
Detective Who Threatened to Kill Teens and Plan Evidence Is Suspended, Not Fired - kyleblarson
http://wamc.org/post/police-detective-who-threatened-kill-teens-and-plant-drug-evidence-suspended-not-fired
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finid
_A video of the interrogation, during which Bigda reportedly threatened to
crush the skull of one of the teens and plant a kilo of cocaine in his pocket,
was provided to defense attorneys who are now using it to impeach Bigda’s
credibility in pending drug cases._

Standard police practice. After a 60-day suspension, he'll be back on the
streets.

~~~
volkk
> Standard police practice. After a 60-day suspension, he'll be back on the
> streets.

this seems to be the standard response to any policy brutality or corruption
article. what can ACTUALLY be done?

~~~
dragonwriter
What could be done is prosecutors could prosecute the obvious crimes here, but
they won't, because they generally think prosecuting bad cops for even
flagrantly criminal misconduct that ruins police/community relations and
taints the credibility of the police will jeopardize police/prosecutor
cooperation.

(Police unions get blamed a lot, and certainly might restrict _internal_
departmental discipline, but they can't constrain criminal prosecution.)

Perhaps establish separate offices _only_ to prosecute crimes by law
enforcement officers detached entirely from regular prosecutors offices. (But
then, they'd need their own investigation and arrest force, and who prosecutes
_their_ misconduct? The regular prosecutors office?)

~~~
ende
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

It might have to be Federal, but not the Justice Department. And frankly that
function should not even fall under the executive branch, or not completely.

I propose a Department of Liberty, lead by a Liberator General that is set up
as a check against the Attorney General. It would be tasked with prosecuting
crimes committed only by police and government agents, with no power to
prosecute private citizens. It would be equipped with its own force of agents
who likewise can only arrest police and other agents. The department would
also serve as a central voice and funding umbrella for our woefully neglected
public defenders. Finally, it would be partly overseen by a Congressional
'grand jury committee', which would be presided over by a sitting SCOTUS
Justice on a rotating basis.

Federate that model at the state and local level, with appropriate
modifications such as actual grand jury oversight.

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nerdponx
I got some kind of twisted pleasure out of seeing this wasn't about class and
race. We need more good old-fashioned white-on-white abuse-of-power cases to
get old white people to wake up from their Nixon/Reagan tough-on-crime
daydream and start taking police issues seriously.

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travisby
Are we suggesting something different? Do we want guilty until proven
innocent?

~~~
VikingCoder
When there's VIDEO of the cop threatening to crush someone's skull and plant a
kilo of cocaine on another, it shouldn't be hard to convict him for one thing,
and it should be trivial to fire him.

You don't need to be proven guilty in a court of law to get fired.

If the police want the community to trust them, then they need to act like
they deserve trust.

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kafkaesq
_" I am not happy about it. This is what was recommended," Sarno said. " It is
a most severe suspension of 60 working days without pay and retraining."_

You can say your hands were bureaucratically tied if you want, Sarno. But
please don't describe a 60-day suspension for an incident of near-homicide (on
top of extreme evidence tampering) as "most severe."

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Overtonwindow
This speaks to a broader issue with abuse and ethical violations by public
officials protected by union contracts, and civil service procedures. It can
be very hard to fire someone who is toxic and even breaking the law. Has
anyone seen anything written on reforming that part of the police force?

------
sitkack
> Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno said he supports the commissioner’s decision
> to suspend Bigda because of the likelihood firing him would not survive a
> civil service appeal and the city would be ordered to rehire the cop with
> back pay.

