S.F. police scandal widens - 26 more cases dropped

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

A San Francisco judge dismissed 26 more felony cases Friday involving plainclothes police officers who allegedly lied about the circumstances of drug searches and arrests or stole from suspects, bringing the number of prosecutions lost in the widening scandal to nearly 120.

Superior Court Judge Lillian Sing granted the dismissals at prosecutors' request. Outside court, prosecutors said the cases - nearly all of them involving drug charges - had been dropped largely because of potential credibility problems with an undercover officer at the Mission Station, Ricardo Guerrero, whose testimony in a preliminary hearing this year was called into question by videotape evidence that defense attorneys secured.

Prosecutors had already dropped eight cases in which Guerrero was involved since the video surfaced this month.

The video was of an arrest that Guerrero and other undercover officers from the Mission Station made at a Tenderloin residential hotel Dec. 30. It shows Guerrero carrying a gym bag from the suspect's room that he did not account for and was not booked as evidence.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/27/MNQQ1JMF76.DTL

[aquart]

1. Nice little racket he had going.

[Citizen Worker]

2. To serve and to protect.

[nonperson]

3. Yeah, to serve and protect himself

And if one cop was doing it what are the odds there were others?

This is another result caused by the "War on Drugs". Prohibition doesn't work. Not even for the enforcers. It's all a dirty game aimed at keeping courts, prisons, and the rest of the real drug cartel's pockets full.

[SkyDaddy7]

4. I wish Georgia had Prosecutors & Judges who...

Upheld the Constitution like this! In Georgia Judges, Prosecutors & the Cops are all one team that work together & cover for each other! I & 3 others to include two lawyers saw & heard several cops talking to each other about trial testimony while the trial was ongoing...When it was brought to the Judges attention he simply ignored it. Cops lie on police reports & good defense lawyers catch it sometimes & nothing is done. Judges hand out arrest warrants basically upon request & this got a 92yr old woman killed by cops when they raided her house. But that does not matter anymore because cops no longer need a warrant to enter any house they choose & all they have to say is they heard something suspicious.

And I can't tell you how many narcotics detectives I have heard bragging about things they "confiscated" from people's houses under the asset forfeiture program. I had a high scool friend who is now a narcotics detective & it would blow your mind to hear what they talk about after several beers! I have had a fallen pout with this individual over shit like this & the fact he thinks he is working for god to rid the world of drugs. He should not be a cop! But many out there should not be cops!

[formercia]

5. Training Day: Life imitates art. n/t

[Proletariatprincess]

6. police corruption is the natural consequence of the drug war.

The so called War on Drugs has been a disaster in so many ways and not the least of these is the corruption of Law enforcement.
I'm reminded that even the despicable Jay Edgar Hoover would not allow the FBI to deal with drug crimes because he feared the corruption it would bring to the agency. And we need look no further than Mexico to see how terrible this problem has become due to US Drug policy.
It corrupts our foreign policy too...although US foreign policy has been corrupt even prior to the drug war. Now instead of the excuse putting down communism, US foreign policy uses the War on drugs to pursue it nefarious corporate agenda world wide.
The drug war has decimated our constitution..especially the 4th amendment, and made us distrustful and fearful of law enforcement at all levels for good reason. Calling the police for any reason puts at risk one's life and property.
The US is now a corrupt police state and huge profits are being made at all levels in the Prison Industrial Complex.
The UN is slated to address the legalization/decriminalization of drugs as way to curb the disastrous effects of the drug wars with many nations in favor of a more enlightened approach, but we can be assured that the USA and it's client states will vigorously oppose any such effort.

[Yon_Yonson]

7. Just another 'dirty copper' in a line of many

Did you ever stop to think why cops are always famous for being dumb? Simple. Because they don't have to be anything else.

Orson Welles

[mwb970]

8. Again I ask, what kind of person becomes a police officer? /nt

[nonperson]

9. The type of person who craves power and the ability to abuse it. nt

[mwb970]

11. I'm certain most cops are just fine.

But there does seem to be an undue number who are as you describe.

[quakerboy]

12. Aside from "any" being an undue number,

I don't think that cops are any worse than any other group that way.

The big difference is the power. When a store clerk goes bad, they steal a few hundred and get fired. Maybe they go really bad and steal a few grand. in real terms, not a big effect on the world.

But when a cop goes bad, the amount of power makes it snowball, and the effects can be so much greater.

[Iggo]

10. When cops lie, criminals go free.

There was a famous case back in the 90's in L.A.

Wish I could remember it.

[Proletariatprincess]

14. And, when cops lie, innocents suffer....

the justice system fails to work properly, prisons are overcrowded, and the citizenry comes to distrust the law.

[LetTimmySmoke]

13. 1920s Chicago....2010s San Francisco

prohibition = police corruption

[SoapBox]

15. ...simply more of this "Militia" police department stuff...

...so many cases of these "rogue militia" police activities...

And in the end...almost none are ever fired. They do indeed protect their own, no matter how criminal.

[Odin2005]

16. I smell BACON.

[indepat]

17. Enforcing corrupt laws results in all but the most incorruptible themselves becoming corrupted

which is a sure-fire lose/lose for society. :patriot: