Whoopsy
"It often took days and sometimes weeks before authorities realized they had the wrong person behind bars," writes Christopher N. Osher in the Denver Post:
More than 500 people were wrongly imprisoned in Denver's jails over seven years, with some spending weeks incarcerated or pleading guilty to crimes they did not commit before authorities realized they nabbed the wrong person, a federal court filing shows.Civil-rights lawyers suing the city and county of Denver assert the documented mistaken-identity arrests "are the tip of the iceberg" and are an undercount of the true magnitude of the problem.
In one case a black man spent nine days in jail after he was arrested on a warrant for a white man wanted on a sex-crimes arrest warrant.
In another, authorities arrested an 18- year-old when they were searching for a man 30 years older.
A white man was hauled in even when the suspect actually was an American Indian who was nearly a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier. He wasn't released until almost a month had passed and not until the victim of the crime alerted authorities at a court hearing that they had the wrong suspect.
Unbelievably, officials often failed to check whether the arrested person's race or gender matched that of the person they were supposed to be arresting, reports Osher.
Read the whole disgusting story at the Denver Post link and look at the pictures of the people they arrested, split-screened with those who they were actually after. This look and sound like America to you? The one you want to be living in?
via @WalterOlson, @RadleyBalko
There is a person with my name with SEVERAL warrants out for her arrest in California.
Also I once called a doctors office and the nurse began grilling me as to why I kept making appointments and never showing up. I couldn't believe I had done that-it's not my nature. Turns out there is another Purplepen out there who is a very naughty girl.
Purplepen at January 11, 2012 3:11 AM
It helps to have an uncommon last name. A former boss, Mr Green, was plagued by a guy with the same first and middle name who had pretty bad credit problems.
I'd like to see the city be liable for, say a thousand dollars a day for arresting someone when it was obvious that they were not the right person. Payable to the arrestee from the police department budget.
Police brass will pay attention to the money. Bad press, not so much unless there is an upcoming election.
MarkD at January 11, 2012 5:49 AM
This is unacceptable!! If I did my job as well as this I would be FIRED.
Melody at January 11, 2012 8:15 AM
Hell, I'd go one step further, the department would be liable for 1000 per day, however each responsible party (i.e. the arresting officer who doesn't bother to check basic details) would be held personally liable for $100 per week.
Now I wouldn't apply that against someone who is just not guilty, but rather to people who are arrested by misidentification.
Robert at January 11, 2012 8:23 AM
Police have a difficult job, and I appreciate those who do it well.
Police also have an enormous amount of authority over people, an authority that they can wield in an arbitrary fashion, with potentially disastrous consequences for those in the wrong place or with the wrong name; at the same time, the police are largely immune from any personal liability for their wrongdoing. This imbalance is dangerous for a free society. Those who enforce the law and are empowered to violence on behalf of the state should be held to at least as high a standard as anyone else. The only way to address problems like those in Denver is if the individual police officers, as well as the city and county, are held responsible.
Christopher at January 11, 2012 9:04 AM
"The only way to address problems like those in Denver is if the individual police officers, as well as the city and county, are held responsible."
Start paying cops high salaries and the ranks of fat, corrupt, lazy, racist, poorly-educated, alcoholic, drug-dealing, prostitute-porking scumbags will eventually be forced out.
Couple that with punishment for cops who steal from corpses, rob drug dealers, sell drugs, abuse people, hide evidence, steal evidence, lie in court, take handoffs, payoffs, tips, tributes, "gifts" and bribes, and we'll be on our way to a professional police force.
Right now what have is a grifting militarized occupation force that rarely answers to the citizenry, except when hired as private security for the wealthy.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at January 11, 2012 9:36 AM
Scary stuff. I live in the Denver area and have a common name.
Lori at January 11, 2012 11:37 AM
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers:
Start paying cops high salaries and the ranks of fat, corrupt, lazy, racist, poorly-educated, alcoholic, drug-dealing, prostitute-porking scumbags will eventually be forced out.
In my experience, the more you pay them, the worse that gets.
It's a good soundbite, and I've seen various lowball numbers bandied around, but funny thing, most cops do rather well by themselves.
This was years and years ago, but a town I lived in had openings for rookies, they were paying $14k/year. Pathetic, right? A year or so later, reading a unrelated news article, they were talking about the salary to the police force, and its distribution. The lowest-paid full-time member on the force had taken home over $35k. Wait, wait, what? So $35k was what the rookies were _really_ making? That's not so bad. The _average_, for this small-city force was almost ~$70k, IIRC. I was working 80-90 hour weeks in IT, and making less than $40k.
In my later years, having met and chatted and befriended many a cop, it's somewhat disconcerting to know how well every one knew how to maximize benefits. And how they were doing pretty well for themselves.
It's not the pay, or the "lack" of it that's the problem. It's the culture. In my outside opinion, it's really easy for the wrong culture to take hold, and force out the good culture of "serving the public". Once that happens, it's well-nigh-impossible to change it back. Not totally, just usually.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/discipline-hearing-thursday-for-canton-police-officer-caught-on-camera-making-death-threats
I've heard scuttlebutt that the department was donating time to allow him to stay on "sick leave", while more and more videos were uncovered where he threatened to kill people by the side of the road, and arrested them on false charges.
"Harless has been on administrative leave since the videotapes surfaced this summer."
Screw up, get put on paid leave. Gee, that's not how it works anywhere else I've been. (I think we can safely say the Canton, OH police department is beyond easy redemption.)
As long as you can be a _protected thug_, almost without limit to your abuses... You're going to attrack the "fat, corrupt, lazy, racist, poorly-educated, alcoholic, drug-dealing, prostitute-porking scumbags". High pay just means they live higher on the hog.
Unix-Jedi at January 11, 2012 1:17 PM
Well, damn. Off-topic but per my link there.....
http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/canton-police-fire-threatening-patrolman-daniel-harless-wews1326300068961
They actually fired him. 18 internal investigations (15 exonerations prior!) (What about the other thre.... SHUT UP, he explained.)
Of course, I'm sure they'll be sued, and he'll be rehired with back wages from his firing - that's the pattern, but perhaps not.
We can hope.
Unix-Jedi at January 11, 2012 1:21 PM
Hey - now he can go be a TSA goon. With higher pay for experience!
Radwaste at January 11, 2012 2:25 PM
Two of my childhood friends pursued careers in crime, and thoughtfully used my name as an alias during several of their arrests. I first discovered it when I was flying back from my honeymoon ten years ago. Do you know how difficult it is to cross the Mexico/US border when your name is connected to that of a convicted drug dealer? I shudder to think what would happen if I ever get pulled over in AZ or CA, as there are active warrants for them there.
P.S. I so want to drive to work in a pirate. Or at least a pirate's ship. Arrrgh! (regarding the validation question).
Meloni at January 11, 2012 3:17 PM
Reynolds lately has been pointing out something I didn't know... that under English common law, the legal remedy for all sorts of police misbehavior was that they were torts; the person whose due process was denied could sue the cop. Apparently, absolute immunity for police was a 20th-century invention, and not a historical precedent like we're often told.
Cousin Dave at January 11, 2012 5:55 PM
Basically anyone who has my last name is somehow distantly related to me, at least legally. That sucks. What really sucked was that I had a relative that differed on his middle initial up for a DUI vehicular manslaughter in PA at the same time I was trying to get into the professional tech market in 98/99 timeframe. He did 18-36 months for it. I don't know if that ever effected me, but I worry it did.
The Denver police are doing the same thing that California is doing with child support. They are presuming that by the simple fact that your name matches you are therefore guilty.
What the detainees need to file an immediate writ of habeas corpus. The problem is that most people don't know they exist unless they have been through the system for reason.
writ of habeas corpus:
Jim P. at January 11, 2012 7:09 PM
Regarding the mentioned Canton officer being fired:
"Canton's police union said Harless has been diagnosed with PTSD and they had hoped for a better outcome."
That seems to help point out a big part of the whole issue: the unions in these cases tend to have far too much power. They're too connected and tend to get people put on "leave" no matter how egregious the problems are with them.
Miguelitosd at January 11, 2012 8:47 PM
Well, to be fair, the cops are far too busy at the moment fighting the excessive force charges against them to deal with anything else.
Seriously, I live north of Denver and the number of "cops behaving badly" videos is startling. IIRC, they got a new chief recently. I hope the guy can turn the department around - it sounds like there was a lot of "Ignore the problem" going on there. Scary.
Daghain at January 12, 2012 8:41 PM
Unbelievably, officials often failed to check whether the arrested person's race or gender matched that of the person they were supposed to be arresting, reports Osher.
I think that if you start looking at the state of policing in this country, it will become not only believable, but in fact predictable.
Phelps at January 15, 2012 3:57 PM
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