Uhhhh... This comment is a minefield, but the problem is specific individuals in the police community who disproportionately are engaging in racist tactics, and an institution which protects these people. You should learn about the original slave patrols which modern US police have their roots in.
> "At least three to four nights a week they would have us riding through the neighborhoods," Ardoin said. "If you saw a random black person walking around the street and hasn't done anything, they would tell us just to jump out the vehicle, grab them and pat them down without probable cause. I voiced my opinions several times, and I didn't agree with that."
Many of my black friends used to call the local police the "jump out boys". My friends had to grow up worried that they would be randomly planted with drugs. Unfortunately of all the people I know, I'm the one who actually ended up getting planted with drugs by a deranged cop, despite being white.
Can you elaborate on getting planted with drugs by a deranged cop? what happened? How did you get out of that situation? Were you able to prove your innocence?
It happened 11 years ago when I was a minor living in a small, extraordinarily corrupt town. The officer had been stalking my friends and I for some time. She is a known meth manufacturer and distributor. She planted drugs on me at the scene of an accident and conspired with the local prosecutor, judge and my public defender in order to give me a mistrial and snuff out any attempts at an appeal. I got the maximum allowed sentence despite no prior criminal history. Unfortunately I was 17 and homeless at the time just trying to graduate high school, unable to fight back.
The full story is much longer and so insane that I don't even want to open the full can of worms here at the moment, but I should do a write-up and talk to a lawyer now that I have the time/money, despite the statute of limitations which probably protects them.
I mean I've literally watched this officer with my own eyes procure meth ingredients, I have footage of her distributing, some people I know murdered her brother and there was a giant meth lab found at his house, it's just a total unbelievable shit show from start to finish. But I was the one who got railed. The FBI refuses to get involved despite numerous tips.
> She planted drugs on me at the scene of an accident and conspired with the local prosecutor, judge and my public defender in order to give me a mistrial and snuff out any attempts at an appeal.
mistrial, in law, a trial that has been terminated and declared void before the tribunal can hand down a decision or render a verdict. The termination of a trial prematurely nullifies the preceding proceedings as if they had not taken place.
Other than that it’s a totally credible story about a meth-cooking police officer…
I have no need to convince you, a random person on hacker news. It's a small enough town that next to everyone knows her story. There has been more than one investigation but she's protected. She was stalking my friends and I due to disagreements between her son and some of my friends at school.
As for the mistrial, it's only in spirit because my public defender flat out refused to take my case seriously and refused to appeal on grounds that it would make her life difficult.
It's hard to make people believe or understand what small town corruption is like unless they've seen it for themselves. The mayor himself showed up at the place I was crashing at after I got arrested just to further make things more difficult for me... what kind of psychotic town allows for such behavior?
It's nuts. With my own two eyes I once watched this cop in question pull up to a grocery store in her patrol car in broad daylight with a near-toothless old woman in the passenger seat. That old woman proceeded to go into the store and buy a stack of Sudafed, got back in the patrol car and they rolled out. I guessed that she was having supplier issues and needed a fix, so she found a smurf.
I thought about calling the police and getting them to review the footage, but it was a crapshoot who showed up and if I would only get into more trouble.
Tangential to the above comment, you have to also remember that in the U.S. many police forces are also revenue drivers. For many small towns on highways, they have "speed traps" set up not really to keep roadways safe but to ticket people and get revenue for their municipality, ditto with other legal actions against people. There's a significant amount of civil forfeiture too that amounts to cops seizing assets with little to no cause. I mention this just because corruption isn't always as straightforward as what that absolutely insane situation sounds like, but the incentives in many U.S. jurisdictions are pretty misaligned and so can create pretty negative situations for the average American interacting with a cop.
Yes, our town was off a major highway and getting in and out of town is a blitz through multiple factions of police including the Sheriff's Office, town police, state troopers and extra enforcement from the nearby capitol city. They are especially active during what is known as Taskforce Thursdays. It's a racket from top to bottom. You feel like a criminal just going to get groceries, like a lamb watching for wolves.
My arresting officer has been kicked off of the local force before and reinstated. Until a few years ago, the father of the local district attorney was the the town's mayor. The same mayor was the town bail bondsman. When I was processed, the town's mayor himself visited the parents of the friend I was staying with at the time in a play to get me kicked out and back on the street.
It's an insane town and it's ruled by a few wealthy families. The corruption in that town was unimaginable and I myself was subject to an abusive power figure as my guardian while growing up, that same man is great friends with the same prosecutor who conspired to press charges and conduct a mistrial. I can't get away from it.
What do you mean by mistrial here? How did you get any sentence if there was a mistrial? Why would they conspire to commit one unless they were on trial and not you?
My first public defender was removed from me because he was trying to assist me.
My second lawyer didn't know my name after two years, prepared no defense and refused to file a motion to quash (the town dragged on proceedings for years and it turned out they'd never sent the "evidence" to the lab).
I had half a dozen cops approach the stand, sequestered, and each of them told a totally different story. My only witness then got slapped with a charge for "lying to the police", whatever that was in legalese, and the judge ignored all of the inconsistencies. I should also mention that my right to a trial by jury was taken away from me in an act of deceit, where I, a minor without a lawyer or guardian present, was made to sign a document upon bail which gave up that right. I was told at the time that they would not release me on bail unless I signed the document.
My lawyer then refused to file an appeal because it would, and I quote, "make [her] job miserable", because her de facto boss was the judge, who happened to be the only presiding judge across two parishes.
My original public defender, who had been removed from my case, was so upset by the outcome that he came to visit me in jail, promised me he'd fight for me... he had a private screaming match with the judge in his office, but the best he could do was get me a reduced sentence on good behavior. I still had to pay thousands in fees and endure all of the other issues that come with the state having a vice grip around you.
Here, have a morsel from my old hometown.
https://www.wbrz.com/news/brpd-narcotics-officer-exposes-wro...
> "At least three to four nights a week they would have us riding through the neighborhoods," Ardoin said. "If you saw a random black person walking around the street and hasn't done anything, they would tell us just to jump out the vehicle, grab them and pat them down without probable cause. I voiced my opinions several times, and I didn't agree with that."
Many of my black friends used to call the local police the "jump out boys". My friends had to grow up worried that they would be randomly planted with drugs. Unfortunately of all the people I know, I'm the one who actually ended up getting planted with drugs by a deranged cop, despite being white.