WHEATON, Md. (WUSA) --- Montgomery County Police have begun an internal affairs investigation of officers whom Kensington photographer Mannie Garcia says attacked him, arrested him, and charged him with disturbing the peace after he took pictures of them making arrests of two men in an underage drinking case in Wheaton.
Garcia, an award-winning professional photographer, has covered wars throughout the world, and has been assigned to cover the presidential administrations of George Herbert Walker Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
GO HERE to see more, and video.
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
18 comments:
Don't the police read news reports and court cases that would they them, RECORDING OF THE POLICE IS LEGAL!
How many lawsuits must they lose before it sinks in?
Since when do police care about the law? Citizens are a threat to them, especially if you have a camera. You immediately become suspicious and they react with all vindictiveness humanly possible. They will beat you, knee you in the head, kick you when you are cuffed. H%ll, Worcester
canine LEO threw a guy down so hard he crapped himself and was in the hospital urinating blood. For a filling in his teeth!! during an illegal search @ the casino, where the cops were stalking patrons and making false accusations to stop them as they were leaving. It is a bad situation and getting worse. Shame people just don't see it in the MSM to the degree with which it really happens. They will answer to almighty one day.
There used to be a time when most of the public respected and stood behind the police.
More and more stories like this, and worse, are becoming all too frequent. Is it any wonder the public sentiment has been reversed?
Now instead of being shocked when one is killed or shot at, more often than not we wonder if he deserved it or was doing something he should not have been and brought it on himself/herself.
That may sound harsh and/or I am attacking the police but from what I have been reading and watching videos of, it just confirms my suspicions.
And I believe it involves more than any 1% of bad apples we keep being told.
I am referring to convictions, not some baseless claims by criminals trying to get off.
Anyone can Google it and find out for themselves, at least until they censor the internet.
Youtube is full of videos that show such things. Too many in fact for me to watch them all.
And it's just not this state. It is COUNTRY wide.
I am beginning to be more afraid of police than criminals, although sometimes they are one and the same.
At least criminals won't lock you up for defending yourself or exercising your rights.
90% off all police misconduct allegations are proven false and/or made up by the complainant.
At least criminals won't lock you up for defending yourself or exercising your rights.
January 19, 2012 7:47 PM
Or maybe they do?
CORRECTION:
"90% off all police misconduct allegations are proven false..."
By an internal review board consisting of police, police and more police... You know? That band of brother's in blue??Proclaiming they are Protecting each other... Only a fool believes that. It is as ridiculous as the 99% good cop claim. Especially in the face of ever increasing evidence completely to the contrary. That is the problem with them..... Never wrong. LOL.
90% off all police misconduct allegations are proven false and/or made up by the complainant.
January 19, 2012 9:51 PM
Here you go again with unfounded claims again. Where is your proof this time?
9:51 PM
While the rate of police officers officially charged with murder is only 1.06% higher than the current general population murder rate, if excessive force complaints involving fatalities were prosecuted as murder the murder rate for law enforcement officers would exceed the general population murder rate by 472%
Per a recent analysis we published this year using data gathered by the NPMSRP from April of 2009 through December of 2010 we determined that prosecuting police misconduct in the US is very problematic with conviction rates, incarceration rates, and the amount of time law enforcement officers spend behind bars for criminal misconduct are all far lower than what happens when ordinary citizens face criminal charges.
From that report we established a baseline by examining the latest data released by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) which indicated that the conviction rate for members of the general public who were tried on criminal charges ranged around 68% from 2002 through 2006. Furthermore, the US BJS reports indicated that the incarceration rate remained fairly stable at an average of 70% and the average length of post-conviction incarceration for the general public was 49 months.
For a comparison we used data from our National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project (NPMSRP) which tracked over 8,300 credible reports involving allegations of police misconduct in the US from April of 2009 through December 2010 which involved nearly 11,000 law enforcement officers within those 21 months. Of those reported allegations, only 3,238 resulted in criminal charges against law enforcement officers. Of those 3,238 criminal cases against law enforcement officers in the US, only 1,063 officers were ultimately convicted of those charges or reduced charges associated with the original allegations. Of the law enforcement officers who were ultimately convicted, 36% were ultimately sentenced to spend any time incarcerated and the average length of incarceration for those sentenced to prison or jail was approximately 34.6 months.
9:51 PM
Federal prosecutors are targeting a rising number of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality, Justice Department statistics show. The heightened prosecutions come as the nation's largest police union fears that agencies are dropping standards to fill thousands of vacancies and "scrimping" on training.
Cases in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victims' civil rights have increased 25% (281 vs. 224) from fiscal years 2001 to 2007 over the previous seven years, the department says.
During the same period, the department says it won 53% more convictions (391 vs. 256). Some cases result in multiple convictions.
Federal records show the vast majority of police brutality cases referred by investigators are not prosecuted.
9:51 PM
Or maybe you meant 90% were not PROSECUTED. That does not translate to not CONVICTED. It translates they were never brought to TRIAL.
In its post-Sept. 11 reorganization, the FBI listed police misconduct as one of its highest civil rights priorities to keep pace with an anticipated increase in police hiring through 2009.
The increasing Justice numbers generally correspond to a USA TODAY analysis of federal law enforcement prosecutions using data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.
Those data show 42 law enforcement prosecutions during the first 10 months of fiscal year 2007, a 66% increase from all of fiscal 2002 and a 61% rise from a decade ago.
David Burnham, the co-founder of the TRAC database, says prosecutions appear to be increasing, but "more important" are the numbers of cases prosecutors decline.
Last year, 96% of cases referred for prosecution by investigative agencies were declined.
In 2005, 98% were declined, a rate that has remained "extremely high" under every administration dating to President Carter, according to a TRAC report.
The high refusal rates, say Burnham and law enforcement analysts, result in part from the extraordinary difficulty in prosecuting abuse cases. Juries are conditioned to believe cops, and victims' credibility is often challenged.
"When police are accused of wrongdoing, the world is turned upside down," Harris says. "In some cases, it may be impossible for (juries) to make the adjustment."
9:51
The Star Tribune recently published an article about how Minneapolis Minnesota Police Chief Tim Dolan ignores 84% of the cases that the Civilian Review Authority forwards to him for disciplinary action. Despite Dolan’s reluctance to discipline officers and the resultant large number of civil rights litigation payouts lately, Dolan’s term as chief was renewed with some city officials even candidly saying nobody cares about civil rights so long as crime rates are down… Perhaps that’s why Minneapolis ranks worst in its class in our 2009 Police Misconduct Statistical Report.
In Illinois, police accountability and transparency took a hit this week now that the state house passed a bill that would hide public employee performance records from Freedom of Information Act requests only 10 weeks after FOIA reforms took effect in that state. The law wouldn’t just let police departments hide misconduct records, but actually makes it illegal for them to disclose them even when they want to.
State laws like the one planned for Illinois not only hide misconduct from the people, sometimes they hide misconduct from other cops too, like in Haubstadt Indiana where a police officer with a past now faces felony charges for falsifying time cards and stealing money from the department’s evidence room. The officer involved, Micah Rulli, resigned from his previous job as a Lakeville Indiana cop after he signed a deal with the Lakeville town board that stopped an investigation into four different violations including conduct unbecoming and immoral conduct. So the town of Haubstadt had no idea of the problems they invited when they hired Micah. Which goes to show that when there’s no accountability and transparency, everyone loses, even the police.
Of course, as we noted in our report on police transparency laws and law enforcement fatality rates, many states have laws that effectively hide police misconduct records. Texas, for example, has a strange set of laws, thanks to police union lobbying efforts in the 70′s, that exempt some cities from having to release misconduct records while other cities have to. The Dallas News found this out when they tried to dig into a story about a Garland TX narcotics officer who was reported by his fellow officers for falsifying arrest reports, even though that case stands to jeopardize 100′s of criminal charges and convictions.
While the use of news reports to generate statistical data may seem strange, keep in mind that police departments do not normally release any detailed information about disciplinary matters, and sometimes they don’t release anything at all. The use of court records by themselves would only garner information about misconduct cases that were successfully prosecuted and would miss confidential settlements and cases of misconduct that were not prosecuted but did result in internal disciplinary action.
It should be noted that the use of media reports acts as a filter that limits the number of outwardly questionable allegations of misconduct but may also suffer from under-reporting due to laws that limit the amount of information law enforcement agencies report to the press. Therefore, if anything, the resulting statistics we publish should be considered as a low-end estimate of the current rate of police misconduct in the United States and for any locality we cite.
The following report was generated from data gathered in the months of April 2009 through September 2009. In the last 6 months there were:
2,568 – Alleged victims of reported police misconduct.
2,854 – Law enforcement officers alleged to have engaged in misconduct.
207 – Law enforcement leaders (police chiefs or sheriffs) that were cited in those reports.
215 – Fatalities reported in connection with alleged instances of misconduct.
14.7 – Reported incidents of misconduct tracked per day on average or a report of misconduct every 98 minutes.
1 out of every 116.4 – Estimated number of officers who will be involved in a reported act of misconduct this year.
$128,306,406 – Reported costs in police misconduct related civil litigation, not counting legal fees or court costs.
Categorization
When examining misconduct reports by type, non-firearm related excessive force complaints were most common at 21.3% (652) of all reports, followed by sexual misconduct complaints at 13.0% (397), and then fraud/theft reports at 9.8% (300).
When examining reports by last reported status, 32.8% had resulted in some sort of adverse outcome for the officers involved (25.7%) or their representative employers (7.1%). 215 (7.0%) officers were disciplined, 138 (4.5%) were fired, and of the 1018 who were criminally charged, 317 were convicted of a criminal offense for a 31.1% conviction rate.
Conviction Rate
68% of civilians charged are ultimately convicted
31% of police officers charged are ultimately convicted
Probation Sentence Rate
28% of convicted citizens are sentenced to probation.
38% of convicted police officers are sentenced to probation
Sentence Length
37 months – average civilian prison sentence length
14 months – average police officer sentence length
31% is a lot higher than then the 10% you claim 9:51.
And that is for only 6 months, not a whole year. And that is the numbers that are revealed. As pointed out, not all police reveal all instances which translates into more instances and more convictions.
And the previous examples of PROOF I have provided are limited to the time I spent researching them.
If I allowed more time into my searches, the results would be even higher.
You are just a propaganda machine for the police. Outright lies, half-truths and mis-information seems to be your forte.
My forte is exposing your inaccurate statements, and I LOVE DOING IT.
This is not the Daily Times. This is SBYNEWS. The truth is spoken here.
I can't stop you or anyone else from lying but I can, AND WILL, call you out on it and provide the truth for others to see. Thanks to Joe for letting me do that and well as others he allows to do so.
The days of cover-ups and fabrication of 'facts' are over my friend.
It will only get stronger from here on out. The people are not as naive and gullible as they have been in the past. And that will improve as well.
The best thing for you and others like you, to do, is stop being corrupt or change careers. You WILL be found out and exposed.
Karma is coming for you and it is PISSED.
And this is 50% conviction rate
September 15, 1999
Police Dept. Routinely Drops Cases of Officer Misconduct, Report Says
By KEVIN FLYNN
NEW YORK -- Hundreds of New York City police officers found to have engaged in
misconduct by an independent review board escaped punishment when their cases
were summarily dismissed by the Police Department without any further
investigation, according to a review of disciplinary files by the city's
Public Advocate's office.
The report is based upon an examination of police misconduct files that the
public advocate, Mark Green, obtained after suing the city. The report accuses
the Police Department of routinely dropping civilian complaint cases -- citing
a lack of evidence -- without ever interviewing victims or witnesses, or
making any other efforts to examine the strength of the evidence.
In one case, the report said, the department failed to discipline officers
accused of hitting and pushing two Brooklyn high school athletes during track
practice even though the students' account was supported by medical evidence
and corroborated by their coach. In another, the report said, the department
dismissed charges against an officer accused of beating a motorist during a
traffic stop in Manhattan even though the motorist's account was corroborated
by a witness and the review board found the officers' versions of the incident
"materially inconsistent."
The release of the case files comes as federal prosecutors are wrapping up
their inquiry into whether the department effectively encouraged brutality by
failing to discipline officers who engaged in misconduct. Some of the cases
that the Public Advocate's office examined are the same types that are under
review by prosecutors.
When a civilian files a complaint about police misconduct, it is usually
reviewed by the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent body that can
recommend discipline in complaints it substantiates. But the ultimate decision
to discipline officers is made by police officials, to whom the review board
forwards its cases.
For years, critics have questioned the Police Department's commitment to
disciplining misconduct because only about half of the officers against whom
civilian complaints are substantiated are ever punished.
The 45-page report by Green is the first case-by-case analysis of what happens
to complaints substantiated by the review board once they are turned over to
police officials. It is based on a review of the files involving 420 officers
whose cases were decided by police officials between 1994 and 1997.
Police officials said on Tuesday that they had not seen Green's report, a copy
of which was obtained by The New York Times, but said they believed it was a
biased document that ignored both the valid reasons why so many cases are
dismissed and dramatic improvements in the disciplinary process since the time
period Green studied.
For example, the officials said, during 1995, one of the years Green's office
examined, the review board did not turn over nearly a quarter of the cases
until after the statute of limitations for disciplining officers had already
expired.
"This is a typical Mark Green report that uses information that is favorable
to the agenda he is pursuing," said Marilyn Mode, a department spokeswoman,
"and that fails to look at the global picture and the progress that
Commissioner (Howard) Safir has made to fix the problem."
But Green said his analysis had found many examples of cases that were turned
over in a timely manner but were tossed out by police officials who seemed to
seize on procedural technicalities or slight inconsistencies in evidence.
"Why are they dismissing cases that are substantiated by the CCRB when they
neither do their own independent investigation or provide any subsequent
explanation of what was wrong?" Green asked in an interview. "Based on our
case-by-case research so far, they appear more interested in protecting rather
than prosecuting officers."
Green's office described its report as an interim analysis and said it will be
issuing a final report in several months after it has finished reviewing the
other 600 civilian complaints that the review board substantiated between 1994
and 1997.
Funny how the boys in blue scatter like roaches in the face of real statistics. TRUTH!Justice! They hate it!
Funny how the boys in blue scatter like roaches in the face of real statistics. TRUTH!Justice! They hate it!
January 20, 2012 10:00 AM
You are absolutely correct.
They must think everyone believes anything and everything that comes out of their mouths just because they are cops.
Slowly they are beginning to see that is not the case.
Sorry for the real, good, cops that are affected by this but, if you don't police your own, and sweep things under the carpet as a courtesy to your fellow officers, you are just as bad as they are.
It's getting worse, not better.
These types of actions not only affect the cops, they affect EVERYONE.
Denying it or excusing it will not make it get better or go away.
Some of you WILL get away with it but some of you will NOT. And thankfully, that number is increasing also.
You may have a difficult job and a dangerous one but that does not excuse your ILLEGAL and unethical actions.
It is LEGAL to video or take pictures of you. It is not only LEGAL but everyone's DUTY to disobey unlawful orders given by police.
The sooner you guys realize that and do the right thing, the better it will be for everyone.
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