Why Police Lie Under Oath

[Fire Walk With Me]

TruthBeckons ?@BeckonsTruth

Why Police Officers Lie Under Oath | NY Times http://fb.me/2C7P3Zna7


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/opinion/sunday/why-police-officers-lie-under-oath.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

THOUSANDS of people plead guilty to crimes every year in the United States because they know that the odds of a jury’s believing their word over a police officer’s are slim to none. As a juror, whom are you likely to believe: the alleged criminal in an orange jumpsuit or two well-groomed police officers in uniforms who just swore to God they’re telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but? As one of my colleagues recently put it, “Everyone knows you have to be crazy to accuse the police of lying.”

snip

The New York City Police Department is not exempt from this critique. In 2011, hundreds of drug cases were dismissed after several police officers were accused of mishandling evidence. That year, Justice Gustin L. Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn condemned a widespread culture of lying and corruption in the department’s drug enforcement units. “I thought I was not naïve,” he said when announcing a guilty verdict involving a police detective who had planted crack cocaine on a pair of suspects. “But even this court was shocked, not only by the seeming pervasive scope of misconduct but even more distressingly by the seeming casualness by which such conduct is employed.”

snip

Mr. Keane, in his Chronicle article, offered two major reasons the police lie so much. First, because they can. Police officers “know that in a swearing match between a drug defendant and a police officer, the judge always rules in favor of the officer.” At worst, the case will be dismissed, but the officer is free to continue business as usual. Second, criminal defendants are typically poor and uneducated, often belong to a racial minority, and often have a criminal record. “Police know that no one cares about these people,” Mr. Keane explained.

snip

For the record, the New York City police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, denies that his department has arrest quotas. Such denials are mandatory, given that quotas are illegal under state law. But as the Urban Justice Center’s Police Reform Organizing Project has documented, numerous officers have contradicted Mr. Kelly. In 2010, a New York City police officer named Adil Polanco told a local ABC News reporter that “our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them.” He continued: “At the end of the night you have to come back with something. You have to write somebody, you have to arrest somebody, even if the crime is not committed, the number’s there. So our choice is to come up with the number.”

(More at the link.)

[dipsydoodle]

1. "no one cares about these people"

That's a sad state of affairs.

[Flatulo]

2. Got to justify ever-increasing manpower and firepower.

Even small towns now have tactical units and SWAT teams.

If there aren't enough criminals to justify a police state, no problem - we'll just make them.

[DeSwiss]

3. K&R

[fasttense]

4. In our small rural town it is common knowledge that police have quotas

Since the town is so small and very little real crime occurs, the quotas are for minor things like traffic violations (tickets), minor drug arrests (someone was caught growing, NOT selling, psychedelic mushrooms in their basement), and noise complaints. In fact everyone knows there are monthly quotas and come the end of the month, you need to be especially vigilant to avoid getting a ticket. The police routinely deny they have quotas but most people don't believe them.

I believe the frequency of lying by police departments is a direct reflection of the breakdown of our society. Gone are the days where you could trust a cop to help you out. Now, you do everything you can to avoid having a cop called in. Banksters destroy an entire nations economy and get bailed out, supposedly fair and impartial judges declare to the world their political bias, laws are randomly and arbitrarily enforced and used as tools to remove political opponents. So is it any wonder that corruption is epidemic?

[snappyturtle]

5. +1000 nt

[antiquie]

6. They even have a word for it: testilying

Police perjury (or testilying in United States police slang) is the act of a police officer giving false testimony. It is typically used in a criminal trial to "make the case" against a defendant who the police believe to be guilty when minor irregularities during the suspect's arrest or search threaten to result in acquittal on a technicality. It has broader meanings. It also can be extended further to encompass substantive misstatements of fact for the purpose of convicting those whom the police believe to be guilty, or even to include statements to frame an innocent citizen. More generically, it has been said to be: "Lying under oath, especially by a police officer, to help get a conviction."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_perjury

[hootinholler]

7. Until officers of the court are jailed for perjury

This beyond reproach shit will continue.

Police are officers of the court and should be held to a higher standard. Perjury by a cop should be a Felony and carry 10-20 years.

[limpyhobbler]

8. du rec