101 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
101 lines
5.1 KiB
Plaintext
Police tampering: how often and where
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By Alan Dershowitz
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[Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor of law at Harvard University.
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His newest books are "The Advocate's Devil" (Warner Books) and
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"The Abuse Excuse" (Little, Brown & Company)]
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Why do so many members of the American public refuse to keep an
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open mind about whether some Los Angeles police officers may have
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tampered with evidence in the O.J. Simpson case? It is not as if
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this would be the first time police officials have been guilty of
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such misconduct. There are numerous reports of police perjury,
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planting of evidence and tampering with fingerprints, blood and
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ballistics.
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In New York, for example, the FBI has proved that state troopers
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"faked fingerprint evidence on a routine basis" between 1984 and
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1992. What they did was strikingly similar to what the defense
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has alleged in the Simpson case.
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"They would take a suspect's fingerprints from either a police
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station booking card or an object the suspect was known to have
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touched, and then would claim to have found the fingerprint at
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the crime scene." A special prosecutor has been appointed to
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investigate "thousands of cases in all 11 state police barracks,"
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and he says that he "continues to be surprised by the extent of
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the corruption." But the special prosecutor is running into the
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"blue wall of silence" - the code by which many police live and
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under which they will lie to cover up misconduct by their brother
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officers. Indeed the special prosecutor now believes that most of
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the corrupt policemen will escape prosecution because some of
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their colleagues "have done everything they possibly can to
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frustrate the investigation."
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Moreover, the special prosecutors have found that numerous police
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officials, including supervisors, were involved in either the
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deliberate planting of fake evidence or in the cover-up. Yet most
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will escape prosecution and some who were directly involved with
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the tampering will still "be working for the New York State
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Police" when the investigation is completed.
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Nor is such corruption limited to rural state troopers. Virtually
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every large city - from Chicago, to Detroit, to New Orleans, to
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Boston - has experienced epidemics of evidence planting, false
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testimony, police cover-ups and the like. A few cases in point:
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A judge in Detroit after listening on one day to more than a
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dozen "dropsy" cases - cases in which police falsely claim that
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an unlawfully searched drug suspect "dropped" the drugs on the
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ground - chastised the police for not being more "creative," but
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nonetheless accepted their testimony.
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In Washington, D.C., the court of appeals held that "spontaneous
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apologies" by the accused to the victim would be admissible even
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in the absence of a Miranda warning. Following the decision,
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there was an epidemic of "spontaneous apologies" that were
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believed by trial judges.
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In Boston, police routinely made up imaginary informants to
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justify searches and seizures, and the judges believed them.
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In a federal case in New York, a judge credited the testimony of
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a policeman even though he was caught on tape telling an
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informant that if he testified truthfully he would run him "over
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with a truck" and if the informant ever said "that I said it, I'm
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gonna deny it." The cop then denied saying it, and despite the
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tape, the judge pretended to believe him.
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In Nassau County, a policeman showed a key witness photographs of
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a suspect before the witness was asked to pick the suspect out of
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a lineup, and then denied that he had done so.
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Police perjury is so routine among policemen that they have their
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own name for it: "testilying." A recent commission appointed to
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investigate police perjury in New York City, found it to be
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pervasive and continuing, even after several previous commissions
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had exposed the problem.
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Nor is Los Angeles immune from this contagious and spreading
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police disease. It is widely accepted that if the Rodney King
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beating had not been captured on videotape, the police testimony
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would have been decidedly different from what was seen by
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millions of people around the world. Indeed, it is widely known
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that some policemen carry a "spare" knife or "Saturday Night
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Special" so that they can plant them on or near a suspect if they
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are accused of using excessive force against an unarmed citizen.
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In the Simpson case itself the first document presented to the
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court included deliberate police perjury. Detective Philip
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Vanatter, in seeking a search warrant, swore that O.J. Simpson's
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trip to Chicago was unplanned, even though he knew it was planned
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long in advance of the murders. Judge Ito generously described
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this perjury as a "reckless disregard for the truth."
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Such disregard characterizes much police testimony in Los Angeles
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and elsewhere. The American public should keep an open mind about
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alleged police misconduct in any case, especially in the face of
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so many documented instances of police tampering over the years.
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In light of the reality of pervasive police perjury and
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tampering, the public should not so quickly assume that the O.J.
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Simpson case is different.
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