
The Trials of White Boy Rick (2014) - samclemens
https://read.atavist.com/white-boy-rick
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keypusher
Some high quality journalism right here. I think a lot of people involved with
traditional newspapers believed his type of reporting would not happen online.
The funding for drawn out investigations, the editorial oversight, the
resources to get research information. But articles like this make me think
maybe real journalism is still alive in the new medium.

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x0x0
tl;dr: The article is a stunning account -- though it can hardly be surprising
at this point -- of what pigs actually get up to.

It's about a white boy who was apparently hanging out with the major players
in the Detroit coke/crack game in the 80s, and moving some weight as a juvie,
though he certainly wasn't a central figure. He also was an underage informant
(at 14!!!) for the FBI, something that could easily have gotten him killed.
They and local cops got him out of a serious weapons charge: shooting at a
moving vehicle, in order to allow him to keep informing.

These local cops, btw, were quite clearly actively helping certain dealers:
guarding shipments, warning of homicide investigations, etc, including helping
the mayor's niece who was dating various serious dealers. Anyway, kid got
caught while 17 (I think) and was sentenced under a draconian so-called 650
law guaranteeing life in prison for possession of 650g of cocaine.

Now it gets interesting. The so-called 650 law was repealed and most people
sentenced under it have been paroled. So why is this guy -- and remember, he
went to prison at 17 -- so why are the adults all free and he's in jail? For
example, the guys selling $55m/year of cocaine were out in 11. He maybe sold a
million dollars total.

Roughly, it seems that he helped the FBI go after the corrupt local cops, and
in revenge, at his parole hearing, the pigs sent a bunch of cops who were, at
most, tenuously connected to him and uninvolved in the investigation to
testify how dangerous he is. Using illegally leaked grand jury testimony. One
of these cops who testified against him was later imprisoned for his own
mortgage fraud scam, amongst other things.

Oh, and all the dirty cops sent to prison have naturally already been released
while this guy rots in prison.

And don't forget the parole board who decided to uncritically listen to
testimony from pigs who were completely uninvolved in the case, testimony
informed by leaked grand jury testimony.

~~~
linkregister
Calling law enforcement officers "pigs" seriously reduces your statement's
credibility. We all know that it's a logical fallacy to consider the personal
details of an arguer, but as humans with limited amount of time to evaluate
each other, we often take these shortcuts. Using that word handicaps your
otherwise informative comment.

I'm not telling you this not because of an emotional connection to cops, I'm
telling you this because your word choice harms your credibility.

~~~
thuuuomas
It's better to couch your prejudices in euphemistic language? Why is such
minute dishonesty more credible? Do you fancy yourself capable of perfect
impartiality?

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rmason
The most interesting revelation in the entire piece to me was that a number of
high level people close to the mayor were dirty. Mayor Coleman Young may have
run Detroit into the ground (according to Time Magazine) but I never heard any
allegations that he or his people were taking bribes.

A few years back we went though the trials of another Detroit Mayor, Kwame
Kilpatrick and his aides, who were taking bribes, lots of bribes and they were
all convicted. Kilpatrick's Mother was a Congresswoman and was part of the
group around Coleman Young. I have to think that a young Kwame who would have
had a front row seat to all this craziness was merely trying to emulate his
idol Coleman Young when he sought the office of Mayor of Detroit. The main
difference is that unlike his idol Kwame got caught.

