I’d argue if you’re planting sunstances to get someone arrested for illegal possession, then you fall under the illegal distribution penalties. And if you’re the supervisor or DA who was aware of this, then you’re guilty of conspiracy charges.
That’s in addition to perjury (for claiming validity of the “evidence” in court) and kidnapping (for carrying an unwilling victim off against his will).
Ending an official statement by basically saying, “prove it”, makes me realise it’s at least as bad as we thought but probably even worse. It’s a sad day today.
Wrong.
So what you’re saying is that not all cops are apparently bad, and some in this dept. are actual “heroes” who are probably risking a lot for this… That is refreshing.
If you want to restore respect for the police, this is how you do it. Erase “the thin blue line”, and have cops stand up for what’s right, regardless of who is on the “wrong side” of the law.
Will the DOJ investigate? This will need follow up.
Yeah. From the Henry County Report:
Several long term Dothan law enforcement officers, all part of an original group that initiated the investigation, believe the public has a right to know that the Dothan Police Department, and District Attorney Doug Valeska, targeted young black men by planting drugs and weapons on them over a decade. …
The group of officers requested they be granted anonymity, and shared hundreds of files from the Internal Affairs Division.
I’m a little reluctant to call them heroes, not because this lacks courage - anonymous or not, leaking to this extent will probably have repercussions - but because the term itself is overused and it did take them 10 years to go public with this problem. I can understand that, mind you - they protested internally a long time ago, apparently, but the foxes are already in charge of the henhouse.
I do think the Chief’s bravado may be misplaced, though: it looks like Dotham PD was lucky enough to have a competent and honest Internal Affairs sergeant. “Hundreds of files” that have been spirited away to Canada
are being shared directly with attorneys in the U.S. Dept. of Justice Civil Rights Division, and are being made available to the lawyers of those falsely convicted that seek to clear their names.
…which does suggest that those files have enough in them to stir a veritable hornet’s nest.
For the sake of the accuser’s anonymity, I hope these guys are as bad at investigating as they (allegedly) are at being human.
The SPLC has retracted its story. https://twitter.com/splcenter/status/672466511886422018
Actually, what they said was:
I think they’re speaking about the old scans of the initial complaint, but that’s unclear to me.
And given Teh Intertubes, we get this gem in the replies to the SPLC tweet:
Yes, strange person whose twitter account details I will not be checking, I’m sure SPLC is the biggest hate group in the country…you fucking idiot.
whose twitter account details I will not be checking,
I saw enough in the first few tweets. Rynhardt alternately retweets Joel Osteen and white supremacists. Nuff said.
They specifically used the word “retraction”: “RETRACTION: We’ve removed tweets to a “Henry County Report” story about the Dothan, Ala. police department.” I take that to mean “retraction.” Maybe it will turn out to be true, maybe not. But in the meantime, if they believe there is enough question about the veracity to yank their tweets, I’ll take them at their word.
I’m going to continue calling them heroes (even if overused generally), mainly because regardless of how long it took, they’re doing it, and that takes some serious cojones. They’re tossing their entire careers away, and more than that, they’re probably risking life and limb as well. It’s not a huge leap to imagine a few of these guys having strange accidents that don’t get properly investigated etc…
Also, consider the pool they’re coming from. To rise so far above the muck makes you truly respectable in my eyes (and I’m generally not a big cop sympathizer). We need more police like this.
And this guy:
Yeah, could be rhetoric, but you have to respect someone who willingly walks into a situation like that to help people…
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