Note: The video and article below showing Baltimore City police planting drug on a person is a common problem not limited to police in Baltimore. It is horrible that the man falsely accused on this planted evidence has been in jail for more than five months. I hope he sues Baltimore and gets a multi-million dollar settlement. Baltimore needs to start punishing the police department with budget cuts so they feel the pain of their violations of law. The police take too large a portion of the city budget, get too much overtime pay and violate the people’s rights way too often.
The reality that two officers watched the evidence being planted and then participated in the arrest shows this is part of the police culture. The two who watched should also be punished and fired. This police culture has deep roots as police mistreatment of people of African descent has been common throughout our history. The police culture got much worse in the era of Mayor Martin O’Malley. O’Malley urged mass arrests of young black youths. Tens of thousands were arrested when there was no evidence of a crime. They were forced to spend a night in jail and waive their right to sue for false arrest. O’Malley and the city were sued leading to a multi-hundred-thousand-dollar settlement. But, this adversely impact the police culture. It is not much of a leap from arresting people who did not commit a crime to planting evidence to arrest people who did not commit a crime. Mass arrest O’Malley should never again be elected to public office. If he dares to run again in 2020 people should confront him about these mass arrests of young blacks when no crime was committed.
When you google police planting of evidence lots of stories come up about similar cases all over the country.
Police: 2 officers out after planting evidence – The Des Moines Register
www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and…evidence…/95032928/
Dec 6, 2016 – Two Des Moines police officers have resigned amid an internal … wrong while investigators were reviewing evidence in that 2015 drug case.
New Video Allegedly Shows Cop Planting Drug Evidence After …
https://thinkprogress.org/new-video-allegedly-shows-cop-planting-drug-evidence-afte…
Mar 26, 2015 – The police officer caught on tape brutally beating an unarmed Michigan man goes by the name “Robocop.” He’s been sued “at least four times …
Police paid to kill drug suspects, plant evidence—Reuters report …
newsinfo.inquirer.net/…/police-paid-to-kill-drug-suspects-plant-evidence-reuters-repo…
Mar 2, 2017 – The body of man suspected of drug dealing is removed from a street in Manila after apolice operation in November 2016. Photograph: Bullit …
Police Caught Planting Drugs In Small Business – YouTube ▶ 2:14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMA1Otuat2U
Jul 25, 2013 – Uploaded by ThinkOutsideTheTV
Police Caught Planting Drugs In Small Business … When cops are busted planting evidence, they should …
Brooklyn Detective Convicted of Planting Drugs on Innocent People …
www.nytimes.com/…/brooklyn-detective-convicted-of-planting-drugs-on-innocent-pe…
Nov 1, 2011 – Detective Is Found Guilty of Planting Drugs … corruption in Police Department drug units: several narcotics officers in Brooklyn have been caught mishandling drugs they seized as evidence, and hundreds of potentially tainted …
Stephen Anderson, Ex NYPD Cop: We Planted Evidence, Framed …
www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/13/ex-nypd-cop-we-planted-ev_n_1009754.html
Oct 13, 2011 – “One of the consequences of the war on drugs is that police officers are … and it’s easy for some of the less honest cops to plant evidence on …
Leaked Documents Show Alabama Police Planted Drugs, Guns on …
https://www.innocenceproject.org/leaked-documents-show-alabama-police-planted-dr…
Dec 2, 2015 – Leaked Documents Show Alabama Police Planted Drugs, Guns on Innocent … operating in Alabama have been accused of planting drugs and weapons on … statements from police officers attesting that evidence against the …
Police describe kill rewards, planting evidence in drug war
www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section…police…planting-evidence…drug…
Former Narcotics Detective Admits Drug Planting Common – Truthout
www.truth-out.org/former-narcotics-detective-admits-drug-planting…/1320333381
Nov 9, 2011 – “There’s a natural temptation for police officers to [plant drugs].” … is responsible for X arrests per month,” or, “When in doubt, plant evidence!
That is just the first couple of pages.
In the Baltimore case, the falsely accused man had been in jail for seven months because he could not pay a cash bond of $50,000. The Maryland Court of Appeals recently ruled that cash bail should be avoided. It has been the source of many people being stuck in jail pending trial even though there is no evidence that they would not show up for their trial.
This case also shows police willingness to turn off their cameras when they are doing something they do not want to be seen. Luckily, the police officer did not know that the last 30 seconds before the camera was turned on were also saved, so the truth came out. With the advent of police cameras, rules need to be put in place that protect people from police who turn off their cameras. It must be presumed they are hiding evidence that would protect the accused; and the police should face disciplinary action or even criminal charges for doing so.
Very few cases where police plant evidence makes it to the news or to court. Police who plant evidence are hard to uncover so we are only seeing the top of the ice berg. We hope this case brings greater attention to this issue, just as video evidence of police killing unarmed African Americans brought attention to that issue. KZ
Police body cam footage ‘shows officer planting drugs’
‘Something is going to happen because of this revelation,’ a local prosecutor says
Video from Baltimore Police Department body cameras shows an officer tampering with evidence in a case that sent a man to jail for more than five months, reports have claimed.
The Baltimore Sun’s Justin Fenton recently shared a 90-second video showing what appears to be three Baltimore Police officers standing on a street corner. The camera follows one officer as he walks into an alleyway and places what appears to be a bag of drugs in a trash heap.
He then goes back to the street, stands for several seconds, and returns to the alleyway. He removes the bag from the same trash heap and brandishes it in front of the camera.
Footage shows officer placing drugs in trash; goes out to street, turns on camera, returns. Cams save 30 sec prior to activation, w/o sound pic.twitter.com/5ZW128lWFM
— Justin Fenton (@justin_fenton) July 19, 2017
The charges were eventually dropped, but the officer in question was reportedly called in to testify on another case just one week later.
“[The prosecutors] had knowledge,” Public Defender Debbie Katz Levi told Fox Baltimore. “They watched it and were appalled by what was on the video, and then for whatever reason made the choice to continue to call him as a witness.”
The Baltimore Police Department said in a statement that they take the allegations “very seriously,” and have launched an internal investigation.
“We are fortunate to have Body Worn Cameras which provide a perspective of the events as reported,” the department said.
The Baltimore Police Department began rolling out body cameras to the majority of its officers in July of 2016. Officers are instructed to turn on their cameras during enforcement or investigative activities, emergency vehicle operation, custodial transports, or “other activities of a potentially confrontational nature”.
A 2016 Justice Department investigation of the Baltimore Police revealed at least one case of an officer planting drugs on a suspect. A fellow officer said he did not report the incident immediately for fear of retaliation.
That same year, the department settled a lawsuit with a man who accused the department of orchestrating a bogus drug bust at his home.
The city was also the site of riots last spring, when a young, black man named Freddie Gray died in police custody. All charges against the officers involved were eventually dropped.
The Independent has reached out to the Baltimore Police Department and the State’s Attorney’s office for comment.