This was an interesting article. It explains how six police officers had been taken over by corruption. They admitted to participating in robberies and firearm violence. Among the six, two of them are fighting the charges in court. The officers were detained for over a year in prison, now they face a life in prison sentence. They illegally used drugs and interacted with drug dealers. They were also apart of robberies. After each of these reckless events, the officers lied on the paper work in order to hide their actions from others in the system. They also lied about their pay checks. They arrived for their shift late and they would leave early. They also revealed that they were getting paid on their off days. “Hines said the prosecution, “Isn’t a case against all police. It’s a case against a group of criminals who happened to hide behind a badge.” Wow, I liked how this statement was worded as it separated these men from the officer’s roll. They are going to judge them and not all police officers. We see them as men not tightly pressed uniformed officers. I thought this approach to the situation was simple and yet powerful. We tend to view police with the highest esteem, which is good and respectable. However, we need to keep in mind, they are humans as are we. They just have a greater responsibility to the community at large than we the average citizen does. I thought this was a great article as it shows the reality of the criminal justice system and how it is made up with humans, who are prone to make mistakes. I also appreciated how the authorizes handled the situation. They did not side with the wrong actions committed by their officers. They were able to give the men the right and just sentence for their actions. - CoalRoller003
I really liked how that quote was said as well. It’s not going to target the entire law enforcement. It’s only targeting the police officers that committed the crimes. I also agree that humans make mistakes too. If anyone says they haven't made a mistake in life they might be lying. -Soccer003
The article talks about a case in Baltimore called the Gun Trace Task Force Trail involving multiple police officers who stole thousands of dollars, driving fast at large crowds of young men to see who would run first, profiling certain types of vehicles, and making unjustified stops and searches. Six members of the task force pleaded guilty to federal charges that include racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations. Those police officers would even clock in while they were on vacation or even when they left for the day so they could make extra money. Then they would take large amounts of money from criminals and drug dealers while taking them to jail without reporting the money to the department and would split the money at a bar or somewhere. They even planted BB guns in the cars of criminals so they could take them into the police station. These are prime examples why a lot of people do not like police officers steal and do unjustified acts to the people in the community. Which is mentioned in the article that every police officer will or have been faced with the same situation as in to follow the rules or to treat people in a cruel way. But it is still sad to see that these police officers would do certain things in the community just because. Police departments want people in the community to trust the police officers who do stuff like this. Which makes it hard for a lot of people to trust our policing system. These police officers give other officers who try to the right thing and actually trying to make the crime rate go down in the community a bad name. Some police officers are no better than the criminals. Batman.003
I have to agree with you- it is extremely sad to see this kind of stuff happening in our police departments in the U.S. Those truly good officers who are striving for change and trying to improve community relations are already struggling as it is, and when things like this happen, it becomes seemingly impossible to repair because the community feels like they need to fear the officers and develop hatred for them. GMan003
- This article was pretty difficult to read. After completing the other two articles due for class this week, seeing this happen and reading about it was hard because these are the types of police officers that ruin the community’s relationship with police departments, whether they’re good or bad. A short summary of this article is as follows: so far, 6 officers of the Gun Trace Task Force have pleaded guilty to charges that included racketeering, robbery, and firearms violations. These officers have been detained since their arrests in March, and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. During the trial, federal prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses to the trial- some of which included some officers who had admitted to playing a part in “brazen robberies,” as well as some drug dealers who were given immunity to speak out how the officers on trial took anywhere from several hundred dollars in cash to almost $200,000, as well as kilograms of drugs. In order to avoid being caught, these corrupt cops took to lying in confidential paperwork and in court to cover their tracks. The corrupt task force cops have been accused by witnesses of crimes dating all the way back to 2008. According to the article, much of the case is focused on the Task Force’s Sergeant, Wayne Jenkins, who supposedly had an “insatiable appetite to hunt down those he called “monsters” — drug dealers with large amounts of cash. They said Jenkins regularly encouraged illegal police tactics such as driving fast at large groups of young men to see who would run, profiling certain types of vehicles, and making unjustified stops and searches.” In addition to these sick accusations and admissions/encouragements, the Sergeant often would tell his officers to carry BB guns to plant on people. Although there was more to the article, I would like to discuss my thoughts about what I have summarized so far. To have the nerve to call yourself a police officer with not only the mindset of a sick criminal, but the actions of one as well, is a crime I believe to be worthy of the death penalty in certain situations, but at the very least life imprisonment. We cannot allow officers to do this sort of sick “work” and have little to no fear of repercussions. Our community-officer relationship is already struggling and things like this only make it significantly worse. GMan003
I completely agree with you, after watching a doctor, and a police chief talking about how they are seeing police agencies improve themselves, and work towards making community better. Then we read this article on how these six officers were committing crimes in the community and hiding behind the badge. Any corrupt police officer that encourages corrupt, and bully like behavior should face the maximum amount of prison time possible. The world doesn't need these types of bullies in a society, especially in a police department. We turn to these men and women for help, and when we expect to get the right help, and we get abused by authority, how is that right at all. I also agree that people already do not trust law enforcement agencies, and then the media blows something like this up it just severs the relationship more between law enforcement agencies, and the public. I-Like-Cereal003
As I was reading the article, I wasn’t surprised at all. I say that because there is always going to be bad cops out there. Believe it or not, people have a lowkey history of them doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing. But, everyone has a history when they were young, but its up to them to change that and those cops were willing to keep up their history. In the article, it says that cops were trying to plant BB guns in the someone car or something like that. I feel like that horrible why are you trying to get someone in trouble even if you don’t like them. In my Criminal justice class my professor says when you decide if you want to book someone, it takes a lot of paper work to go through just to get someone in jail. Why, waste your time trying to be a crooked cop? When you can give all your time to caught actual bad guys. Also, they mention something about the cops pulling someone over and the man tells them he has nothing on him and has money at home. The cops obviously have some type of bad connection with the guy and then for them to go to the mans house and take the mans money is the crazy part. It says that the cops went to the bar and split the money like everything was okay with that. Like I said before there are some crooked cops out there because they can take the advantage of them being a police because people are scared of the police or will listen to the police and that’s horrible Bball003
This is the prime example of why people in the community have a hard time trusting the police. These 6 officers took an oath and turned and behaved as criminals themselves. The crazy part is they thought they would get away with it. As an officer and more so a task force officer you should have common sense that this would come back on you. What they assumed because it was stolen from drug dealers that it made the crime ok. This goes back to those that get into policing as see it as only being a “job” and not a true calling for the betterment of your community. If I worked in the department with these six individuals I would feel ashamed. Thinking everyday that these men were out working when in actuality they were clocking hours that they didn’t earn or on vacation. So not only were they stealing from criminals but tax payers. This also would make one wonder what has been done that has yet to be uncovered. If they have gone as far as stealing money, robbery, racketeering etc. whose to say they haven’t committed murders and put them on someone else. Also, for the people who were convicted of these crimes they were falsely accused of. For example the BB gun that was placed. Does that conviction if there was a conviction, does that get overturned? I would also want to question and hold the chief of police accountable. As the chief one would assume that you would know what is going on in your police department unless you turned a blind eye to crimes. These were not small crimes. Also for the two officers that were propositioned and refused, did they report this immediately or swept it under the rug until they were caught. The should still be held accountable if that was the case. I am pretty sure all duty manuals and police policies are the same and it is your duty to immediately report any wrong doing. By waiting that leads me to believe you at least thought about it… Jadist003
I could not agree more. I think the title for this blog being "Law Enforcement and the oath" is too accurate because you hold yourself so accountable taking this type of career path and I do not understand how you let yourself become corrupt and fall into the same patterns of the people you are arresting. -holywaffles003
I completely agree with you. This article is the sheer reason why the community has a tough time trusting the police because of these individuals going around and committing crimes against them. I feel sorry for that community because I don't even know how you earn the communities trust back after what they did. -CUBSFAN003
This article is talking about how six police officers are facing a situation regarding their time in this task force and how they handled themselves during the course of their work. They did many wrong things, possibly taking large sums of money from people and criminals and numerous other illegal activities that they are supposed to be arresting people over. I think this is incredibly sad if all comes out to be true as this gives a bad idea to the whole law enforcement community. This makes all officers look bad to the public as they do not understand this is a group of officers gone bad. People do not understand that police officer's are human just like us. They were not born differently than us or with a holy mindset, they are just the same as us. Sometimes there are bad seeds in this profession but there are also bad janitors, corrupt politicians and bad McDonald's employees but officers are held to a higher standard because of their job and dealing with the public which is beyond understandable. When we call the police, we rely on them very heavily to solve our issue right then and there or at least make a solid attempt at trying. But to know these officer' were not helping anyone and not even helping to take care of these crimes but more concerned with the drugs, money and activities of others is very concerning and quite sickening. It will also be hard to tell of any innocence in this from others because once multiple do it, I think it is sad but it is almost assumed the other's are following the exact same pattern or are partaking in it because if it is more than just one person and it has not even come to light then it is worrisome who else may be involved. -holywaffles003
The article was about six police officers that pleaded guilty for crimes that they committed. The crimes were racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations. Some of the crimes that the officers committed go back to 2008. One of the officers motivated them to carry BB guns and place them on people. Officers said they put in thousands of dollars of time that they did not work. They would sometimes even show up late and still put in their scheduled time even though they didn't work that time. Another officer was encouraging illegal police strategies by targeting big groups of people and driving their car really fast at them to see who would run. They also did stops and searches that were unjustified and they also profiled specific kinds of cars.The officers also lied in paperwork and court to prevent people from finding out. There was more than thirty witnesses that were called during the trial. Some of those officers were officers that confessed. There were a few drug dealers that testified and told the court that the officers did take money and kilograms of drugs from them. After reading this article I was kind of frustrated. A lot of people don’t like police officers and this case might of made it worse. There are people in the community that don’t trust police officers and this is not going to make it any better. Not all police officers are bad or corrupt. Just because a few officers committed crimes does not mean all the officers were committing crimes. When you become a police officer, you take an oath. A police officer should know what to do. A police officer should know what’s right and what’s wrong. A police officer is supposed to help and protect the community, not go against it. I thought it was really sad that they went against that oath. -Soccer003
This article is about how police thought they were above the law, and how they victimized people below the law. Six members of a task force pled guilty to crimes of racketeering, robbery and firearms violations.Federal prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses during the trial, including officers who have admitted their roles in brazen robberies and drug dealers given immunity to testify that officers took cash and kilograms of drugs from them. The evidence depicted a dysfunctional police department in which officers confidently lied in official paperwork and in court to cover their tracks without fear of repercussions. This is crazy to think about even though you hear about it. It's crazy to think that someone we all trust to serve and protect us can cause so much harm and do wrong. It's also just makes you distrust the system makes you think about how many other officers are doing this and are still doing this and they have so much power. And to think this wouldn't have come to light if another officer wouldn't have stood up and said something. It does still give hope that there is good and we can still trust the system however there is going to be evils and people who are like this everywhere not just in the police force. I does leave you feeling disgusted though at these men that took an oath to serve and protect and did nothing but shit all over it. It also makes you think about that community have could they ever gain that trust back for the department to do the right thing. This was a very informative article and it definitely brought light to the bad. -pizza003
Generally,state ad local law enforcement police officers take the law enforcement oath of honor at the beginning of their careers. this is to affirms their standards of integrity and honor the community and law. From the auricle we this police officers did not follow the law in their work in community. They made a bad name to even the good cops out there. It now hard for the community to believe and trust the cops. All this cops forget that the community was also watching them but they did not eve know. There is perception that the cop culture is one of corruption when it comes to taking care of each other and the thin blue line or the brotherhood, This can lead to a lot of destruct from the public and its largely an unfair characterization. Of cause , few apples have earned that stigma but most officers want to weed out the dirty cops even more than the public. Few understand that bad cops makes all officers appear unethical. The situation of police corruption specially policemen planting evidence, stealing contraband for their own personal accounts, and falsifying police reports, is tremendous. There are few methods to curb the problem and firmly believe if this officers had been trained differently in the academy and field, screened more strictly, undergone ethics. Since corruption of this kind has existed in the police force, more screening should be the the police officers to make sure they are doing the right thing in the society. GUSII 003
This article was far from a happy read. While reading I felt ashamed of what these officers were doing to people in their community. These officers were planting fake guns on people to make it look like they were out on the street finding all of these guns, but in reality there where planting them. Ths caused these people to have to serve jail time even though they were completely innocent. Stories like this is what makes the public think that all officers are bad and they lie and cheat and take from the people and the system. This article shows why we have to much unrest and high tension when it comes to police in those day and age. These stories are the ones defining who police officers are when in actuality there are many good hard working men and women doing their job unlike these individuals. A majority of people in law enforcement do there job legally and get scrutinized by the public when they are not doing anything wrong. There was one part in the article when they said they went into a drug dealers house and took $20,000 from it and then divided it among themselves later. That is truly sickening to think about that these individuals were on the streets doing this. I think these individuals should be used as a teaching tool on how to not be a good police officer. These individuals are an embarrassment to their department and the whole police organization of the country. Overall, this article put into perspective on that some of these individuals are out there, but they should not define who the good police officers are doing their jobs. -CUBSFAN003
We live in a society where technology is at an all time high and is just getting more and more common and largely used. One of the biggest controversial topics is how officers can be unlawful. Now I’m not saying all police officers are unlawful and are perfect, because everyone has their fair share of mistakes and misunderstandings. But if one officer is on a specific police department, than that police department goes viral for one bad officer out of the other fifteen they may have on their department. This then creates a problem where people will disrespect officers because they assume, an officer is going to be unlawful or incorrect right off the bat. When in reality, most officers are just proceeding to do their job the right and proper way they were taught. The public would have to push for a court trial to convict certain police officers of unlawful bias of a crime. Now some officers get caught up in their job and think they are invincible. They are of higher power and believe that they are untouchable and can’t get in trouble because they seem to believe they are the law and make the decisions. But officers are put in effect to make sure people are following the law, they don’t create the law, just enforce it. There was an impactful quote from the article. “No man is above the law, and no man is beneath the law.” This is so true because officers were convicted of stealing from civilians and also filling incorrect police reports and turning them in. They should have incorporated the high number of cash, guns, and even drugs. But instead they kept it for themselves and used it for their own good. This then created a lot of problems and issues for the public because they did not trust the police department. #notaplumber003
This was a very interesting article to read and with how much of the bad stuff we hear about cops I am a little surprised I have not heard about this until now. The first thing I did was watch the video and the man was talking about how the officers represent the entire department and he seemed that he thinks the whole police department is corrupt in the city of Baltimore which I would not agree with. The saying of the few bad apples for example, it does not mean that the entire department is dirty, just a few of them were making mistakes. There are really going to always be cops that will take their power and abuse it to take from other people or just doing dumb things in general because they think that they can get away with it and eventually it will catch up to them. These six guys pled guilty because they knew that they had done wrong and they were screwed but the other two were not so much. Really the only solid evidence that they had on this Hersl guy was that he said he would adjust his time sheet to show that he was not working when he was suppose to be helping someone. Obviously that is wrong and he should not be doing that he should be doing his job but at least he is not adding payroll to himself he is taking it away but like the lawyer said, if the department had proof of him doing this they would be showing it to the jury and they were not. They also said that all of his banking accounts were in order and no stolen stuff was at his house. It seems to me that this guy was more on the innocent side to me but I am in no position to make this decision, but i think that they would need more. He said he had the choice to join them in their criminal acts and chose not to. -Steel003
It makes me mad that there are people in the world like this, but it also does not surprise me at all. There will always be those bad apples that makes everyone look bad. To be an officer and be doing this just makes me more angry. No wonder why the community does not have any trust in the police. As a police officer you should be the protector of the people. Even though you enforce the law and teach the law you are not above the law. I hope that these two police officers get life in prison. How could you encourage your fellow officers to carry a BB gun to plant on people, that is just unbelievable. They were not just robbing criminals but also stealing from the police force. They were altering times sheets and claiming they were working while they were at home or on vacation. One of the officers even planted an illegal GPS tracker on a known drug dealer and pulled him and his wife over. I understand that you want to get these kind of people off the streets but there is the right way to do it and a wrong way. Worse yet the officer even stole from the drug dealer as he was told of a pile of cash at the dealers house. The officer is no better than the drug dealer. Because of these cops are just a few rotten apples that need to be locked up. Because of them the good police officers have to work even harder to gain the trust of the community. I am glad that these officers got caught and it shows the public that police officers are not untouchable. Hopefully this will show other officers who are doing illegal activities such as these officers did that they will be caught sooner or later. -ClarkKent003
All police departments have officers, that believe that they are above the law, and corrupt officers. I 100 percent believe that police officers that are corrupt, and abusive should be severely punished. Corrupt police officers, not only make the police look bad, but they also make a toxic environment in the police department. Especially if it's an officer in leadership role, what officer is going to tell on the police chief for being corrupt and abusive. This gun trace task force in Baltimore is a perfect example of how people in leadership, and higherup roles can get away with being corrupt. The two detectives on this task forced, though they were above the law, and bullied and abused people who they thought were below the law. No matter what the six officers did, any officer who abuses their power, and subdues people by bullying them with their authority, should be punished, and put in jail for a long time, because we do not need those type of police officers in communities. There was also plenty of evidence in this case, with over 30 witnesses there was no doubt that these officers were corrupt bullies, and deserve every sentence that gets thrown at them. I really liked hines quote “This isn’t a case against all police.” “It’s a case against a group of criminals who happened to hide behind a badge.” These criminals were hiding behind their badge to get away with things, that they wouldn't get away with, if they were not police officers. It seems to me that this task force mainly targeted black males. Not only were they corrupt, but they were extremely racist as well. These officers have had a track record of being corrupt officers as well. One officer was banned from an entire district due to complaints placed on him. I-Like-Cereal003
It is no secret that some police officers act unlawfully but as it says in the article it isn’t against police, these people that act unlawfully are just criminals that hide behind a badge. They stole money and drugs from people and lied on police reports and are now facing life in prison because they commited all of these crimes. Officers said that one of the police officers being convicted Wayne Jenkins often encouraged illegal police tactics, these are the officers that need to have an eye kept on them. He encouraged to have police officers drive a cop car toward a large group of men to see who would run, profiling certain types of cars and making stops and searches that were unjustified. This is not only concerning because as a police officer you should follow the law if you want to enforce it but it’s also giving people a reason to not trust the police. These are the people that are putting a stain on the police name. Bringing light to this is a good thing because now people in law enforcement can hopefully pinpoint the people who are carrying out their duties in illegal ways or abusing their power, it’s also good because no one should believe they are above the law. It is set in place for everyone and this just shows that good police who carry out their duties well will uphold the law and end up finding out if someone is abusing their power. Some people become officers because they then know how to cheat the system and have the upper hand but that will only last for so long. I hope that what people take away from this article isn’t that police officers are bad but because we have good officers the bad ones will be caught and justice will be served. Ark003
This article play apart in the lack of police and community trust. For Multiple police officers in baltimore to steal thousands of dollars, driving fast at large crowds of young men to see who would run first and making unjustified stops and searches is just ridiculous and after all of that Six members of the task force pleaded guilty to federal charges that include racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations they also clock in while they were on vacation or even when they left for the day so they could make extra money is just pure evil. They took large amounts of money from criminals and drug dealers while taking them to jail without reporting the money to the department and would split the money and not one of them would bring it up in the report. It’s really sad that someone who has the job to “Serve and Protect” you would do and even think of something like that is really scary. No trust what so ever and that's why everyone is so against the police even the ones that are actually good cops have a hard time showing people that because the bad cops have already drew an image for the world of them.-KenzieLand003
This was an interesting article. It explains how six police officers had been taken over by corruption. They admitted to participating in robberies and firearm violence. Among the six, two of them are fighting the charges in court. The officers were detained for over a year in prison, now they face a life in prison sentence. They illegally used drugs and interacted with drug dealers. They were also apart of robberies. After each of these reckless events, the officers lied on the paper work in order to hide their actions from others in the system. They also lied about their pay checks. They arrived for their shift late and they would leave early. They also revealed that they were getting paid on their off days. “Hines said the prosecution, “Isn’t a case against all police. It’s a case against a group of criminals who happened to hide behind a badge.” Wow, I liked how this statement was worded as it separated these men from the officer’s roll. They are going to judge them and not all police officers. We see them as men not tightly pressed uniformed officers. I thought this approach to the situation was simple and yet powerful. We tend to view police with the highest esteem, which is good and respectable. However, we need to keep in mind, they are humans as are we. They just have a greater responsibility to the community at large than we the average citizen does. I thought this was a great article as it shows the reality of the criminal justice system and how it is made up with humans, who are prone to make mistakes. I also appreciated how the authorizes handled the situation. They did not side with the wrong actions committed by their officers. They were able to give the men the right and just sentence for their actions. - CoalRoller003
ReplyDeleteI really liked how that quote was said as well. It’s not going to target the entire law enforcement. It’s only targeting the police officers that committed the crimes. I also agree that humans make mistakes too. If anyone says they haven't made a mistake in life they might be lying. -Soccer003
DeleteThe article talks about a case in Baltimore called the Gun Trace Task Force Trail involving multiple police officers who stole thousands of dollars, driving fast at large crowds of young men to see who would run first, profiling certain types of vehicles, and making unjustified stops and searches. Six members of the task force pleaded guilty to federal charges that include racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations. Those police officers would even clock in while they were on vacation or even when they left for the day so they could make extra money. Then they would take large amounts of money from criminals and drug dealers while taking them to jail without reporting the money to the department and would split the money at a bar or somewhere. They even planted BB guns in the cars of criminals so they could take them into the police station. These are prime examples why a lot of people do not like police officers steal and do unjustified acts to the people in the community. Which is mentioned in the article that every police officer will or have been faced with the same situation as in to follow the rules or to treat people in a cruel way. But it is still sad to see that these police officers would do certain things in the community just because. Police departments want people in the community to trust the police officers who do stuff like this. Which makes it hard for a lot of people to trust our policing system. These police officers give other officers who try to the right thing and actually trying to make the crime rate go down in the community a bad name. Some police officers are no better than the criminals. Batman.003
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you- it is extremely sad to see this kind of stuff happening in our police departments in the U.S. Those truly good officers who are striving for change and trying to improve community relations are already struggling as it is, and when things like this happen, it becomes seemingly impossible to repair because the community feels like they need to fear the officers and develop hatred for them. GMan003
Delete- This article was pretty difficult to read. After completing the other two articles due for class this week, seeing this happen and reading about it was hard because these are the types of police officers that ruin the community’s relationship with police departments, whether they’re good or bad. A short summary of this article is as follows: so far, 6 officers of the Gun Trace Task Force have pleaded guilty to charges that included racketeering, robbery, and firearms violations. These officers have been detained since their arrests in March, and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. During the trial, federal prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses to the trial- some of which included some officers who had admitted to playing a part in “brazen robberies,” as well as some drug dealers who were given immunity to speak out how the officers on trial took anywhere from several hundred dollars in cash to almost $200,000, as well as kilograms of drugs. In order to avoid being caught, these corrupt cops took to lying in confidential paperwork and in court to cover their tracks. The corrupt task force cops have been accused by witnesses of crimes dating all the way back to 2008. According to the article, much of the case is focused on the Task Force’s Sergeant, Wayne Jenkins, who supposedly had an “insatiable appetite to hunt down those he called “monsters” — drug dealers with large amounts of cash. They said Jenkins regularly encouraged illegal police tactics such as driving fast at large groups of young men to see who would run, profiling certain types of vehicles, and making unjustified stops and searches.” In addition to these sick accusations and admissions/encouragements, the Sergeant often would tell his officers to carry BB guns to plant on people. Although there was more to the article, I would like to discuss my thoughts about what I have summarized so far. To have the nerve to call yourself a police officer with not only the mindset of a sick criminal, but the actions of one as well, is a crime I believe to be worthy of the death penalty in certain situations, but at the very least life imprisonment. We cannot allow officers to do this sort of sick “work” and have little to no fear of repercussions. Our community-officer relationship is already struggling and things like this only make it significantly worse. GMan003
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, after watching a doctor, and a police chief talking about how they are seeing police agencies improve themselves, and work towards making community better. Then we read this article on how these six officers were committing crimes in the community and hiding behind the badge. Any corrupt police officer that encourages corrupt, and bully like behavior should face the maximum amount of prison time possible. The world doesn't need these types of bullies in a society, especially in a police department. We turn to these men and women for help, and when we expect to get the right help, and we get abused by authority, how is that right at all. I also agree that people already do not trust law enforcement agencies, and then the media blows something like this up it just severs the relationship more between law enforcement agencies, and the public.
DeleteI-Like-Cereal003
As I was reading the article, I wasn’t surprised at all. I say that because there is always going to be bad cops out there. Believe it or not, people have a lowkey history of them doing things they weren’t supposed to be doing. But, everyone has a history when they were young, but its up to them to change that and those cops were willing to keep up their history. In the article, it says that cops were trying to plant BB guns in the someone car or something like that. I feel like that horrible why are you trying to get someone in trouble even if you don’t like them. In my Criminal justice class my professor says when you decide if you want to book someone, it takes a lot of paper work to go through just to get someone in jail. Why, waste your time trying to be a crooked cop? When you can give all your time to caught actual bad guys. Also, they mention something about the cops pulling someone over and the man tells them he has nothing on him and has money at home. The cops obviously have some type of bad connection with the guy and then for them to go to the mans house and take the mans money is the crazy part. It says that the cops went to the bar and split the money like everything was okay with that. Like I said before there are some crooked cops out there because they can take the advantage of them being a police because people are scared of the police or will listen to the police and that’s horrible
ReplyDeleteBball003
This is the prime example of why people in the community have a hard time trusting the police. These 6 officers took an oath and turned and behaved as criminals themselves. The crazy part is they thought they would get away with it. As an officer and more so a task force officer you should have common sense that this would come back on you. What they assumed because it was stolen from drug dealers that it made the crime ok. This goes back to those that get into policing as see it as only being a “job” and not a true calling for the betterment of your community. If I worked in the department with these six individuals I would feel ashamed. Thinking everyday that these men were out working when in actuality they were clocking hours that they didn’t earn or on vacation. So not only were they stealing from criminals but tax payers. This also would make one wonder what has been done that has yet to be uncovered. If they have gone as far as stealing money, robbery, racketeering etc. whose to say they haven’t committed murders and put them on someone else. Also, for the people who were convicted of these crimes they were falsely accused of. For example the BB gun that was placed. Does that conviction if there was a conviction, does that get overturned? I would also want to question and hold the chief of police accountable. As the chief one would assume that you would know what is going on in your police department unless you turned a blind eye to crimes. These were not small crimes. Also for the two officers that were propositioned and refused, did they report this immediately or swept it under the rug until they were caught. The should still be held accountable if that was the case. I am pretty sure all duty manuals and police policies are the same and it is your duty to immediately report any wrong doing. By waiting that leads me to believe you at least thought about it… Jadist003
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more. I think the title for this blog being "Law Enforcement and the oath" is too accurate because you hold yourself so accountable taking this type of career path and I do not understand how you let yourself become corrupt and fall into the same patterns of the people you are arresting. -holywaffles003
DeleteI completely agree with you. This article is the sheer reason why the community has a tough time trusting the police because of these individuals going around and committing crimes against them. I feel sorry for that community because I don't even know how you earn the communities trust back after what they did.
Delete-CUBSFAN003
This article is talking about how six police officers are facing a situation regarding their time in this task force and how they handled themselves during the course of their work. They did many wrong things, possibly taking large sums of money from people and criminals and numerous other illegal activities that they are supposed to be arresting people over. I think this is incredibly sad if all comes out to be true as this gives a bad idea to the whole law enforcement community. This makes all officers look bad to the public as they do not understand this is a group of officers gone bad. People do not understand that police officer's are human just like us. They were not born differently than us or with a holy mindset, they are just the same as us. Sometimes there are bad seeds in this profession but there are also bad janitors, corrupt politicians and bad McDonald's employees but officers are held to a higher standard because of their job and dealing with the public which is beyond understandable. When we call the police, we rely on them very heavily to solve our issue right then and there or at least make a solid attempt at trying. But to know these officer' were not helping anyone and not even helping to take care of these crimes but more concerned with the drugs, money and activities of others is very concerning and quite sickening. It will also be hard to tell of any innocence in this from others because once multiple do it, I think it is sad but it is almost assumed the other's are following the exact same pattern or are partaking in it because if it is more than just one person and it has not even come to light then it is worrisome who else may be involved. -holywaffles003
ReplyDeleteThe article was about six police officers that pleaded guilty for crimes that they committed. The crimes were racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations. Some of the crimes that the officers committed go back to 2008. One of the officers motivated them to carry BB guns and place them on people. Officers said they put in thousands of dollars of time that they did not work. They would sometimes even show up late and still put in their scheduled time even though they didn't work that time. Another officer was encouraging illegal police strategies by targeting big groups of people and driving their car really fast at them to see who would run. They also did stops and searches that were unjustified and they also profiled specific kinds of cars.The officers also lied in paperwork and court to prevent people from finding out. There was more than thirty witnesses that were called during the trial. Some of those officers were officers that confessed. There were a few drug dealers that testified and told the court that the officers did take money and kilograms of drugs from them. After reading this article I was kind of frustrated. A lot of people don’t like police officers and this case might of made it worse. There are people in the community that don’t trust police officers and this is not going to make it any better. Not all police officers are bad or corrupt. Just because a few officers committed crimes does not mean all the officers were committing crimes. When you become a police officer, you take an oath. A police officer should know what to do. A police officer should know what’s right and what’s wrong. A police officer is supposed to help and protect the community, not go against it. I thought it was really sad that they went against that oath. -Soccer003
ReplyDeleteThis article is about how police thought they were above the law, and how they victimized people below the law. Six members of a task force pled guilty to crimes of racketeering, robbery and firearms violations.Federal prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses during the trial, including officers who have admitted their roles in brazen robberies and drug dealers given immunity to testify that officers took cash and kilograms of drugs from them. The evidence depicted a dysfunctional police department in which officers confidently lied in official paperwork and in court to cover their tracks without fear of repercussions. This is crazy to think about even though you hear about it. It's crazy to think that someone we all trust to serve and protect us can cause so much harm and do wrong. It's also just makes you distrust the system makes you think about how many other officers are doing this and are still doing this and they have so much power. And to think this wouldn't have come to light if another officer wouldn't have stood up and said something. It does still give hope that there is good and we can still trust the system however there is going to be evils and people who are like this everywhere not just in the police force. I does leave you feeling disgusted though at these men that took an oath to serve and protect and did nothing but shit all over it. It also makes you think about that community have could they ever gain that trust back for the department to do the right thing. This was a very informative article and it definitely brought light to the bad. -pizza003
ReplyDeleteGenerally,state ad local law enforcement police officers take the law enforcement oath of honor at the beginning of their careers. this is to affirms their standards of integrity and honor the community and law. From the auricle we this police officers did not follow the law in their work in community. They made a bad name to even the good cops out there. It now hard for the community to believe and trust the cops. All this cops forget that the community was also watching them but they did not eve know. There is perception that the cop culture is one of corruption when it comes to taking care of each other and the thin blue line or the brotherhood, This can lead to a lot of destruct from the public and its largely an unfair characterization. Of cause , few apples have earned that stigma but most officers want to weed out the dirty cops even more than the public. Few understand that bad cops makes all officers appear unethical. The situation of police corruption specially policemen planting evidence, stealing contraband for their own personal accounts, and falsifying police reports, is tremendous. There are few methods to curb the problem and firmly believe if this officers had been trained differently in the academy and field, screened more strictly, undergone ethics. Since corruption of this kind has existed in the police force, more screening should be the the police officers to make sure they are doing the right thing in the society. GUSII 003
ReplyDeleteThis article was far from a happy read. While reading I felt ashamed of what these officers were doing to people in their community. These officers were planting fake guns on people to make it look like they were out on the street finding all of these guns, but in reality there where planting them. Ths caused these people to have to serve jail time even though they were completely innocent. Stories like this is what makes the public think that all officers are bad and they lie and cheat and take from the people and the system. This article shows why we have to much unrest and high tension when it comes to police in those day and age. These stories are the ones defining who police officers are when in actuality there are many good hard working men and women doing their job unlike these individuals. A majority of people in law enforcement do there job legally and get scrutinized by the public when they are not doing anything wrong. There was one part in the article when they said they went into a drug dealers house and took $20,000 from it and then divided it among themselves later. That is truly sickening to think about that these individuals were on the streets doing this. I think these individuals should be used as a teaching tool on how to not be a good police officer. These individuals are an embarrassment to their department and the whole police organization of the country. Overall, this article put into perspective on that some of these individuals are out there, but they should not define who the good police officers are doing their jobs. -CUBSFAN003
ReplyDeleteWe live in a society where technology is at an all time high and is just getting more and more common and largely used. One of the biggest controversial topics is how officers can be unlawful. Now I’m not saying all police officers are unlawful and are perfect, because everyone has their fair share of mistakes and misunderstandings. But if one officer is on a specific police department, than that police department goes viral for one bad officer out of the other fifteen they may have on their department. This then creates a problem where people will disrespect officers because they assume, an officer is going to be unlawful or incorrect right off the bat. When in reality, most officers are just proceeding to do their job the right and proper way they were taught. The public would have to push for a court trial to convict certain police officers of unlawful bias of a crime. Now some officers get caught up in their job and think they are invincible. They are of higher power and believe that they are untouchable and can’t get in trouble because they seem to believe they are the law and make the decisions. But officers are put in effect to make sure people are following the law, they don’t create the law, just enforce it. There was an impactful quote from the article. “No man is above the law, and no man is beneath the law.” This is so true because officers were convicted of stealing from civilians and also filling incorrect police reports and turning them in. They should have incorporated the high number of cash, guns, and even drugs. But instead they kept it for themselves and used it for their own good. This then created a lot of problems and issues for the public because they did not trust the police department. #notaplumber003
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting article to read and with how much of the bad stuff we hear about cops I am a little surprised I have not heard about this until now. The first thing I did was watch the video and the man was talking about how the officers represent the entire department and he seemed that he thinks the whole police department is corrupt in the city of Baltimore which I would not agree with. The saying of the few bad apples for example, it does not mean that the entire department is dirty, just a few of them were making mistakes. There are really going to always be cops that will take their power and abuse it to take from other people or just doing dumb things in general because they think that they can get away with it and eventually it will catch up to them. These six guys pled guilty because they knew that they had done wrong and they were screwed but the other two were not so much. Really the only solid evidence that they had on this Hersl guy was that he said he would adjust his time sheet to show that he was not working when he was suppose to be helping someone. Obviously that is wrong and he should not be doing that he should be doing his job but at least he is not adding payroll to himself he is taking it away but like the lawyer said, if the department had proof of him doing this they would be showing it to the jury and they were not. They also said that all of his banking accounts were in order and no stolen stuff was at his house. It seems to me that this guy was more on the innocent side to me but I am in no position to make this decision, but i think that they would need more. He said he had the choice to join them in their criminal acts and chose not to. -Steel003
ReplyDeleteIt makes me mad that there are people in the world like this, but it also does not surprise me at all. There will always be those bad apples that makes everyone look bad. To be an officer and be doing this just makes me more angry. No wonder why the community does not have any trust in the police. As a police officer you should be the protector of the people. Even though you enforce the law and teach the law you are not above the law. I hope that these two police officers get life in prison. How could you encourage your fellow officers to carry a BB gun to plant on people, that is just unbelievable. They were not just robbing criminals but also stealing from the police force. They were altering times sheets and claiming they were working while they were at home or on vacation. One of the officers even planted an illegal GPS tracker on a known drug dealer and pulled him and his wife over. I understand that you want to get these kind of people off the streets but there is the right way to do it and a wrong way. Worse yet the officer even stole from the drug dealer as he was told of a pile of cash at the dealers house. The officer is no better than the drug dealer. Because of these cops are just a few rotten apples that need to be locked up. Because of them the good police officers have to work even harder to gain the trust of the community. I am glad that these officers got caught and it shows the public that police officers are not untouchable. Hopefully this will show other officers who are doing illegal activities such as these officers did that they will be caught sooner or later. -ClarkKent003
ReplyDeleteAll police departments have officers, that believe that they are above the law, and corrupt officers. I 100 percent believe that police officers that are corrupt, and abusive should be severely punished. Corrupt police officers, not only make the police look bad, but they also make a toxic environment in the police department. Especially if it's an officer in leadership role, what officer is going to tell on the police chief for being corrupt and abusive. This gun trace task force in Baltimore is a perfect example of how people in leadership, and higherup roles can get away with being corrupt. The two detectives on this task forced, though they were above the law, and bullied and abused people who they thought were below the law. No matter what the six officers did, any officer who abuses their power, and subdues people by bullying them with their authority, should be punished, and put in jail for a long time, because we do not need those type of police officers in communities. There was also plenty of evidence in this case, with over 30 witnesses there was no doubt that these officers were corrupt bullies, and deserve every sentence that gets thrown at them. I really liked hines quote “This isn’t a case against all police.”
ReplyDelete“It’s a case against a group of criminals who happened to hide behind a badge.” These criminals were hiding behind their badge to get away with things, that they wouldn't get away with, if they were not police officers. It seems to me that this task force mainly targeted black males. Not only were they corrupt, but they were extremely racist as well. These officers have had a track record of being corrupt officers as well. One officer was banned from an entire district due to complaints placed on him.
I-Like-Cereal003
It is no secret that some police officers act unlawfully but as it says in the article it isn’t against police, these people that act unlawfully are just criminals that hide behind a badge. They stole money and drugs from people and lied on police reports and are now facing life in prison because they commited all of these crimes. Officers said that one of the police officers being convicted Wayne Jenkins often encouraged illegal police tactics, these are the officers that need to have an eye kept on them. He encouraged to have police officers drive a cop car toward a large group of men to see who would run, profiling certain types of cars and making stops and searches that were unjustified. This is not only concerning because as a police officer you should follow the law if you want to enforce it but it’s also giving people a reason to not trust the police. These are the people that are putting a stain on the police name. Bringing light to this is a good thing because now people in law enforcement can hopefully pinpoint the people who are carrying out their duties in illegal ways or abusing their power, it’s also good because no one should believe they are above the law. It is set in place for everyone and this just shows that good police who carry out their duties well will uphold the law and end up finding out if someone is abusing their power. Some people become officers because they then know how to cheat the system and have the upper hand but that will only last for so long. I hope that what people take away from this article isn’t that police officers are bad but because we have good officers the bad ones will be caught and justice will be served. Ark003
ReplyDeleteThis article play apart in the lack of police and community trust. For Multiple police officers in baltimore to steal thousands of dollars, driving fast at large crowds of young men to see who would run first and making unjustified stops and searches is just ridiculous and after all of that Six members of the task force pleaded guilty to federal charges that include racketeering, robbery, and firearm violations they also clock in while they were on vacation or even when they left for the day so they could make extra money is just pure evil. They took large amounts of money from criminals and drug dealers while taking them to jail without reporting the money to the department and would split the money and not one of them would bring it up in the report. It’s really sad that someone who has the job to “Serve and Protect” you would do and even think of something like that is really scary. No trust what so ever and that's why everyone is so against the police even the ones that are actually good cops have a hard time showing people that because the bad cops have already drew an image for the world of them.-KenzieLand003
ReplyDelete