Ars Technica brings us an update to an earlier story in which a court case was thrown out when a police officer's body cam showed him planting drugs before 'finding' them immediately after. Now prosecutors in Maryland are reviewing other body-cam footage and have already thrown out 34 criminal cases with many more under review:
The Baltimore Police Department's body cams, like many across the nation, capture footage 30 seconds before an officer presses the record button. The footage was turned over to defense attorneys as part of a drug prosecution - and that's when the misdeed was uncovered.
[...] "We are dismissing those cases which relied exclusively on the credibility of these officers," Mosby told a news conference Friday. She said the dismissed cases, some of which have already been prosecuted, involved weapons and drugs.
Lesson learned cops - plant drugs, wait 30 seconds, then turn on the camera!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Tuesday August 01 2017, @11:59AM (1 child)
High IQ is not a group? Or just not a protected group under anti-discrimination law?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday August 01 2017, @01:40PM
The laws laying out what groups are protected from discrimination are fairly explicit:
Gender, race, national origin, religion, disability, and creed, with some local and state versions of the equal employment law adding a couple more like sexual orientation and genetic testing results.
The case I linked above was seeking remedy under the "equal protection under law" clause of the 14th amendment, but given that the police department had a reason for making that decision, it was ruled to be a valid distinction to draw. Also worth noting is that they cited previous precedent establishing it was okay to reject officers for having too low an IQ too.