the only time there punished is when there caught on tape. Minneapolis just paid 75k for some female cop who kicked a guy when he was down. The only thing that was bad about it is that she got caught.

River

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:10 pm the only time there punished is when there caught on tape. Minneapolis just paid 75k for some female cop who kicked a guy when he was down. The only thing that was bad about it is that she got caught.

River

Problem is that it is the City of Minneapolis that is paying and not the cop.

There should be an extra punishment for committing a crime while betraying the public trust. Cops should have to pay for criminal assaults like criminals and extra for betraying the public trust.

Moi

Oh, No! Not the soap box.

moi621 (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2010 10:29 pm Problem is that it is the City of Minneapolis that is paying and not the cop.

There should be an extra punishment for committing a crime while betraying the public trust. Cops should have to pay for criminal assaults like criminals and extra for betraying the public trust.

Moi

Oh, No! Not the soap box.

Do you mean like when Richard Nixon got pardoned?

I'll pass on the body cavaties of River, Uncle Flo, Kristoff, Paolo, etc.

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:20 pm I'll pass on the body cavaties of River, Uncle Flo, Kristoff, Paolo, etc.

So YOU are the undercover Cop.

MacTheWolf (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2010 11:20 pm I'll pass on the body cavaties of River, Uncle Flo, Kristoff, Paolo, etc.

Awww, drat. --FLO--

Awww, drat. --FLO--

See Flo you said nothing and still got hammered,

River

*Cough* Robert Dziekanski *Cough*

Let me tell you a story about our faithful law enforcers. In March of last year my partner, "T", was out running errands one morning in Round Rock TX when he stopped at a city park to use the bathroom. When he went in there, the toilet stall had no door which was strange, but he needed to go badly and the nearby stores weren't open yet. While he was sitting in the stall a man entered the men's room, walked right into his stall and made sexual advances toward him. Now most gay men are used to running into the occasional bathroom cruiser, so he just told the guy thanks but no thanks, thinking the guy would leave. However the guy just stood there in the stall with him, so he got up, pulled his pants up and walked out past the guy. When he walked out the men's room door about a half dozen cops were waiting for him outside and the guy from the stall grabbed him from behind and cuffed him. He was arrested and charged with "indecent exposure."

It took 36 hours for me to get him out on bond because the Williamson County jail keeps arrestees as late as possible on the second day so they can get another day's money from the state for having them in custody. It took almost a year to get the case resolved, and in the end he had to take a deal because we ran out of money to continue paying his defense attorney and couldn't afford his trial fees, especially since Williamson County juries almost always return guilty verdicts in these cases so we most likely would have had to go to appeal. He wound up with 15 months probation. This whole ordeal has cost us thousands of dollars in attorney fees, fines, court costs, and now monthly probation fees, plus he now has to be evaluated by a psychologist at his own cost. Not to mention the loss of our peace of mind, our sense of safety and trust, and "T"'s dignity and self-esteem. All for something the he didn't even do in the first place. He has nightmares almost every night in which he is arrested in the middle of some everyday, perfectly legal activity. He has also developed an intense phobia of public restrooms.

I did some digging and found out that this sort of thing has been happening at that particular park for decades. The local cops call it "fishing for queers" and pretty much any gay (or gay-looking) man who walks into that men's room walks out in handcuffs. It's pretty obvious why the stall there has no door on it.

Now I've had a few good experiences with police officers and a few unpleasant ones in my lifetime, but after this I can never, ever look at a cop again without feeling a strong sense of mistrust. What happened to "T" is by no means unique to our county. Every year in this country thousands of gay men are arrested in public restrooms, and while almost certainly some of them are there looking for action, the majority are either taken in by skilled entrapment artists or just flat out falsely arrested like my partner was. A few have both the money and courage to fight the charge, but most are driven by embarrassment or lack of funds to plead the case out, and the ones who have to accept a court-appointed defender almost always wind up with the worst deals. I can't deny the good and heroic things done by many officers, however it also can't be denied that police harassment of gays continues largely unabated in this country and nobody really seems to want to do anything about it.

EunuchAusTX, your touching story highlights exactly what I said in my previous post, and I will say it again here:

DeaconBlues (imported) wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2010 1:31 am The law enforcement professionals in the U.S. today are much better at catching the average law abiding citizen who makes an occasional mistake, than they are at catching any real criminals.

It infuriates me, that cowardly creeps like the "vice-squad" wannabees who arrested your partner, get the same sort of badge as the few real cops who actually wear uniforms, go on patrols, and confront real criminals. See, these COWARDLY wannabees, they really want to play cop, they want to wear a cop's badge ("Just like a REAL policeman!") but they sure don't want to do any of the hard work or face any of the truly unpleasant sorts of criminals out there. The COWARDLY wannabees just love to "set up a sting" (i.e. entrap) and nab someone who is unarmed, non-violent, and usually too stunned to offer even verbal resistance. The COWARDLY wannabees are the favorite little darlings of the GREEDY court system and the prosecutors, and oddly enough, the DEFENSE lawyers love them too for brining them so much business!

The COWARDLY wannabees learn very early in their career that real criminals are just downright unpleasant and rude to deal with, heck, sometimes they carry weapons! Better to leave the real criminals alone, maybe every once in a while a real cop meets up with a real criminal and that's getting to be an ever so rare occurance in the U.S.... So the COWARDLY wannabees learn real quick just how to get the otherwise law abiding citizen into a trap, or at the very worst, when the YELLOW BACK piece of trash gets relatively "ballsey" he will "set up a sting" and masquerade as a prostitute or as a "John" where the most dangerous thing the COWARDLY wannabee will have to confront is a pissed of prostitute.

Reading your story really got me angry because your story is NOT at all unique, it is in fact very common, especially in the "bible belt" states.