What happens when a cop "snitches"

[Darwin333]

Spalding and her partner, Daniel Echeverria, were part of a 2012 investigation which led to charges against Sgt. Ronald Watts and police officer Kallatt Mohammed, both of whom were accused of stealing proceeds from drug dealers. In the end, the two were only accused with shaking down a single undercover informant who had been posing as a courier. But Spalding and Echeverria said the investigation was stopped before it snared at least half a dozen more officers.

"At one point, we were actually told the investigation was too big," Spalding said. "There were allegations of other supervisors as well, that we were never allowed to investigate."

So even when they do investigate wrongdoing they still try, and apparently succeed, at sweeping the majority of it under the rug.


I've seen a lot of people claim that cops actually want to get rid of the "few bad apples" so the officers that helped the investigation should be seen as hero's to their fellow officers, right? Yeah, not so much...

But it’s what happened next which led to Spalding and Echeverria’s federal lawsuit. They say their role in the undercover investigation was intentionally leaked within the department, leading to years of ostracism and intimidation at the hands of commanders and fellow officers.

"My life, my safety my freedom was threatened," Spalding told NBC 5 Investigates. "I was subjected to daily harassment."

Now a third officer has come forward and has given a sworn affidavit to say she can corroborate the allegations. Former officer Janet Hanna, a 20 year department veteran, says she witnessed the harassment when the two officers were assigned with her in the fugitive apprehension unit.


"They were given dead end jobs that would lead to no arrests," she said. "I couldn’t continue to see that kind of treatment."
Hanna recalled being approached by her commander at the unit’s Homan Square headquarters, warning her that the two were due to arrive the following day.


"He wanted to inform us that there were two people, two officers coming to the unit, they would be there tomorrow, and that they were supposedly IAD (Internal Affairs Division) rats," Hanna said. "I would be in the sergeant’s office and they would throw that term around all the time."
In addition to the dead end assignments, Hanna said she overheard her bosses instructing other officers in the unit that Spalding and Echeverria were not to be given backup if they called for it.
"Nobody wanted to work with her," Hanna said. "If they were to call for backup, nobody should back her up."
On one occasion, she said she overheard a sergeant warning Spalding about her own safety.
"That she’d better wear her bulletproof vest, and she may go home in a casket, and he didn’t want to call her daughter and say, 'She’s gone,'" Hanna recalled.
Indeed, the lawsuit states that in one meeting, one of their supervisors stated, "God help them if they ever need help on the street. It ain’t coming."
Hanna, who recently retired, said the department has no outlet for reporting the type of wrongdoing she allegedly witnessed.
"You’re supposed to go to your immediate supervisor," she said. "But the supervisors were involved in this as well."
Spalding suggested it’s a system which is designed to urge officers to stay quiet.
"I have had many officers approach me and say, 'We know about corruption. Should we come forward?' and I say, 'It will ruin your life,'" she said. "It’s no secret that if you go against the code of silence, and you report corruption, it will ruin your career."

The city's Department of Law, which is representing the commanders named in the lawsuit, declined comment, citing the pending litigation. Police Supt. Garry McCarthy likewise declined a request for an interview. In a statement, he denied the officers’ allegations.
"Superintendent McCarthy and CPD have zero tolerance for retaliation on whistleblowers, and we strongly support the laws that protect whistleblowers," the statement said. "However, the City believes the claims of these particular plaintiffs are without merit. The City will continue to vigorously litigate this case."

How can anyone claim that the rest of the officers, including the supervisors, who are not only harassing the "rats" but quite literally threatening their lives as not being "bad apples"? Please don't say this is an isolated incident, we all know that the blue wall exists. I've got to give the officers that helped the investigation a lot of respect, personally I wouldn't have stayed employed in such a hostile workplace.


To the people that think there are only a few bad apples, I have a question. Do you think an officer that does not report serious abuses or corruption, an officer that actively protects the bad apples, often committing perjury and filing false police reports, etc... even if those officers aren't corrupt or violating peoples rights are they bad apples? IMHO that is a very easy answer, they are undoubtedly bad and when civilians do the same they are charged with serious crimes.

We need independent and civilian organizations that have absolutely zero working relationship with the police to investigate them and at the very least prosecuted in a jurisdiction that they have never had any involvement with whatsoever. It is quite clear that not only do the police not police themselves but if an officer attempts to get rid of the "few bad apples" their careers are ruined and even have their lives threatened.


http://www.nbcchicago.com/investiga...cers-Allegations-of-Corruption-291607971.html

 

[zanejohnson]

yep, i lost a good friend since childhood over this BS.


i asked him if he knew of corruption in his department, and what he thought about it...

his reply:

corruption IS the department... when he first started working as an LEO after 2 tours of duty overseas, he was a decent, good guy. my friend.

last time i talked to him he was going through a nasty divorce, and talking about how he loved his job, loved "cracking skulls," as he put it....


that's the last time i ever tried to associate with him.


only good cop is a circulation system and respiratory system impaired cop.

 

[SandEagle]

^ better delete that last sentence; its uncalled for.
i say raise the qualification to be a cop. require a 4 year degree; or an associates at the very least. this will weed out a majority of the idiots and losers. its sad that the position of an officer brings out those who are in it solely for power without having the interest of the public in mind.

 

[zanejohnson]

^ better delete that last sentence; its uncalled for.
i say raise the qualification to be a cop. require a 4 year degree; or an associates at the very least. this will weed out a majority of the idiots and losers. its sad that the position of an officer brings out those who are in it solely for power without having the interest of the public in mind.

i say get rid of the privitization of the incarceration system, that's the driving force behind it all.

judges get kickbacks from privately owned incarceration facilities,

prosecutors are in cahoots with local law enforcement agencys (because if they aren't, they'll never cooperation from said LEO agencys, and thus, never get convictions)

leading to LEO agencys acting like they are out to get anyone for anything at all that they can... (modern day equivelent of "meeting a quota."

 

[kage69]

i say get rid of the privitization(sic) of the incarceration system, that's the driving force behind it all.

Hear hear! Although, if I were you, I'd actually just start there instead of coughing up statements like

only good cop is a circulation system and respiratory system impaired cop.

There are some damn fine people working as law enforcement, I'm proud to call several my friends. That sucks about your friend, but seriously, that's uncalled for. And I say that as someone who has no problem supporting firm and comprehensive oversight over law enforcement, or real penalties for those found guilty of violating their oaths and breaking laws.

IMO painting with such a wide, repugnant brush really invalidates the rest of your input on the issue. Why not put the blame where it resides and not insult the service of those who have done their jobs honorably?

 

[Paul98]

The problem is the bad systems and agencies. Of course you will always have some bad cops and they will be let go and punished by those in a good system. It's when the whole system is bad is when you have serious problems.

 

[touchstone]

None of this is a surprise, sadly, but I have zero sympathy for the 'good cops' that get snitched on and treated like crap by fellow officers, regardless of the reason. If she wants to slop up crime and wallow in filth then she can sit in the barn with the rest of the pigs. How many other times did she screw people over in the line of duty? There is just no way for a person to become a police officer, work for years on the force, and then 'suddenly' realize their partners are all criminals. Most likely she had personal issues with the other officers, and this was the easiest way to go about screwing them without them knowing who did it. Too bad for her she got ratted out. Maybe next time quit your job when it becomes clear that it is full of corrupt assholes, instead of kicking it there until they start systematically robbing the community. You don't just go from good police officer to blackmailing suspects and shaking down informants, there is a progression, and she obviously didn't mind until something came up.



Cops are all the same, F 'em all.

 

[nyker96]

I think it is just the way the system is structured that makes it very hard to report stuff. I wonder how the military do this, I mean any job in which your life depends on coworkers at all times will be extremely hard for you to report them for any wrong doing.

but copes seems to take this to a new level.

 

[Darwin333]

Hear hear! Although, if I were you, I'd actually just start there instead of coughing up statements like



There are some damn fine people working as law enforcement, I'm proud to call several my friends. That sucks about your friend, but seriously, that's uncalled for. And I say that as someone who has no problem supporting firm and comprehensive oversight over law enforcement, or real penalties for those found guilty of violating their oaths and breaking laws.

IMO painting with such a wide, repugnant brush really invalidates the rest of your input on the issue. Why not put the blame where it resides and not insult the service of those who have done their jobs honorably?

Therein lies the problem though, we keep hearing that a really small portion of the LEO community are bad and the rest are great upstanding people. In general I think that is true until it comes to the issue I pointed out in this thread.

If your LEO friend actively protects bad cops who violate peoples rights, steal money from people, steal and sell drugs, etc... can we really call your buddy one of the "good guys" anymore? Unfortunately it appears that most of them are too scared to say anything which is an institutionalized problem and not one of personnel.

We just need accountability, that is all. If you fuck up and that fuck up is unreasonable, you should pay the same price (if not more) than any other average joe. You shouldn't have a team of fellow officers perjuring themselves to cover your ass and the good guys that want the bad apples gone shouldn't be too afraid that they are going to lose their jobs or lives to come forward.

 

[master_shake_]

wow, cops sure do serve and protect...eachother unless you try to make policing better.

stay classy police.

 

[Genx87]

Isolated incident /s

 

[SMOGZINN]

There are a number of changes that need to come about to fix our legal system, and the police force in particular.

1. Remove all monetary incentive to police work. It is a clear conflict of interest when cops know that their budgets are linked to them being able to make money from tickets and seizures. All fines and proceeds from seizures should be donated to charity. If there is no monetary advantage to fines maybe the courts will consider alternative, and more effective, methods of rehabilitation.

2. Remove for profit prisons. The same basic arguments from point one apply. While I don't think this is as large of a problem as the first issue, it is still a corrupting influence on the system.

3. We need more transparency. We need to stop accepting that anything that puts even a slight disadvantage to the police is unacceptable. We need a citizen watchdog group that has full access to police records and can act as a balance to their power. We need to have body cameras on all police that record all the time, and laws that make it a felony to tamper with the camera or the footage it produces. This footage needs to be made freely available to this national watchdog group for review.

 

[soundforbjt]

For profit prisons are most to blame and the "war on crime" in the 80's. In California, for example since 1980 there have been over 20 new prisons built.

 

[AHamick]

FWIW, Chicago does have an independent civilian review board - IPRA. They investigate claims of misconduct within the PD and are not sworn or prior LEO.

 

[SMOGZINN]

FWIW, Chicago does have an independent civilian review board - IPRA. They investigate claims of misconduct within the PD and are not sworn or prior LEO.

Might be something to study, to see where they succeed and where they fail. I personally think that a watchdog group like this would have to be national so that the people doing the review could be removed from the influence of the officers being reviewed. The police simply hold too much power locally for any group to be fully independent from them.

 

[Kadarin]

Just a few bad apples.

 

[sm625]

Most of this problem is caused by police departments simply becoming so big and so bloated that they literally become detached from the rest of society. A big part of that is due to the drug war. It is the one singular thing that can be changed which would help shrink down these behemoths so they can better integrate with society again.

If we make all drugs legal, we will have to deal with some consequences, and they would be significant. I'm not going to downplay that. But most of those consequences can be dealt with outside the jurisdiction of the police. (Rehab, education, etc) The crime part of it would go way down, and with it the need for such massive bloated law enforcement institutions. That provides the opportunity to really clean out all this crap. But as long as people's heads remain firmly implanted in their behinds when it comes to the failed drug war, there is nothing anyone can do to reverse the downward spiral of conflict between the public and the police. This is all a creation of the failed drug war.

 

[desy]

snitches get stitches

 

[Darwin333]

FWIW, Chicago does have an independent civilian review board - IPRA. They investigate claims of misconduct within the PD and are not sworn or prior LEO.

That's interesting but I question how "independent" they are considering how cops on the inside said the investigation was stopped far to short and they basically served up a couple of sacrificial lambs.

 

[WHAMPOM]

So even when they do investigate wrongdoing they still try, and apparently succeed, at sweeping the majority of it under the rug.


I've seen a lot of people claim that cops actually want to get rid of the "few bad apples" so the officers that helped the investigation should be seen as hero's to their fellow officers, right? Yeah, not so much...


How can anyone claim that the rest of the officers, including the supervisors, who are not only harassing the "rats" but quite literally threatening their lives as not being "bad apples"? Please don't say this is an isolated incident, we all know that the blue wall exists. I've got to give the officers that helped the investigation a lot of respect, personally I wouldn't have stayed employed in such a hostile workplace.


To the people that think there are only a few bad apples, I have a question. Do you think an officer that does not report serious abuses or corruption, an officer that actively protects the bad apples, often committing perjury and filing false police reports, etc... even if those officers aren't corrupt or violating peoples rights are they bad apples? IMHO that is a very easy answer, they are undoubtedly bad and when civilians do the same they are charged with serious crimes.

We need independent and civilian organizations that have absolutely zero working relationship with the police to investigate them and at the very least prosecuted in a jurisdiction that they have never had any involvement with whatsoever. It is quite clear that not only do the police not police themselves but if an officer attempts to get rid of the "few bad apples" their careers are ruined and even have their lives threatened.


http://www.nbcchicago.com/investiga...cers-Allegations-of-Corruption-291607971.html

Well usually they get a bullet in the brain.