| Tuesday, June 10, 2008 |
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Police Corruption in Chicago
By Paul Hsieh @ 4:53 PM   
Chicago police officer Keith Herrera (and FBI informant) has reportedly described some extremely shocking and disturbing behavior amongst members of the elite Special Operations Section of the Chicago Police Department.
For instance, these officers lied in official police reports to frame suspects for wrongs they did not actually commit:As an example, Herrera said, a drug suspect might be listed in a report as refusing to surrender his gun even if he had dropped the weapon.
..."Creative writing was a certain term that bosses used to make sure that the job got done," Herrera, referring to fabrications on police reports... Nor was this just the action of a few rogue officers. Officer Herrera reports that this was a policy explicitly sanctioned and encouraged by his superiors on the squad:"I didn't just pick up a pen and just learn how to (lie). Bosses, guys that I work with who were older than I was... It's taught to you." Even worse, some officers on that squad committed crimes themselves, including stealing and plotting murder against fellow police officers:Herrera said he began stealing from people he arrested but decided to go to the FBI after the group's leader proposed killing two colleagues who were threatening to testify against him.
He said the ring leader, who has been charged with plotting a murder for hire, told him in a conversation he recorded for the FBI that there would be a "paint job" and if it was done right "we'd never have to paint again." Herrerra blames this atrocious behaviour on the so-called "war on drugs":Keith Herrera told CBS' "60 Minutes" that pressure to get drug dealers and their guns off the streets led first to cutting corners and then to crime. If Herrera's accusations are correct, there are a couple of deeply disturbing implications.
1) When the government stops protecting individual rights and instead prohibits activities that should be legal (such as selling drugs), it creates an atmosphere ripe for police corruption. We saw that in the early 20th century during the era of alcohol Prohibition, and we are seeing it in the current "war on drugs".
(Just to be clear, I believe that selling, purchasing, and consuming drugs like heroin and crack cocaine is both irrational and immoral, but should not be illegal.)
2) Without a clear set of objective principles to guide the actions of law enforcement agents, they can quickly become agents to the whims of their political superiors, first "cutting corners" and later committing actual crimes.
If a culture of unprincipled pragmatism and unthinking obedience to superiors becomes widespread in the law enforcement community, then this becomes extremely dangerous. In particular, it creates a ready training ground for thugs willing to enforce the wishes of any future dictatorship. This is the end result when law enforcement agencies are not guided by the proper principles, such as respect for individual rights and the rule of objective law.
Under a proper system of government, law enforcement agencies will be guided by the following principle as articulated by Ayn Rand:...[A] government holds a monopoly on the legal use of physical force. It has to hold such a monopoly, since it is the agent of restraining and combating the use of force; and for that very same reason, its actions have to be rigidly defined, delimited and circumscribed; no touch of whim or caprice should be permitted in its performance; it should be an impersonal robot, with the laws as its only motive power. If a society is to be free, its government has to be controlled. ("The Nature of Government", The Virtue of Selfishness) Hence, if these officers are indeed guilty of the alleged crimes, I hope they meet the same impartial, objective justice that all criminals deserve.Labels: Law
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| Comments on "Police Corruption in Chicago" |
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 | Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 16:42:09 mst
Comment ID: #1
Name: James
Unfortunately for Chicago, that is not at all surprising and just the tip of the iceberg. There has been recent coverage here of the group from the 70s and 80s that routinely tortured suspects. I don’t mean the kind of things that pass for torture in the media today - they weren’t making them sit in uncomfortable positions for long periods of time. These tactics involved electrical shocks from car batteries and power drills to the knee cap. The statute of limitations has run out on most of the crimes and some of the old bastards are beginning to talk. Needless to say, no charges were ever brought against the cast majority of the suspects who were interrogated by this group. And quite a few of the ones who were convicted based on work by these cops have been released from prison, for obvious reasons.
The group Officer Herrera worked for was giving the Chicago mob a serious run for their money. They lied, planted evidence, stole evidence (to be used to plant on other criminals), stole money, extorted money, and committed every other crime short of murder, although a couple of them tried. Despite what the yahoo story implies, these activities are not confined to this group.
Recently a Chicago cop savagely beat a female bartender. He was incredibly drunk and she refused to serve him anymore drinks. The footage of the beating from the bar’s security camera was shown on TV nightly. Also caught on camera were the officers who responded when a patron called 911. They let their fellow police officer leave and then they interrogated the victim (who was bleeding the whole time) and patrons and threatened them to try to keep them quiet.
These aren’t isolated incidents. The nightly news here concerning the Chicago PD is appalling. They are one of the most corrupt departments in the nation. Of course not every cop here is corrupt. I’m even willing to believe that a majority of them are decent people. But the culture of corruption is so pervasive the situation is hopeless.
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| Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 17:43:20 mst
Comment ID: #2
Name: Bob Sanders
E-mail: Sanders101(at)clc.net
I agree with Paul's conclusions. The victimless crime laws are turning America into a police state. Doesn't Ayn Rand have Dr. Ferris say in AS that (paraphrasing) "we want people breaking laws so as to turn the country into a nation of law breakers" and therefore increase government power. I used to be very pro "law and order" but I have grown very distrustful of police.
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| Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at 18:41:09 mst
Comment ID: #3
Name: Doug
E-mail: radiotheatre(at)gmail.com
This is semi-unrelated, but reading this post about police corruption reminds me of the movie "Serpico" with Al Pacino. It's based on a true story, and any of you have not seen it, I recommend a viewing. It doesn't explicitly show how, as Paul said, the prohibition of such substances create "an atmosphere ripe for police corruption" but it's a compelling film nonetheless, and one of my all-time favorites.
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| Wednesday, June 11, 2008 at 18:22:32 mst
Comment ID: #4
Name: steven
Ayn Rand said "If a society is to be free, its government has to be controlled." But how can government be controlled if it holds a monopoly on the legal use of physical force? I don't think that's possible.
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| Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 6:27:49 mst
Comment ID: #5
Name: Adam Reed
E-mail: adamreedatalumdotmitdotedu
URL: http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/areed2
This sort of thing is not limited to "the war on drugs" - any indictment or conviction of any crime in Chicago, or in most places in New Jersey, should be taken with a big nugget of salt. I once spent 11 days in a New Jersey jail (my ex-wife had frozen my bank accounts, so I had to wait for friends to raise bail for me) before the state crime lab in Trenton, fortunately under FBI supervision at that time, demonstrated that the supposed evidence against me (an alleged printout from my computer allegedly "found in my garbage") was fabricated (did not come from my computer printer at all!) I am frequently amazed at self-proclaimed "friends of liberty" who oppose "federal interference" in "local and state democracy," forgetting that the Feds are too often the only instrumentality for defense of individual rights against criminals, such as police and prosecutors, who operate under the cover of state and local "law enforcement."
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| Thursday, June 12, 2008 at 10:02:00 mst
Comment ID: #6
Name: Anne
Having grown up in Chicago, I strongly disagree with James that a majority of the cops are decent people. In my experience, the exact opposite is true. For example, a truck driver to whom I am closely related has had many experiences where he or a co-worker was robbed in the night by Chicago Police. The officer would open the door while you were sleeping in the truck and empty your pockets. Of course you would be awake at the time and know that it was an officer, but those who moved and protested were either ticketed, or beaten and left.
Chicago Cops are Thugs -- all of them. Those who begin as honest men are either driven to find other work, or their integrity erodes.
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| Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 8:46:33 mst
Comment ID: #7
Name: Luke Baggins
E-mail: lukebaggins(at)gmail.com
URL: http://bodybuildingelf.blogspot.com
I read some of the book Serpico and intended to read the rest, don't know why I didn't finish, but I think the best show to watch about the whole corrupt ecosystem created by prohibition is HBO's The Wire. It's written by a veteran crime reporter and includes some of the police detectives whose conversations wound up forming some of the dialog in later episodes. It's not primarily about police corruption. It's more about the interaction between individuals with their agendas and their employers both from the cops and the drug dealers' point of view. It's a great show on a bunch of different levels.
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