Posted on 03/21/2009 9:02:15 PM PDT by Inappropriate Laughter
ON A SWELTERING July afternoon in 2007, Officer Jeffrey Cujdik and his narcotics squad members raided an Olney tobacco shop.
Then, with guns drawn, they did something bizarre: They smashed two surveillance cameras with a metal rod, said store owners David and Eunice Nam.
The five plainclothes officers yanked camera wires from the ceiling. They forced the slight, frail Korean couple to the vinyl floor and cuffed them with plastic wrist ties.
"I so scared," said Eunice Nam, 56. "We were on floor. Handcuffs on me. I so, so scared, I wet my pants."
The officers rifled through drawers, dumped cigarette cartons on the floor and took cash from the registers. Then they hauled the Nams to jail.
The Nams were arrested for selling tiny ziplock bags that police consider drug paraphernalia, but which the couple described as tobacco pouches.
When they later unlocked their store, the Nams allege, they discovered that a case of lighter fluid and handfuls of Zippo lighters were missing. The police said they seized $2,573 in the raid. The Nams say they actually had between $3,800 and $4,000 in the store.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
I’m not referring to the 3 or 4 cops in CA that were shot...I’m talking about the cops that raided the Nam family’s shop. What happened in Oakland (???) was a terrible incident.
The thread has gone just where I figured it would.
Huh? Surely you're not saying that such cops DON'T deserve what's coming to them?
That somehow they are above the law?
Seesh.
Step to the rear son.
No judge, no jury, no verdict...
Why do you leftists hate the police so much?
George Bochetto, an attorney representing Cujdik, said the store owners' allegations are false.
But you know the allegations are true, because they're directed against a police officer.
Why do you leftists hate the police so much?
You're projecting your own thoughts upon me. I never said, nor would I endorse such a thing. You seem to be giving them a pass, when they clearly need to be brought to justice.
They only deserve punishment if they're guilty. But you've already convicted them.
Sorry. There is pretty good information here on which to base our judgment. If they were doing any sort of legit police work, they wouldn’t have smashed the security cameras. Right there, we have our first clue.
Then the fact they were busted for tiny plastic bags that cops claim were “drug paraphernalia.” I used to use tiny plastic bags for rubber bands for my braces and to hold counters in wargames. Its asinine to use that a basis for an arrest.
Face it, any conclusion other than “thugs with badges” is hard to reach. This was more like a shakedown. I suspect these folks haven’t kept current on their “protection” payments.
"George Bochetto, an attorney representing Cujdik, said the store owners' allegations are false."
it's a sad day when cops don't want people to know what they do for a living.
maybe if the media printed more positive stories it wouldn't be this way. but, alas, it is.
Where?
What the heck do you to expect the defendents’ attorney to say? “My clients confess that they did it and beg the jury for the courtesy of being hanged with new ropes.”
What defendent? Or are you so eager for a conviction you can't even wait for a cop to be charged before finding him guilty?
Where else would it go? When cops act like thugs are we supposed to gather around and form a rooting section for them?
Farther down you ask how another poster knows they are guilty. In answer, to the extent the alleged conduct is criminal (and I believe it is), they deserve their day in court - and so do the alleged victims and the public in general. But too often, nobody is called to answer to charges that many of us believe are credible and serious enough to warrant criminal prosecution.
I don't pretend to speak for everybody, but I believe various functions of law, internal policies, politics and personalities have created a system that ignores or even encourages the kind of thuggery described in the subject article and worse. I also believe if lack of enforcement upon the supposed enforcers is allowed to continue it is the right and duty of the people to defend themselves.
Absent intervention through the normal political process, which might sometimes include forceful and lawful exercise of rights, there will come a time when some folks will act preemptively. As it is in parts of Mexico now, a state of war will arrive quickly and it will be difficult to tell if anyone on either side has clean hands.
They haven't even been charged. However, several of their accusers have been convicted.
Shout it from the mountaintops, because that's sorta my point.
You must be one of the brave officers who participated in this well executed exercise in brutality. Obviously these people deserved to have their security system destroyed, their shop ransacked, to be robbed at gun point, and kidnapped and held for ransom.
They were selling ziplock bags. Everyone knows that the Glad corporation, maker of ziplock bags is public enemy number one. Grocery stores, which also sell these dangerous contraband bags, are in league with drug cartels to supply these essential tools without which the drug trade would collapse overnight.
Would you like a medal to commemorate your valiant stand against the evil zip lock bag?
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