Laugh it up, chuckles:
Illustration by Bob Aul With a horrified suspect watching, Huntington Beach police planted evidence-a loaded revolver-in the man's car during a DUI accident investigation in January, the Weekly has learned.
The controversial revelation is not now in dispute although cops, prosecutors and city bureaucrats attempted to keep the incident a secret by sealing records and stalling discovery of related documents.
Despite those efforts, the gun incident became an issue during an obscure misdemeanor trial last week at Orange County's West Court in Westminster. Police officers were forced to admit under oath that a snub-nosed handgun had been tossed like a Frisbee about four feet into the trunk of a Hyundai belonging to Tom Cox, the suspect. The loaded gun bounced twice and slammed up against the driver's side of the car's trunk. No bullets were discharged.
Not only did they toss the gun in there, but they laughed their ass off as the guy they had in custody got a horrified look on his face. What would you expect from a man who watched half a dozen cops deal nonchalantly with a loaded weapon being dropped into his vehicle to set him up? Nothing that I have seen lately comes even close to such a brazen act of corruption and lack of professionalism in local law enforcement!
The most telling part, though, is that the prosecutor and the judge both jumped in and tried to protect the police. Certainly puts the lie to the civics class claims that we have separate, independent branches of government, and instead adds weight to the argument that when the chips are down, the state is the state regardless of which part you're talking about. The system looks out for its own, regardless of which part of the clique they're in. If the system were truly concerned with enforcing the law and seeking justice, the prosecutor would have brought charges against the police involved in this.
And they wonder why more and more Americans just don't trust the system to work anymore. Well, that's what happens when you have the prosecutors and judges looking out for police who clearly are breaking the law and any sensible standard of ethical and professional conduct.
After the trial, the public defender shook her head in frustration. "How would you feel if you watched police officers throw a loaded gun in your car, laugh at you and then yell in your face?" said Bartholomew. "You'd be scared out of your mind."
And you would learn to distrust and possibly even hate them. You would hate the feeling of knowing that they can mock you, trump up charges, even beat you, and if you fight back they can shoot you in the head and be untouchable in front of pretty much any prosecutor. Sounds like a perfect way for police and the judiciary to keep good relations with the public.
The only defense is to kill them.
Total cooperation while they are in control. Find where they live. Take it home to them.
I'm assuming that Roci is joking, because reading that a as a serious statement is horrifying.
I feel pretty bad for the person who was framed, and quite bad that there were State actors who would do such a thing: call me naive, but I tend to trust cops reflexively - even though I once experienced two cops brazenly making up information on the stand...
(maybe I should rethink that reflexive trust...)
I am curious what the cops motivation was: a simple DUI certainly is enough to arrest someone, so why would they want to make it into a weapons case?
I don't think Roci was entirely joking, or maybe even joking at all. He's a grizzled old army vet so it's tough to tell sometimes, you know?
I've followed enough cases like this and excessive force ones, that I no longer have much trust for people in uniform. On top of that, I grew up in a law enforcement family and heard some very bad stories growing up that had the side effect of reinforcing my belief that what I was seeing and hearing was not just "anti-police hatred."
Where the problem comes in, is that cases like this where everyone is working together makes it clear to the public that there is no justice to be had against the agents of the system, from within the system. I couldn't in good conscience really fault someone for getting violent with a cop under these circumstances. See, it's bad enough that they're behaving like a criminal, it's worse because they can kill you and have most of the people that matter take their side because it's a case of "good cop versus criminal scum." People tend to get desperate in situations like that.
I was serious. It frightens me too. For the most part, I am immune from the worst possibilities. Being white, gainfully employed, not using recreational drugs, prostitutes, or selling stolen property keeps me below the police radar. They have no reason to hate me, so they have no reason to set me up. If I do come before the courts, It is a setup or a mistake. I can defend against a mistake, even though I will still have to pay financially crippling legal defense fees to do it.
From a well crafted set-up, I have no defense. As a moral person, I have a moral obligation to resist injustice, and to repress criminals. Courts and police acting as criminals qualify. When there is no recourse to legally removing the police-judge-procesutor for criminal conduct, nothing is left but killing them. They have the power to legally kill me and no doubt they will use it to cover up their crimes.
The best defense is to stay below the radar. The next best defense is to hit first so that there is no second strike possible.
Every moral man has an obligation to repress violent criminal conduct, even at the risk of his own safety. Looking the other way while violence is done to your neighbors is not a sufficient defense. When you fail to act, every additional victim is on your conscience.
That said, I believe by far most police are moral, and upstanding members of teh community. And they will lie in court to put away someone they are convinced is guilty. They inhenrently try to overcome what they feel are criminals getting off on technicalities.
But their own inability to truthfully prove a case in court is not a technicality. It is the foundation of our legal system. Without that, no one can expect a fair trial and everyone must depend on trial by combat as a last resort.
There is no other way for free men to live.
Bravo Roci,
I agree. It saddens me to agree, but I do.
Our great nation was founded by men who had enough.
Maybe revolution is the only answer.