied this little handout.. You may choose the red pill, or the blue pill. How deep does the rabbit hole go?
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
why wouldn't their cameras be live streaming back to the stationhouse constantly?
if a pigs camera stops transmitting, the sgt at the stationhouse calls that officer back to get his equipment fixed.
The word nigger comes from the word "niger" in Latin, which means "black".
So until black people start getting offended when black people call them niggers, I don't see why anyone else should stop calling them niggers.
I don't think you understand the issue, you fucking racist. The word "nigger" is hurtful to a nigga when a white person uses the word, but when a nigga calls another nigga a "nigga" or a "nigger", it is considered respectful.
We reclaimed the word, you fucking cracker.
Some authority is good, otherwise you have anarchy. So you need to compromise some amount.
One thing is true, there are no easy answers. And you need to compromise. People need to elect politicians who admit those facts.
"especially since Rodney King, which made it en vogue" En vogue? Rodney King did not make a fucking fashion statement; he got the shit beaten out of him like I'd never seen before by several officers, who punched, kicked, and Tasered him with several dozen baton blows thrown in for good measure.
It should be obvious that I meant fashionable for others to claim the same happened to them, given that it actually happened to him. Like the first kid in an elementary school class who gets glasses, then all of a sudden several other children want them. Except in King's case, glasses were a brutal beating by police, and the other children wanted the result of having been a victim of said brutality without the actual brutality.
Help fight poverty: Punch a poor person.
Otto Frederick Rohwedder, he was white, just saying.
I have no doubt that a lot of people falsely claim police brutality - but there are PLENTY of cops who resort to UNNECESSARY violence at the SLIGHTEST provocation even when they KNOW they're being recorded.
That kind of arrogance is incredible; imagine a thief who walks up to a surveillance camera, holds up his loot, give his name & address and says "come get me, bitches".
One recent incident involved a kid on a motorbike who rolled through a stop sign and then tried to evade a cop in a cruiser. The officer shot at the kid several times, hitting him at least once in the leg, forcing him to pull over and you can see him raise his hand, turn off the bike and begin to dismount.
Before he's halfway, Officer Wannabe Texas Ranger comes running at him and executes a flying side kick that knocks both kid & motorbike ass over teakettle??
WTF??
Pain is merely failure leaving the body