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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: 0, Flamebait) by VLM on Tuesday March 28 2017, @06:19PM (1 child)
they were acting as vigilantes
A vigilante is a civilian .... acting in a law enforcement capacity... without legal authority.
No, they were given authority by the local government. AFAIK everyone in trouble is a sworn police officer.
Sometimes definitions matter ... its like improperly calling a government soldier a spy or a rebel. Actually its like accusing an actual legal and official soldier of being a fake "stolen glory" soldier.
Vigilante conduct involves certain degrees of violence.
Not more than the usual amount of resisting arrest type stuff has been claimed.
a number of cases, vigilantism has involved targets with mistaken identities.
Um, no? The stories I've read are fairly specific that the "right" career criminals were targeted. We are talking about professional police officers here, not mere vigilantes after all (LOL).
Vigilantism in literature, folklore and legend is connected to the fundamental issues of dissatisfied morality, injustice, the failures of authority and the ethical adequacy of legitimate governance.
OK in summary that's Cleveland. That tiny aspect is true and I can see how someone could get slightly confused. Stuff happens. But hearing hooves is not proof of either horse or zebra (although its probably one or the other). If vigilantes were operating in Cleveland that would certainly be why. But this story is about slightly bent cops not vigilantes.
extrajudicially punished banditry
AFAIK the career criminals were punished by legally appointed judges not the cops. I know I brought up the "Magnum Force" movie from half a century ago, but these cops were not just gunning down career criminals. Cops usually gun down innocent civilians, usually shooting them in the back, anyway.
And why is the entire legal system getting off the hook here? Isn't that the idea behind division of powers and stuff? Just one bad apple shouldn't ruin everything? All those judges and prosecutors and juries have the cops as their fall guys which is fairly bogus...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @06:55PM
You may find this a difficult thing to process, but the cops broke the law. They are criminals.
I'm not sure, so I figured it was best to ask. Are you familiar with the concept of due process?