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You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / Shitty Cops / Unleashed Cops

Unleashed Cops

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While the Russian asset in the White House pushes cops to brutalize their suspects, we have plenty of cases studies on what happens when you license f**kery by the boys folks in blue.  Today’s example comes  from Baltimore:

Maryland prosecutors have tossed 34 criminal cases and are re-examining dozens more in the aftermath of recent revelations that a Baltimore police officer accidentally recorded himself planting drugs in a trash-strewn alley.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said that, in all, 123 cases are under review in the wake of a scandal in which one officer has been suspended and two others put on administrative duty. Body cam footage revealed nearly two weeks ago showed one of the officers planting drugs when he didn’t realize his body cam was recording. (via Ars Technica.)

Among the consequences of such behavior: folks do time, in this case, six or seven months for the crime of being an easy arrest for a dirty cop:

one of the recently dismissed Baltimore cases included the drug suspect who was the target of the plant in the body cam video. He had been jailed since January on a $50,000 bail he could not post.

Societies need cops. They don’t need cops who think a badge and a gun makes them lords of the street.  And any civilized society needs leaders who know that.

The good news, in Baltimore and in response to the Shitgibbon’s latest droppings?  The pushback–from Maryland prosecutors and from police forces around the country respectively.  Resistance isn’t just necessary; it’s useful.

Image: Caravaggio, The Taking of Jesus, c. 1602

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  2. 2.

    efgoldman

    Years, no decades, ago, way before Barney Frank was elected to congress, he said in a radio interview that police and fire should have either collective bargaining (unions) OR civil service protections, but not both.
    Barney is hardly a RWNJ firebrand. He made sense then and it would make sense now. Not going to happen in 99.9% of jurisdictions, though.

  3. 3.

    Punchy

    I dont think a damn thing the Tan Turd said is going to change cops for the better or worse. Dirty cops have been roughing up AAs long before the Donny Douchebag opened his maw and let the shit flow out.

  4. 4.

    efgoldman

    @Punchy:

    Dirty cops have been roughing up AAs long before the Donny Douchebag opened his maw

    Yeah. Dirty Harry and the imitators and clones (including Sean Connery’s character in Untouchables) and literally thousands of movie and TV imitations, didn’t spring unformed from the minds of script writers.

  5. 5.

    BBA

    @efgoldman: If anything, the trend will be to strip collective bargaining and civil service protections from everyone BUT cops (and maybe firefighters).

  6. 6.

    Achrachno

    Violation of basic human, civil, constitutional rights by public officials (including specifically police) needs to be treated as among the most serious of crimes. I won’t hold my breath.

  10. 10.

    Hungry Joe

    The “rough ’em up” line might be the most outrageous thing he’s ever said. Worse than any lie, beyond crude sexual degrading, orders of magnitude more dangerous than expressions of clueless ignorance. No modern society condones — officially, anyway — the actions he’s encouraging.

    If you’re desperate for solace, bear in mind that the President of the United States can’t order a police commissioner, or for that matter an ordinary cop, to do squat. But it sets the stage for approval of systematic state brutality.

  11. 11.

    Mike in NC

    Crime in this country is at something like a 50 year low. Yet Trump wants to mimic Nixon’s tough guy law-and-order rhetoric because it plays to his base of frightened, paranoid old white people who share his fondness for FOX Fake News and Breitbart’s “Black Crime” stories.

  12. 12.

    Fleeting Expletive

    I think I’d like a day when I’m not contemplating thorny constitutional issues like presidential pardon power, and confirmation hearings Jeff Sessions would need to assume another Cabinet position, and whether the Press Secretary reports to the Communications Office and whatnot. This is tiring.

  15. 15.

    Ruckus

    @Achrachno:
    Hey we’re getting better, we are at least acknowledging the occasional times there are videos showing the bad cops, even if all they get is internal pats on the back spankings. Maybe in 40 or 50 yrs we might be up to enforcing the law rather than making it up as they go along. One never knows.

  16. 16.

    efgoldman

    @Mike in NC:

    Trump wants to mimic Nixon’s tough guy law-and-order rhetoric because it plays to his base of frightened, paranoid old white people

    Hey, it worked for Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus of the West Coast, didn’t it?

    I’m a frightened, paranoid old white person; scared to death that the RWNJs might take control for too long and find someone competent.

  17. 17.

    Barry Rosenman

    I think this policeman got his training by watching episodes of The Shield.

  19. 19.

    m.j.

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are no good cops. There are the bad cops and there are those, who like Ivanka, are complicit.

  21. 21.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    we are at least acknowledging the occasional times there are videos showing the bad cops, even if all they get is internal pats on the back spankings.

    I always wonder if there are statistically more incidents, or the pervasiveness of the web just makes them more public.

  22. 22.

    efgoldman

    @Ruckus:

    Have you heard of one?

    Sure. One just left office in January, another should have been president but isn’t, another runs the house…
    Oh, RWNJs!
    Different story.

  23. 23.

    Paul L Anderson

    How about if we add up all the sentences of all the guys convicted based on this cop’s evidence and make him serve it.

  24. 24.

    Kraux Pas

    @Ruckus:

    You do know how unlikely that is these days don’t you? Have you heard of one?

    Charlie Baker? Not my cup of tea, but not an epic fuckup of the sort you expect from modern contemporary Republicans.

  27. 27.

    debbie

    @JanieM:

    Ray Tensing was wearing a Conferacy t-shirt under his uniform when he murdered Sam DuBose. He had an attorney slick enough to keep it from being entered in the trial as evidence.

  28. 28.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    Oh I don’t think that things are worse than they always have been. But we now are seeing occasional proof that anyone who isn’t 10000% racist can also see. And it may be that the knowledge that proof can be found at any time may encourage some change in police behavior. I did a ride along 45+ yrs ago with a friend, who I watched violate the 4th amendment for no reason. Well that’s wrong, and when asked he stated, “Sure it was illegal, but I’ve got him in my jail for 3 days till Monday morning when the district attorney will not press charges and he’ll be released.” That was the last time I saw that friend. I was not impressed. Nor did I feel that anything I could do would change anything. Who was I going to call at 11pm on a Friday night? And this was a simple thing, no beatings, no resistance, just a guy, in the middle of no where, waiting on a freeway entrance for a ride in the middle of the night, that would never come.
    His jail, his knowledge that what he did was illegal, his not giving a shit, his having no worry that he would ever pay any price for being a goon with a badge and gun. This scenario or one’s like it or worse, has played out probably millions of times before and since. I expect it to stop maybe sometime in the next 100 yrs. Maybe.

  30. 30.

    bystander

    @Fleeting Expletive: Yes, but law schools are not wanting for new hypos to torture students with. As I heard a law school professor the other day, we are in virgin territory.

  32. 32.

    Ruckus

    @Kraux Pas:
    I’ve seen many that talk an unreasonable but not completely ignorant line. The last one I think we saw in national office was Eisenhower. Maybe I’ve just grown to be far more tired of the bullshit but realistically, competent? No. Because I rate competent as someone who respects the position, who works for the betterment of the nation and the world and all it’s people. It’s national office, yes it’s about one’s constituents but it’s also about the nation. We just saw 3 who at least did stand up to end a travesty against the nation and it’s population. Once. They stood up once. Applause sure, but admiration, for doing the right thing once? We’ve had the ACA law and operating for 3 years, has business ground to a halt, has the economy faltered because of it, has the healthcare industry been unable to respond, has the healthcare insurance industry gone broke or have they (mostly) embraced and moved on? This concept that only unfettered business will survive or prosper, that the world will work only when the super rich have everything and are tearing each other apart for the title of wealthiest asshole is absurd at the very least. And the concept that cops can only do their jobs and “restore” order when everyone bows down to them is bullshit. We live in a supposedly free society, do you feel free when you see a cop? Or hear a republican official speak? Yeah I didn’t think so.

  35. 35.

    rikyrah

    uh huh

    Generals Love Him. Top Democrats Despise Him. Can He Be President Anyway?

    Seth Moulton, the junior congressman from
    Massachusetts, has a war record that appeals to voters and makes
    opponents nervous.
    By MICHAEL KRUSE
    July 28, 2017

    On the morning of November 9, five hours after Hillary
    Clinton conceded, Seth Moulton’s closest political adviser called him
    with a suggestion.

    “You should run for president in 2020,” Scott Ferson told
    the 38-year-old, second-term congressman from the North Shore of
    Massachusetts—one of the least liberal areas of the famously liberal
    state.

    “That’s ridiculous,” Moulton said.

    Ridiculous? “Donald Trump was just elected president,” Ferson said.

    “Fair point,” Moulton said.

    Moulton has three degrees from Harvard, and he did four
    difficult, decorated tours as a Marine in Iraq. But he’s still a
    neophyte in the House of Representatives, and in politics. This is the
    first office of any kind he’s ever held. In the wake, though, of last
    fall’s terrain-altering election, Ferson detected an opening. “This,” he
    told me, “is a moment in time where he is the exact right person to run
    for president.”

    This conversation—reported here for the first time—is
    precisely the type of talk that’s currently causing disgusted
    eye-rolling among significantly more tenured Democrats in Massachusetts and Washington. They dismiss Moulton, albeit never for attribution, as gratingly ambitious, a grandstanding backbencher who has advocated for the ouster of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to make way for new, younger standard-bearers—like himself. They see Moulton’s message of country over party as not so much admirable as annoying. “It’s the supercilious, sanctimonious Oh, golly gee,” one longtime political observer of his district said of Moulton’s assertions of selflessness. Some of the opinions on Capitol Hill are even more scathing.

    “I don’t think I’ve seen a more opportunistic, duplicitous
    person serving in the House,” said a senior Democratic aide, blasting
    Moulton as somebody who talks bigger than he plays and who pillories
    Pelosi while almost always voting the same way. “He doesn’t do
    anything around here,” the aide said. Other members who are more
    supportive are reluctant to say so publicly—cautious about being seen as
    “giving him a bear hug,” as one Hill staffer put it, “while he’s
    knifing the leader.”

  39. 39.

    BBA

    @Ruckus:

    I rate competent as someone who respects the position, who works for the betterment of the nation and the world and all it’s people

    Of course, by that definition there aren’t any competent Republicans at all, and a competent-by-that-definition Republican isn’t remotely as scary.

    When I think of a competent Republican I think of Ted Cruz, who would actually be capable of imposing a fascist theocracy without falling on his face daily and firing half his staff every other week. That’s the contrast we’re drawing here.

  40. 40.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    Forget it. You know who is not quoted as being part of that effort? McConnell. What they want to try, he already went to the wall for, and got humiliated for his trouble. They’re blowing smoke, and Trump is too dumb to know it’s not possible.

  41. 41.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    I have a theory.
    The concept that one will hold a job for 30 or 40 yrs has been dismissed quite a while ago, leaving people to work maybe as many as 10 or 20 jobs before retiring. Maybe more. Now a professional has to show up and prove themselves right off the bat because they are moving around into new jobs, new companies, new need to prove that they are what they claim to be. On day one. Perfect workers. Why should this be any different with politicians? Especially at a time when so many think the job is so easy that anyone (even drumpf) can do it.

  43. 43.

    sm*t cl*de

    Unleashed Cops
    I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere, but in rural parts of my part of the world, if a dog’s off the leash then someone shoots it pretty quickly.

  44. 44.

    Ruckus

    @BBA:
    No, it’s not.
    Not at fucking all.
    Competence is the ability to do the job, to learn as necessary to accomplish the tasks at hand. The task at hand for an elected national official is not to fucking destroy the place or a large portion of the public.
    Who gives a fuck if no republican is competent? Let them learn to mow fucking lawns or dig ditches or sit on their front porches and scratch their asses. At least then they wouldn’t be destroying the place, just stinking it up.

  45. 45.

    oatler.

    Caravaggio’s painting doesn’t show the Roman soldiers hollering “Comply!”, then shooting Jesus in the back 16 times. Those early 70s cop shows like Streets of San Fransisco and Dragnet had a pretty loud editorial voice (“but we need a warrant”) won the pro-cop agenda and everything on Jack Webb’s or Harry Callahan’s wishlist is reality now.

  46. 46.

    BBA

    @Ruckus: Republicans disagree with us on what the job at hand is. As one of Reagan’s cabinet put it, “it’s not Democrats and Republicans, it’s liberals and Americans.”

  48. 48.

    Matt McIrvin

    @BBA:

    When I think of a competent Republican I think of Ted Cruz, who would actually be capable of imposing a fascist theocracy without falling on his face daily and firing half his staff every other week. That’s the contrast we’re drawing here.

    The interesting question is, where is Mike Pence in that continuum? My impression is he’s not nearly as smart as Cruz, but he’s obviously not as dumb as Trump.

  50. 50.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:
    Pence is the kind of stupid where he parrots dogma with no imagination. He is not smart enough to lie badly. He just says what he’s told over and over, no matter how obviously a lie it is, with no sign of knowing it’s dishonest. In practice, in Indiana, that meant Kansas style adherence to dogma that quickly made him hated. But as far as I know, not the kind of ludicrous ‘can’t tie their own shoelaces’ incompetence Trump’s team shows.

  51. 51.

    Kathleen

    @debbie: Yup. Judge Lesley Ghiz (former city council person who was voted off then became a judge) ruled it would not be entered in evidence. Supposedly Feds are considering trying as hate crime since Deters declined to try for third time.

  52. 52.

    rikyrah

    I have to ask this….

    What the hell is this gang Dolt45 is talking about?

    If they are so bad, then why don’t I hear about them in Chicago, since, according to Dolt45, Chicago is the epicenter of all the violence rolling across America.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

  53. 53.

    Ruckus

    @BBA:
    I’m sure glad that my fucking life is valued as a disagree.
    You constantly give way too much credit to republicans. CONSTANTLY.
    They have not only not earned that credit they are actively trying to destroy it. This is not the republican party of the 50s, which by the way was a time that they were also trying to destroy it. It has gotten far worse and they are letting their worse desires run wild.
    Ted fucking Cruz as a competent what, Nazi? Give me a motherfucking break.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @rikyrah:
    Senility running rampant is horrible. Senility running rampant in a world “leader” is a 1000000% beyond horrible for the rest of us and is sure likely to get a lot of us killed.

  58. 58.

    JPL

    Where’s Adam? Should we be concerned?

    I am very disappointed in China. Our foolish past leaders have allowed them to make hundreds of billions of dollars a year in trade, yet…
    …they do NOTHING for us with North Korea, just talk. We will no longer allow this to continue. China could easily solve this problem!

    Is he going to start a twitter war?

  60. 60.

    debbie

    @JPL:

    “Our foolish past leaders “? They had nothing to do with it, you stupid jackass. It was greedy corporate pigs like you who sent business to China.

  61. 61.

    Mike in NC

    Kathleen Parker loves herself some John McCain. Latest WaPo column was very good about him sinking TrumpCare.

  62. 62.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @rikyrah:
    Is that true, though? My understanding is that what got voted against is only an amendment. The bill itself remains in the system, but McConnell already knows he doesn’t have the votes to pass it. Technically he could still reopen the subject, but A) he’s officially moved senate business on (I’m not sure how big an obstacle that is, but I believe it is one), and B) he’s already tried ‘is there anything I can pass whatsoever?’ and the answer was ‘no’. If he tried anything, he doesn’t have the votes, and knows it.

  63. 63.

    TriassicSands

    I’m surprised Trump didn’t offer to pay the legal fees for any cop accused of brutality. (Not that Trump would ever actually cough up even a penny — extravagant with words; cheap with deeds.)

    Maybe Trump could appear at trials as a character witness for brutal cops.

  64. 64.

    FlipYrWhig

    @rikyrah: My spidey-sense tells me Moulton is a bad seed. Yet I’m still expecting for him to league up with the David Sirota/Chapo Trap House left(ish) crowds and get anointed before long as The One Real Progressive Like Us Who Cares About Working Class Something Something.

  65. 65.

    JPL

    @debbie: You need to call in to a talk radio show.

    Good news.. He’s gone out to eat at his hotel, so maybe we can get some rest this evening. He does rise early though. .

  66. 66.

    JPL

    @FlipYrWhig: I’m curious as to why.. I know folks who have volunteered for him, and they think he is sincere. He raised money and is distributing it to new comers running for office. My appeal is shallow. I think he would eat Trump alive.

  67. 67.

    Another Scott

    I guess we’ll be going to war with Scotland before Monday. TheHill:

    Two Scottish environmental agencies have voiced objections to the Trump Organization’s plans to build a second 18-hole golf course at the Trump International Golf Links in Scotland.

    The Guardian reported Friday that the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency informed President Trump’s company that its current plans to expand the golf club violates sewage pollution, environmental protection and groundwater conservation rules.

    Another agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, said the plans could breach national planning policy and the national marine plan because of the proposed course’s location in the area’s dune system, according to The Guardian.

    […]

    Good, good.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  68. 68.

    FlipYrWhig

    @JPL: To me he radiates the bad kind of ambition. Like Anthony Weiner. I sometimes get that from Cory Booker too. Just a feeling. Manchurian Candidate kind of feeling. Or like the guy who runs against Frank Underwood in the current House of Cards season (which I’m in the middle of, no spoilers please!).

  69. 69.

    Matt McIrvin

    @JPL: Calling for the ouster of Pelosi is a bad sign. Pelosi is good at what she does. She’s disliked because she’s a right-wing hate object, and she’s a right-wing hate object because she’s an effective liberal woman from California. Is the way to win to knuckle under to that?

  71. 71.

    JPL

    @FlipYrWhig: House of Cards analogy is good. Even though I live in the south, I was raised in MA many decades ago, and still have connections. They don’t feel that way, but like I said, I think he would expose Trump as the coward that he is.
    I’m not sure about anything else though.

  72. 72.

    JPL

    @Matt McIrvin: Truthfully I think Pelosi should bring a younger member along side her. Steny is waiting in her wings, and that’s not good. There is nothing wrong with Nancy working along side younger representatives. imo

  73. 73.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @Ruckus: Comments like that make me wish we had a like or upvote function on this blog.

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    @Ruckus:

    Well, said, Ruckus!

    Speaking of your nom de plume, a while back Mrs J was in MICU and her nurse’s name was Rowdy, he was a former Medic in the ‘Stans and became a nurse after that ran out for him. Pretty sure it was his real name, too, it was on his ID badge. Good guy, helped save her life!

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    Thanks.
    You know, any way I can help. Be rowdy, cause a ruckus, whatever it takes.

    One of the young guys at work, oh what the hell am I saying, all of them are fucking young guys. Anyway he was talking to me the other day asking about NK and saying that most countries are like that you don’t have the freedom that we enjoy here. I had to correct him that in a lot of countries, people have freedom. More do than don’t. Their governments aren’t set up the same way as ours but other than guns there really isn’t a lot of difference. But look at what we are seeing here, now. That can change rather easily, if not legally. We are already seeing this with ICE, calls for increased police violence, trying to take away healthcare or turning Medicare to a voucher system. This wasn’t what I had in mind when I enlisted, I’d bet it wasn’t what you had in mind either.

  81. 81.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ruckus: And North Korea is actually really unusual even among authoritarian police states–most of them today aren’t that level of totalitarian, famine-wracked living nightmare. They’re more like the United States as experienced by a black person, only with fewer people in prison.

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