Monday, June 30, 2008

The Jack-Booted Thug(s) of the Week...

...are the four undercover NYPD officers, conveniently unnamed, who arrested and charged four men with drug offenses. The cops swore under oath that they purchased drugs from the men.

There's just one small detail - the surveillance camera that recorded the entire incident, and which showed without a doubt that there was no contact whatsoever between the officers and the suspects.

"Two hours of video showed no contact at all between the four men arrested and undercover officers - proof that lead [sic] prosecutors to drop charges against the four men, and even declare in court the men did not commit the crime."

Ouch. Hoisted by their own surveillance petard, as it were.

To make matters worse, the officers are now under investigation by the department, but none of them have been suspended:

"The NYPD is investigating the officers involved in this incident. Two of the officers are reportedly on modified duty."

That's the spirit - show the rest of the force that framing innocent people and committing perjury isn't even serious enough to get a paid vacation from duty.

Maybe this "surveillance society" isn't so bad after all, if it catches dirty, lying cops preying on innocent peasants, presumably to make some sort of quota. In fact, it reminds me to check that the batteries in the portable audio recorder located in my vehicle are fully charged, in order to help prevent this sort of incident from ever happening to me. I use something similar to this; it's unobtrusive and relatively inexpensive, especially if it saves one's bacon from being charged with a crime that they didn't commit.

I'm sure the cops won't mind. After all, if they have nothing to hide, what are they worried about?

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