Go to qualitypolicing.com

Tag: corruption

  • Reasonable Doubt

    An NYPD officer were acquitted of rape today. Did I think he’s guilty? Yeah, I do. But I’m not surprised he was acquitted. (He and his partner were found guilty of lesser charges and promptly fired.) In fact, last week I predicted this exactoutcome (but just to my class… you’ll have to take my word). Why? because even I had doubt. You might even say “reasonable doubt.” Apparently the jury thought similarly. And that’s enough to acquit.

    It’s not easy to convict in this country. Especially if the accused has a good lawyer. Whether that’s good or bad, you decide. But that’s the way it is. And one reason it’s hard to convict police officers is that police know all too well how to play this game we call justice.

    I first had doubt after I heard the whole so-called “confession” tape, a secret recording the woman made while confronting the ex-cop outside a police station [which I can’t find a link to, but I know it’s out there because I heard it… can anybody find me the link?]. It’s hardly a confession at all. In some ways, it’s consistent with an innocent man simply trying to appease a potentially hysterical woman at his place of employment. Yes, he said he wore a condom. But it was only after a longer talk where he denied, repeatedly, ever having sex. She said she was only concerned with the consequences of unprotected sex. So finally he tells her what she wants to hear: he says he wore a condom. It’s not hard to believe that any innocent man would say the same thing in the same circumstance.

    Of course a guilty man might have said likewise. But that’s the point about doubt. You don’t have to believe somebody is innocent to vote to acquit.

    Do guilty people get away with crimes? All the time. A similar but far greater travesty of justice happened when a burglar was later caught on tape admitting to rape. He too was acquitted (stupidly, the jury wasn’t allowed to know he had a history of burglary, which was a pretty key piece of evidence with regards to him being in the house!)

    And of course being convicted of something and loosing your job is hardly getting away scot-free. But it’s usually only big headline news when it happens to police (for instance, how much did you hear about the case I linked to above? Exactly). Don’t like it? Blame the criminal justice system. That’s what police do all the time.

    [Hell, you can even blame O.J. Simpson. His trial set the bar way to high in terms of conclusive “scientific” evidence.]

    [Update: Here’s a story about the jurors’ decision. I’m with this alternate juror: “I definitely thought some funny business went on…. Is it possible they raped her? Sure.” But that’s not proof beyond a reasonable doubt.]

  • Balto Tow Scandal

    More from the Sun:

    A federal grand jury has indicted 10 Baltimore police officers and two repair shop workers….

    Only 10 officers who were charged last month are named in the indictment. Seven others named in the scheme remain charged in the criminal complaint. They could be indicted later, but not taking their cases before a grand jury is typically a signal that they are cooperating with investigators.

  • Tow Me

    So here’s the longer storyin the Sun.

    What I don’t get (there’s a lot I don’t get), is how could officers get a kick-back of $300 per car? The tow company would need to charge more than that. And the article says that approved towers are only charging $130-$140 dollars.

    When I needed to tow a car, it was pretty simple. You tell dispatch you need a tow. A moment or two later KGA (dispatch) would tell you to wait for one of three(?) companies that towed from the Eastern. And then you waited. And waited. And eventually a nice older man would show up and tow the car. End of story.

    Seventeen Baltimore Police Officers have been charged (just 5 live in Baltimore City). Eleven or 12 have hispanic names. Normally I wouldn’t point out the ethnicity… except that the B.P.D. made a big recruiting effort in Puerto Rico a few years back. I’m not certain how many officers were hired. I assume most are good officers. I’m also assuming (but do not know for sure) that many if not most of these arrested officers were part of that recruiting push.

    I mention all this because I’ve heard bad things about these officers since the day they were hired. But since I know none of them personally, I’ve been a bit dismissive of these complaints, considering them more likely to be rooted in anti-Puerto Rican attitudes than in any actually fact.

    I might have been wrong.

    If there’s a moral in this (other than to trust what my friends tell me), perhaps it’s this: do not hire too many officers at the same time. If you do, you will have to lower standards. If you lower standards, you will hire bad cops. It’s not like this is the first time this has ever happened (Miami and New York City have had similar experiences). It’s not unique to Baltimore. Or, for that matter, Puerto Rico. Though as US citizens go, the police in Puerto Rican do seem to have more than their fair share of problems.

  • The old gun-check ruse…

    A “dozen or more” B.P.D. arrested?! Peter Hermann of the Sunreports:

    a federal corruption probe that involves an improper relationship with a Baltimore towing company, sources said.
    …
    The officers were arrested today at the police academy after being called in under the guise that their firearms needed to be checked.
    …
    Multiple sources say the officers are mostly from the Northeast District and many of them are officers who were recruited years ago in a push to bring in Latino officers from Puerto Rico. That information could not immediately be confirmed.

  • Bangkok Police Rackets

    If you open a bar or restaurant in Bangkok, you can expect for the local police commander asking for $500/month.

    “Why?” a business owner asked.

    “In case you do something illegal.”

    “What if I’m not doing anything illegal?”

    “Better to pay.”

    “I’m not paying.”

    We’ll see how this plays itself out.

    Should you want to stay open late, the first hour would cost $500/month. Each additional hour costs $300. One time party? Just hire two cops for $50 to sit outside your place. They’ll proceed to get drunk in uniform. But you won’t get shut down.

    Sounds corrupt. And it is. But then in New York City restaurants and bars pay a lot more to the city in the form of licenses and inspections, which is just a form of legal shakedown.

    Keep in mind this is a city with some very rich people, but a cleaning woman earns about $200 a month. A police office, officially (before the bribes begin), makes maybe twice that.

    Should you be a foreigner caught with drugs, the police will happily take you to an ATM to make a cash withdrawal.

  • Oh, please!

    Here’s a non-story: NYPD Commissioner Kelly didn’t disclose that the Police Foundation paid his dues at the Harvard Club. My God, who cares? Good God, Lenny, I know you hate Kelly with a passion bordering on obsessive (and that’s putting it mildly), but is this the best you got on the guy? If so, you should have skipped it and talked more about Jennifer Hunt’s great book.

    I wish the Police Foundation would pay mydues at the Harvard Club. I wouldn’t mind being a member. And I did go to Harvard. I’m just too cheap to join.

    Well, should Kelly have disclosed it? I guess if them’s the rules, he should have. But they shouldn’t be the rules. The rules are too strict. Nothing wrong with a free cup of coffee. And nothing wrong with the commissioner taking people out on the Police Foundation’s dime. Assuming the police commission isn’t a crook (what do Bernard Kerik and Ed Norris have in common?) can’t we let him do his job? And no, I don’t want to know who he was with.

  • Barry Gibbs speaks

    Barry Gibbs was framed by the Mob Cops and spend more than 18 years behind bars. He was innocent.

    This is the ten minute talk he gave at The Moth in 2006. After hearing him, I invited him to come to my classes and speak at John Jay College. He did.

    He recently got a lot of money for what happened. I wish him the best. But I still wouldn’t change places with him. It really isn’t about the money.

    Eighteen years.

    Innocent.

    I keep thinking there’s some moral to his story. That some good can come from it. But I don’t know.

    I do always show it to my classes. Maybe some good can come out of that.

  • Barry Gibbs gets millions

    Barry Gibbs gets millions

    When I saw the headline, “City to Pay $9.9 Million Over Man’s Imprisonment,” my first thought was, “I hope that’s not mycity.” But it is. That means a few bucks straight out of my pocket. I hate that! Especially for bad policing.

    But then I saw that the man getting the money is Barry Gibbs. I know Barry Gibbs. I like Barry Gibbs. Barry Gibbs has come and spoken to John Jay and to my classes… and for free (though I did slip him a $20 so the poor guy could at least take a taxi after talking to my classes).


    Gibbs was framed by the f*cking mop cops, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa. Gibbs was sentenced for a murder he didn’t commit. A murder he had nothing to do with. He was sentenced to 20 to life. Eventually the cops were arrested and it was clear that Barry was framed. By that time he had served 18 years.

    When the bastard cops were finally put on trial, Barry could be a bit of a showman: “Gibbs stood from his seat in the public spectator’s bench and shouted obscenities at Eppolito. As Gibbs was being ejected by Court Officers, Gibbs received the enthusiastic cheers of many of those in attendance.” He was pissed off. Wouldn’t you be? These cops had appeared in movies and made money off of books. All the while Barry sat in maximum security for nothing.

    I’m happy for Barry. I called Barry just a few minutes ago and congratulated him (and told him to be very wary of people calling him right now!).

    Now Barry isn’t getting all that money. Lawyers get a third. Taxes will take another third. But that still leaves a pretty penny.

    And I learned that Barry’s health has not been great. Prison f*cked him up. And even if it didn’t, I wouldn’t exchange 18 years of my life for any amount of money. He’s been shafted by cops and shafted by the criminal justice system. And nothing can make that better.

    But at least on this day, we’ve got something to celebrate. Here’s to you, Barry! Mazeltov!

    [update: you can hear Gibbs tell his story.]

  • Arrests in the NYPD

    I’ve always said the Blue Wall of Silence is vastly overrated (for reasons I’m not going to get into today).

    Do cops get away with murder, literally or figuratively? The short answer is no. Unless, of course, one counts traffic violation and illegal parking as murder.

    What I do find interesting is that the NYPD, as reported by Al Baker and Jo Craven McGinty in the Times, arrests an average of 119 officers a year. That’s more than two a week. And about four times more than I would have guessed. Is that a lot or a little? I don’t know. (But of course if the NYPD were arresting no officers… now thatwould be worrisome.)

    To put this in some perspective (albeit in a way that doesn’t really make sense) there is approximately one adult arrest for every 23 residents in New York City. In the NYPD the figure is one in 300. Anybody know the comparable stats for other cities?

  • I got a plan. It can’t go wrong.

    This story blows me away both in terms of chutzpa and stupidity.

    Say you’re NYPD and need some extra money. Work overtime in the three-four? Naw. You don’t play that game.

    Instead… rent five vans, hire 16 day laborers, and then go to a perfume warehouse in Jersey where you have a connection. Then wave your real badge and gun around while yelling, “NYPD! Hands up!” Tie up eleven employees. Three hoursafter the start of the robbery, one of victims, says the Daily News, calls 911. According to the Times:

    When the police arrived, two of the rental trucks were at the scene. Officials traced those to a rental agency and found that Officer LeBlanca had paid $205.79 for one of the trucks with a Visa debit card, which was subscribed and billed to his home in Manhattan, the court papers said. He and Officer Checo had also provided information from their driver’s licenses, the court papers said.

    Really? That was your brilliant plan?

    What would do with a million dollars of perfume anyway? You sell it for what, twenty cents on the dollar? Minus expenses and divided by a crew of six, that comes out to about $33,000 per person. I guess it wouldn’t have been bad money for a few day’s work… if you weren’t so stupid.