Posted on 07/10/2020 2:00:13 PM PDT by mac_truck
LOS ANGELES - Three Los Angeles police officers have been charged with falsifying records reporting that people they stopped were gang members or associates, prosecutors said Friday.
The members of the Police Department’s Metropolitan Division were charged Thursday in a 59-count complaint alleging one count each of conspiracy to obstruct justice and multiple counts of filing a false police report and preparing false documentary evidence.
The officers were identified as Braxton Shaw, 37; Michael Coblentz, 42, and Nicolas Martinez, 36.
Directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing LAPD officers, said it expects the department “to investigate this matter fully in a fair and objective manner to determine the facts, ensure that officers are accorded their due process rights and any proven mischaracterizations are corrected.”
Shaw faces the most potential liability. Accused of falsifying 43 field interview cards, he could receive up to nearly 32 years in jail if convicted.
His attorney, Gregory G. Yacoubian, wrote in an email that he was confident his client will be cleared of wrongdoing, saying he always acted at the direction of police leadership.
“Braxton has devoted his personal life and professional law enforcement career to enhancing the quality of life for everyone,“ Yacoubian said.
The case involves so-called field interview cards filled out by officers, in this case by officers from Metropolitan Division, which puts crimes-suppression units on the streets.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Defund the police.
Problem solved.
It’s kind of annoying when cops make up reasons they stopped you.
I’ve heard some, even here, call it good policing. Cops noticing someone they want to pull over and then looking for some excuse to do so. Cops who call it ‘intuition’ and decide to stop and question someone who has given them no quantifiable reason for doing so, just on the basis of ‘gut’ feelings. Copsuckers stand up for police doing it.
You have to have legitimate probable cause to charge someone of a crime (IE, arrest); you only need be able to articulate your suspicion to stop and question someone. Both justifications must be stated on the incident or arrest report.
If caught lying - they should suffer the severest punishment available. Bad cops are worse than no cops.
It’s a stupid unconstitutional law to begin with. Freedom of association. I am no fan of criminal gangs, but it shouldn’t be relevant to criminal prosecution. You do the crime, you do the time regardless of which color hat you wear.
Friend of mine had a cousin who was a real bad fellow, but real intelligent. Arrested dozens of times, nothing stuck. Finally the cops brought a bunch of stolen goods to a guy’s garage, who had been caught in the act with a minor girl. “You testify that Dennis brought this stuff here, and you had no idea it was stolen. We’ll forget about the 16 year old”. He did three years, of a five year sentence.
Guy who ratted him out disappeared, no one ever knew if he fled, or was dead.
And that is why so many blacks (in particular) are really pissed. I don’t give a damn if a cop can “articulate suspicion” or not; they have far too much leeway and it is going to be taken from them, the question is at what cost to us. What percentage of people that a cop could ‘articulate suspicion’ fall into what race, compared to the general population; if I were black it would piss me way off if it doesn’t match pretty closely. How much of what many copsuckers think is legitimate suspicion is actually racism or generally jackbooted thuggery?
Just like the cops that watch the freeway closely and look for the tiniest pretenses to pull over someone they think is carrying drugs. Some people think this is a Good Thing, some think it’s a police state if you don’t look and act exactly like a cop thinks someone should look and act.
Whose problem Jeff?
And the donut munchers wonder why the defund movement has gained so much traction.
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