https://socialistaction.org/2018/03/05/two-police-corruption-convictions-in-baltimore/
Two police corruption convictions in Baltimore
/ 27 mins ago
Jacobs and Walloons gather to remember Freddie Gray and all victims of
police violence during a rally outside city hall in Baltimore
Jaz Jacobs (L) and Kevin Walloons gather to remember Freddie Gray and
all victims of police violence during a rally outside city hall in
Baltimore in 2016. (Bryan Woolston / Reuters)
By JOHN LESLIE
Two Baltimore police detectives, Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor, were
convicted in a federal trial last month that resulted from an
investigation into the police department’s corrupt “Gun Trace Task
Force.” A total of eight members of the Baltimore police department were
originally accused, with six of them pleading guilty before going to
trial. As many as a dozen other officers have been linked to the corruption.
The scandal in Baltimore extended to Philadelphia, where a Philly cop
has been accused taking part in a drug trafficking scheme with the
Baltimore cops. The Philadelphia officer, Eric Snell, allegedly resold
heroin and cocaine stolen by the Baltimore cops.
The Baltimore squad repeatedly violated the civil rights of suspects,
entered homes without search warrants, and shook down dealers for money
and drugs in what was described by the acting Police Commissioner,
Darryl De Sousa, as “some of the most egregious and despicable acts ever
perpetrated in law enforcement.”
Despite the prosecution of a few bad cops, the systemic problems and
culture of impunity remain. Earlier in February, Philadelphia District
Attorney Larry Krasner revealed the existence of a list of 26 Philly
cops who are considered either so corrupt, racist, or tainted in some
way that they can’t testify in court without prosecutors seeking
permission from the DA’s office. At least one, a homicide detective,
Phillip Nordo, was dismissed from the force for “misconduct.” A city
defense attorney expressed concern about Nordo’s involvement in a case
involving one of his clients, Darnell Powell, in a 2015 murder case.
Nordo apparently put money in the jail commissary account of a witness
against Powell without revealing the deposits.
Police corruption and criminality is nothing new in Philadelphia. In a
previous article, Socialist Action reported on past Philly PD scandals:
“In 1995, scandal rocked the city when 39th District cops were accused
of framing suspects, violating civil rights, violence, and theft of
money. In all, seven Philly cops were convicted. As many as 300 cases
were overturned and about 100 people released from prison for being
framed by corrupt cops.
“A key witness for the government against the 39th District cops was
long-time police informant Pamela Jenkins. Jenkins, a prostitute, had
been a confidential informant and girlfriend of one of the accused
officers, Thomas Ryan. Jenkins had previously testified against Mumia
Abu-Jamal in his frame-up trial for the murder of Officer Daniel
Faulkner. Jenkins later recanted her testimony in Mumia’s case.
“In May, 2015, six Philly narcotics officers, Thomas Liciardello, Brian
Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser
were found not guilty in a federal trial. They had been accused of
faking and planting evidence, theft of drugs and money and of framing
suspects. A seventh officer, Jeffrey Walker, took a plea deal and agreed
to testify against the others. After their acquittal, the six got their
jobs back. (One was subsequently fired after failing a drug test.)
“More than 1000 convictions have been thrown out in the wake of the drug
squad case, with more than 200 remaining to be reviewed. This case will
cost city taxpayers an estimated $24 million, as the city settles
lawsuits brought by the victims of police corruption.
“In April 2015, a 19-year veteran of the force, Christopher Hulmes, was
arrested for perjury and making false reports. Former DA Seth Williams
let Hulmes get off with pre-trial intervention and the promise not to
return to law enforcement. The district attorney’s office stated that
more than 500 cases involving Hulmes were under review.”
The extent of the corruption scandal in Baltimore has impelled one state
legislator, Delegate Bilal Ali, to advocate the break-up of the
Baltimore PD, a force still feeling the after-effects of the police
murder of Freddie Gray in 2015 and the resulting uprising of Black
youth. What Delegate Ali is advocating is modeled on the way the Camden,
N.J., police department was disbanded and replaced with a new force in
2013. The new Camden force is held up as an example of “community
policing.” Politicians and police officials in Maryland are pushing back
against this proposal.
Disbanding and replacing a police force, while it may have a temporary
beneficial effect, does not alter the fundamental role police play in
capitalist society. Police are the enforcers of the dominant social and
economic order.
Mumia Abu-Jamal pointed out: “Police are the employed servants of the
state, and as such the instruments of state policy. And what is the
state? Marx and Engels said: ‘the executive of the modern state is but a
committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie.’
Thus, police serve the ownership and wealth classes of their societies”
(“To Protect and Serve Whom?” by Mumia Abu-Jamal).
Housebroken police review boards aren’t sufficient, and District
Attorneys’ offices across the country have proven incapable to standing
up to the pressure exerted by the police unions. Cop unions, the “Blue
Klux Klan,” representing cops and corrections officers, are a
reactionary intrusion into the labor movement, and should be excluded
from it.
Police are part of the machinery of the mass incarceration regime that
targets Black and Brown people and the poor. Disbanding and replacing
urban police forces is a gimmick and not a real solution to the problems
faced by the victims of a racist criminal justice system. The fight for
police abolition is necessarily tied to the struggle to end mass
incarceration and the fight against police violence against people of color.
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March 5, 2018 in Police & FBI.
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