Drug suspect turns tables on NY police with video - now cops under arrest

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20090613/UPDATES01/90613008

NEW YORK (AP) — When undercover detectives busted Jose and Maximo Colon last year for selling cocaine at a seedy club in the New York City borough of Queens, there was a glaring problem: The brothers had not done anything wrong.

But proclaiming innocence was not going to be good enough. The Dominican immigrants needed proof.

"I sat in the jail and thought ... how could I prove this? What could I do?" Jose, 24, recalled in Spanish during a recent interview.

As he glanced around a holding cell, the answer came to him: Security cameras. Since then, a vindicating video from the club's cameras has spared the brothers a possible prison term, resulted in two officers' arrest and become the basis for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

The officers, who are due back in court June 26, have pleaded not guilty, and New York Police Department officials have downplayed their case.

But the drug corruption case is not alone.

On May 13, another New York Police Department officer was arrested for plotting to invade a Manhattan apartment where he hoped to steal $900,000 in drug money. In another pending case, prosecutors in Brooklyn say officers were caught in a 2007 sting using seized drugs to reward an informant for information. And in the Bronx, prosecutors have charged a detective with lying about a drug bust captured on a surveillance tape that contradicts her story.

Elsewhere, Philadelphia prosecutors dismissed more than a dozen drug and gun charges against a man last month when a narcotics officer was accused of making up information on search warrants.

The revelations in New York have triggered internal police department inquiries, transfers of commanders and reviews of dozens of other arrests involving the accused officers. Many drug defendants' cases have been tossed out. Others have won favorable plea deals.

---------------------------

What the tape doesn't show is striking: At no point did the officers interact with the undercovers, nor did the brothers appear to be involved in a drug deal with anyone else. Adding insult to injury, an outside camera taped the undercovers literally dancing down the street.

Berliner handed the tape over to the District Attorney's integrity unit. It reviewed the images more than 100 times to make sure it wasn't doctored by the defense before deciding to drop all charges against the brothers in June.

Six months later, Officer Tavarez and Detective Stephen Anderson pleaded not guilty to drug dealing and multiple other charges that their lawyers say were overblown.

[BlooInBloo]

1. Nice to have tape of the state-sponsored domestic terrorists.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Another cop basher, eh?

They aren't all bad. It's just those 34,996 NY cops that ruin it for the 3 or 4 honest NY cops.

[BlooInBloo]

5. Yah, but the terrorists will execute those remaining couple of good cops soon, I'm sure.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[trthnd4jstc]

2. Start Citizen Policing. End The Police Force Throughout Our Nation. Restore Freedom!

[ddiver]

4. Vigilantism is your answer? How would that work?

[trthnd4jstc]

24. Not Vigilantism, but to have the Citizens perform the various tasks that we currently pay salaries 4

[ddiver]

32. What about a gated community that has a local undeclared policy of keeping blacks out?

Volunteer citizens? Might they not be the more authoritarian members of our neighborhoods..... much like the cops?

[trthnd4jstc]

39. Every Citizen, supposedly, has the Constitutional Right toLife, Liberty and Justice

I am against all Racism and Tyranny. I do not support gated communities which discriminate based on Race, Age, Sex, Sexual Orientation, Political Affilitation, nor Religion. I believe in discriminating people based on their behaviour, and not on the above charectaristics, written above.

And, to not post a second time to you today, I had two remarks, and the second remark, came to me after I had posted the first remark. I am attempting to be patient with all of this. I truly care about our country, humanity, and life, in general, on our planet. Please consider this, just as there are those who conspire to take as much as they can from the world and its people, there are those, like myself, who are humanists, and wish to improve the situation at hand.

Would it not be nice to have people take the tasks that our communities currently pay for, stop having to pay for them, perform those duties and tasks ourselves? Does not our world not make long-term sense? Are we not becoming poorer as a nation? Do we not need to take care of certain tasks, such as fire-fighting, policing, road repair, and other tasks that most communities currently pay for? Finally, there are a huge number of volunteer fire fighters, who do not get paid, but perform said service, and are an example of what I am proposing?

Why would one automatically dismiss trying to improve the situation out of hand, indirectly accusing me of supporting vigilantism and racism, when both are completely opposite of what I have been promoting and supporting my whole life? I am on DU to attempt to help improve our nation. I want to keep my identity secret since I must perform work for people, who may not chose my services, if they knew my politics. I am quite active in politics and attempting to be part of what improves my community, and our country, and our world.

[trthnd4jstc]

25. Get Rid of the Government and Perform the Jobs Ourselves. n/t

[ddiver]

33. You rebutted my response to you twice?

[armyowalgreens]

6. uh no. Why don't we weed out the bad officers and call it a night?...

Yes, anarchy is the only answer to police corruption. That makes perfect sense.


:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Chemisse]

10. It's hard to weed them out

When people like you (those who say the cops are always in the right, no matter what) defend them and attack those who would criticize.

[armyowalgreens]

12. I attack cop-haters.

Get it right.

I am by no means a "cops are always right" kind of person. You saying otherwise doesn't change that fact.

But thanks for trying.


On Edit: Welcome to DU!

[Chemisse]

13. Well you clearly have an attitude

You certainly did not use any kind of logical argument to defend your position, just rudeness and sarcasm. That's pretty typical of the 'cops are always right' crew, since their stance is based on raw emotion. So don't be surprised that I won't just take your word for it.

[armyowalgreens]

14. Bloo is notorious for being a cop hater...

I feel that he/she has been logically argued against more than enough times.


But if you really must know, calling cops "state sponsored terrorists" is also not a logical argument.


Of course you only jump my shit. Nice going. I guess you shouldn't be surprised if I don't give a crap whether or not you believe me.

[BlooInBloo]

15. No more than I hate other terrorists.

[Chemisse]

17. 3 responses

Sentence 1 - I didn't know that. I am new here. I can understand your reaction if this is an oft-repeated discussion.

Sentence 2 - You are right. That is an extreme statement to make, and not called for by the situation being discussed.

Sentence 3 - Just as I am thinking you deserve a conciliatory response from me, you hit with the rudeness - just what caused me to 'jump your shit' to start with! Nice going. You must not have many friends.

[armyowalgreens]

23. I don't like befriending people who make gross generalizations about me.

[Raineyb]

28. Clearly you don't know the NYPD

And using their authority to frame people certainly qualifies as state sponsored terrorism.

[armyowalgreens]

29. You don't know the definition of terrorism do you?

But beside that, corruption is a major issue in many police departments. I understand the extent of it in the NYPD and LAPD. But that does not make them state sponsored terrorists. And it especially does not mean that all cops or even most cops are terrorists.

[Raineyb]

31. I understand it perfectly.

And recognize it in how the NYPD come in from out of town to "police" the natives. Their behavior is sanctioned by the State of NY. State sanctioned terrorism bought and paid for by our tax dollars.

[armyowalgreens]

34. I want to get this straight...

You think that New York Police Department officers are terrorists.

Not specific people within the department. Not corrupt leadership. You think that the officers that patrol the streets are terrorists.

You think that the NYPD functions as a terrorist group?

Buddy, you need to take the tin foil hat off.

[Jim Sagle]

35. Sounds like you don't give a crap if ANYONE believes you.

Which is a GOOD thing. ;)

[armyowalgreens]

36. Everyone in here has the purpose of trying to prove a point.

I am no different. I simply don't give a crap if certain ignoramuses believe me or not. I know that my words go in one ear and out the other. They are not my target audience.

wink.

[newspeak]

20. there are a couple of cities in California, I believe one is Berkley

that actually has a citizen's council--it's function is to "check" police power within the city. Any complaint of over zealous strong arming or unreasonable stops and searches are reviewed by the council. After all, we, the taxpayer, pay for security services; therefore, the police (if they have done something wrong) should be held accountable by us.

[armyowalgreens]

22. I have heard of that. Sounds like a good idea.

[Alameda]

37. Hey, you are painting them all with a very broad brush....

they are not ALL bad, in fact some are really good.

[Liberal_in_LA]

38. Yeah but many, probably most, of the goods remain silent after witnessing the bad ones in action

[Alameda]

40. If your approach is negative and hateful, I think colors what you see.

FWIW...have known a few who are very good honest compassionate people.

[trthnd4jstc]

26. Sarcasm? Not anarchy, but collective action. We can have a more perfect union. True Democracy. nt

[armyowalgreens]

30. You mean like direct democracy? I'll pass.

There is a reason why the US was set up as a representative democracy.

[eddieb2]

11. Bad Cops

Yes there are some corrupt cops out there but, I certianly would not want to live in a community with out law enforcment!

[trthnd4jstc]

27. We can be the Law Enforcement, in fact how about being Justice Enforcers. n/t

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R

:thumbsup:

[DCKit]

9. Prohibition engenders corruption, as it does crime.

There's just too much potential for profit and (literally) tons of illegal money out there.

You'd think the Republicans would be leading the charge to legalize and tax street drugs - the are, after all, the party of fiscal (or fecal, in many cases) responsibility.

[Sensible321]

18. Republican Fiscal Responsibility - Just a Campaign Slogan

Kind of like "re-examine NAFTA" and other harmful trade policies is for Dems.

But I agree totally that making the stuff so cheap that its not worth importing would disempower gangs, corrupt governments.

Some estimate it would also hammer the Stock Market and Banking systems due to the Billions in money laundered through those systems currently. Check this out:
http://solari.com/articles/scoop_narco_dummies.htm

[DCKit]

19. What an excellent point.

I'd forgotten how many banking investigations BushCo* quashed when they got too close to the money laundering activities of friends, family and political allies.

[JVS]

16. cool

[Downtown Hound]

21. What is it with the NYPD and false testimony?

This is the same department that brought us hundreds of false arrests after the 2004 RNC, when officers got up on stand and committed perjury in order to convict activists that had done no wrong.

That department needs a microscope up its ass.