Well, said. I used to believe it with all my heart -- came from a long line of L.E., but things have changed in St. Louis (one grandfather actually installed [i.e. developed the electric lock system in the original City Jail, so I've been told, and the other served on the force] have uncles who served for 52 years on the force,cousins still serving, married the son of an officer, was placed in the playpen along side him at the clubhouse on the river on Sundays when we were babies -- probably bonked him on the head with my rattle, work at a law firm now. I'd like to believe again that what I came from still exists, but the sad fact is, I don't.
I think this post will "light up" with stories from across this nation of prosecutorial and L.E. misconduct, negligence and failure to serve and protect. Many may be invalid, but I'd say that these days more will be valid than not. It USED to be a fluke. Now, it's the norm. People used to go to prison for major crimes, caught red-handed or witnessed by others. Are you aware that now you can go to jail for words? Duke isn't a fluke -- you're mistaken.
A person in our country today can actually go to prison if someone walks into a police station and accuses him or her of a crime -- with no evidence, no witnesses to the alleged crime, no NOTHIN'? You can even have up to 60 witnesses to say absolutely NOTHING HAPPENED, THEY WEREN'T EVEN HERE, and it can happen. I've checked among defense attorneys here locally and it happens all the time -- the accuser will lose, of course, but you can be financially ruined proving your innocense, and if you can't afford to defend yourself, you will go to prison on the word of anybody off the street with no proof thereof. Cops salve their consciences with "Better safe than sorry."
Additionally, if you can't afford to wait for the two long years for it to go to trial with your life on hold --because you can't get a job or go to school anywhere in this country with a felony charge hanging over your head, you'll take a plea. Geez, Jezzie, it's like shooting ducks in a barrel for any unscrupulous individual with an axe to grind or uncontrolled envy -- and my Uncle Gouvy and the fellow he ghost-wrote the Constitution for, Mr. Jefferson, never, ever meant it to happen that way.
I may not be a trained professional investigator or have my J.D., but I know when I'm being "shined on" and this is a scam -- a filthy, rotton scam.