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In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

nytimes.com

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Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#111

Post by dragontamer »

nkurz wrote: post #69
jdavis703 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been going on for decades, across the country. See also the Rampart Scandal [0] and the Allen v. City of Oakland [1] case in which cops in LA and Oakland respectively, robbed, beat kidnapped and otherwise victimized citizens. I hate to think what happens in small cities and towns where this stuff is even harder to report. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rampart_scandal 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen…

I hate to think what happens in small cities and towns where this stuff is even harder to report. I'm not sure. I'm more familiar with the small town side of society, and I'd guess that it's much easier to hide this sort of behavior in a larger city. There's much less anonymity in a small town, and keeping this sort of behavior going would require "buy in" from the entire police force rather than just a nucleus of co…

A larger town / city has organized groups of lawyers who primarily exist to defend you from police abuses.

To take Baltimore as an example: https://civilrights.baltimorecity.gov/civilian-review-board

There is the civilian review board, paid for by city taxes, who do nothing but review cases of police abuse and take said officers to court. That's how stories like the parent story become widely known.

So the question is: would you rather live in Baltimore, where these things are reported AND there are powers that can help you with these problems... or would you rather be in Small Town America where the Sheriff is the de-facto ruler and you ain't got nuthing against him?

---------

Anyway, the main issue with Baltimore cops is that they're grossly underpaid. If they live 30 minutes away in a slightly richer area, they can get a higher-paycheck, AND get higher-respect from the community.

Baltimore cops are in a tough spot right now. Morale is low, paychecks are low, and everyone sees them as villains (especially after "The Wire"). Why be a Baltimore cop when suburbia is safer, pays better, and earns more respect?

As such, the cops who stay in Baltimore are usually the ones who can't leave for whatever reason. "Good Cops" go elsewhere, there's basically a "brain drain" on decent cops in Baltimore, and I'm unsure how the city is supposed to move forward.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#112

Post by cgag »

astebbin wrote: post #96
schwap wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. What possible reason would they have for charging a child?

To play devil’s advocate for a moment: children are often coached by parents in cases like this. Remember “balloon boy,” who hid in the garage per his dad’s instruction so the family could get their 15 minutes of fame? That said, kids like to make things up too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened here.

Was it a hoax though?

https://youtu.be/QWhUvm8SunY

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#113

Post by empath75 »

southphillyman wrote: post #35

Baltimore police were stealing drugs from Baltimore dealers and selling the stolen drugs to dealers in Philadelphia. Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Sounds like something straight out of a Narcos episode.

It happens everywhere in the us. Don’t think Baltimore is an exception. The drug war has been a catastrophe.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#115

Post by acedio »

jbattle wrote: post #109
txsh wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There should be a body cam on every officer and their police powers and privileges should deactivate the moment its turned off deliberately or “accidentally”. A time delayed feed should be made public and an independent federal agency should randomly audit the recordings for civil rights abuses. Police should be treated like other political officials and there should be a democratic mechanism for the public to remove…

I'm not anti-bodycam at all - but they don't seem to have had the effect we all hoped for... https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/20/558832090... From a minute of googling, looks like San Diego had more dramatic results

From the article:

>> It's to be expected that these cameras might have little impact on the behavior of police officers in Washington, D.C., he says, because this particular force went through about a decade of federal oversight to help improve the department.

Seems as though the D.C. PD didn't have many issues that needed correcting?

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#116

Post by leesalminen »

schwap wrote: post #83
leesalminen wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has anyone been charged with the false report of the scissors hijab attack?

No. What possible reason would they have for charging a child?

I thought laws still applied to minors, though the sentences are different. At least that’s how it is in the US.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#117

Post by ams6110 »

patmcc wrote: post #49
southphillyman wrote: post #35

Baltimore police were stealing drugs from Baltimore dealers and selling the stolen drugs to dealers in Philadelphia. Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Sounds like something straight out of a Narcos episode.

>>Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Is it? I'm a Canadian and everything I hear about the US police terrifies me - SWATing leading to innocent people being killed, unarmed black men being shot, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, the impossibility of convicting police for just about anything. If the worst thing they were doing was selling drugs that'd be an improvement as far as I can t…

Don't judge all the the US by its corrupt big cities.

I recognize nothing in this story in my town's local police (we're about 65,000 population, and the cops are quite relaxed and civil as a default).

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#118

Post by smnrchrds »

leesalminen wrote: post #54
patmcc wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Hard to believe actions like that were taking place in the U.S. Is it? I'm a Canadian and everything I hear about the US police terrifies me - SWATing leading to innocent people being killed, unarmed black men being shot, no-knock warrants, civil forfeiture, the impossibility of convicting police for just about anything. If the worst thing they were doing was selling drugs that'd be an improvement as far as I can t…

Has anyone been charged with the false report of the scissors hijab attack?

If you want to charge children for lying, everyone would have a thick binder full of criminal records by the age of 12. Maybe, of we want to blame anyone, it should be the media for but doing their due diligence before publishing a price of news.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#119

Post by sean_anandale »

jacquesm wrote: post #24
sean_anandale wrote: post #16

This is what happens when you have "plainclothes detectives", aka secret police.

There is a vast gulf between 'plainclothes detectives' and 'secret police'.

Contradiction by mere statement. Explain why you would want to at a minimum intentionally create ambiguity as to whether one is a police officer, one's name, and what organization one works for - keeping them a "secret", if you will.

Re: In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

#120

Post by goblins »

txsh wrote: post #97
bob_theslob646 wrote: post #12

Why is there not more transparency? It makes zero sense. What is going to stop something like this occuring again? Officers going to jail?

There should be a body cam on every officer and their police powers and privileges should deactivate the moment its turned off deliberately or “accidentally”. A time delayed feed should be made public and an independent federal agency should randomly audit the recordings for civil rights abuses. Police should be treated like other political officials and there should be a democratic mechanism for the public to remove…

I wouldn't say sensible, unrealistic or implausible is closer.

"Sorry madam the last person I dealt with broke my camera, I'm not a cop at the moment"

Political policing departments... Hhmm you think the police equivalent of trump are going to be any less corrupt?

I'm also sure housing the police where they work would definitely no in anyway make them, their family and property, any sort of target being as everyone loves the police.

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