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Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
In January 2013, police raided the home of a Cleveland drug dealer, saying in a search warrant that an informant had recently bought crack cocaine there.
But the drug dealer had surveillance cameras that proved the officers were lying. He gave the tapes to his lawyer, who showed the FBI. The feds then worked to uncover a massive scandal of a rogue street-crimes unit that robbed and framed drug suspects who felt they had no choice but plead guilty to fraudulent charges.
Four years later, authorities are still unwinding the damage.
Three cops who worked for the city of East Cleveland are in prison. Cases against 22 alleged drug dealers have been dismissed. Authorities are searching for another 21 people who are eligible to have their convictions tossed. On top of those injustices, there is a slim chance that any of them will be fully reimbursed, because the disgraced officers and their former employer don't have the money.
Source: NBC News
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:21PM (4 children)
They need to also go after all personal property owned by everyone on the police force and everyone in the town government. Town-owned buildings are also fair game; all that real estate can be transferred to the ownership of the plaintiffs. That includes the police station and town hall. The new owners can then charge exorbitant rent to the town for their use. The town will have to massively raise taxes on residents to pay for it. A 50% income tax should help a lot in paying for that.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:26PM (3 children)
Well, why don't we consider what happens to somebody who can't pay a fine?
If you can't pay the fine, you get an ankle tracker or thrown in jail, or one after the other. Those accrue further fines.
Fail to pay those fines, you get thrown in jail or get an ankle tracker, or one after the other. Those accrue further fines.
Fail to pay those fines, ad nauseum.
I think it's clear what needs to happen to the police department and everybody else who enabled this.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 28 2017, @03:36PM
Sounds good to me! Make sure the city government leaders get slapped with absurdly-high fines too, with hard prison time if they can't pay (and they can't get out until they do pay).
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Wednesday March 29 2017, @06:41AM
Move to a sane country? ;-)
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Wednesday March 29 2017, @04:45PM
That is NOT what happens when someone can't pay a fine (or more accurately, it happens only when judges become criminals themselves); what you're describing has been ruled numerous times to be a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. You can jail someone for REFUSING to pay a fine, but you cannot jail someone for being UNABLE to pay a fine.