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

... are Philadelphia, Pennsylvania police officer Jeffrey Cujdik and the rest of his merry band of plainclothes narcotics officers, who are accused of rousting mom-and-pop convenience stores on trumped-up charges of selling small plastic bags sometimes used for packaging drugs, and subsequently stealing cash, large amounts of cigarettes and other store items such as food and drinks from the shops.

More chillingly, no less than eight stores have independently reported that Cujdik and the other "officers" did something very curious on the raids - they disabled the security systems upon entry by smashing them to pieces:

"The Daily News interviewed seven store owners and an attorney representing another. Independently, they told similar stories: Cujdik and fellow officers destroyed or cut the wires to surveillance cameras. Some store owners said they watched as officers took food and slurped energy drinks. Other store owners said cigarette cartons, batteries, cell phones and candy bars were missing after raids.

The officers also confiscated cash from the stores - a routine practice in Narcotics Field Unit raids - but didn't record the full amount on police property receipts, the shop owners allege."

As a police official (unnamed, of course; they don't want to be publicly known as a blue-wall crosser) notes in the article, there is absolutely no reason for cops to ever disable a videocamera system, as that basically amounts to evidence tampering:

"As for those broken surveillance cameras, officers have 'no reason to cut camera wires or destroy cameras,' said a high-ranking Philadelphia police official, who requested anonymity. 'None whatsoever.'

'It would look like they're trying to hide something,' the official said. 'It would look like they don't want to be on the surveillance camera themselves.'"

You think?

The heat has gotten so bad for the uniform-clad thugs that even their informants are starting to roll over on them, one actually going on record by name in print to outline how they benefited from Cujdik's largesse at the expense of the hard-working store owners:

"At least three former police informants who worked with Cujdik told the Daily News that he often gave them cartons of cigarettes.

'When he raided a corner store, he'd give me cigarettes,' said Tiffany Gorham, a former Cujdik informant."

Thankfully, Cujdik and the rest the bullies he led on these profitable raids are now under investigation by both local and federal agencies, which hopefully spells the end of their ugly little reign of terror in Philly.

If the allegations against them are substantiated, those (soon-to-be-ex) cops had better start hoarding all of those stolen cigarettes. We hear that they're valuable currency where those reprehensible creeps are soon headed.