Drug War Issues
There's something fishy in a Virginia evidence room, a Louisiana deputy gets in trouble for peddling fake weed, three suburban Chicago cops were running a dirty racket, an NYPD cop gets himself arrested, and a Miami cop gets himself convicted. Let's get to it:
In Jefferson, Louisiana, a Jefferson Parish sheriff's deputy was fired last Thursday when a Sheriff's Office investigation determined that he had been selling synthetic marijuana online after it was outlawed in Louisiana. Scott Sigur is alleged to have made at least three sales of the synthetic cannabinoid JWH-018 after it was banned in August 2010 and to have profited to the tune of $50,000 to $80,000. The sheriff said that the results of the investigation had been forwarded to the district attorney's office and that criminal charges were pending.
In Schaumberg, Illinois, three Schaumberg police officers were arrested last Wednesday on charges they robbed drug dealers and sold their wares. Officers John Cichy, 30, Matthew Hudak, 29, and Terrance O'Brien, 47, are accused of stealing dealers' stashes while executing search warrants, then reselling the cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, and pocketing the cash. The dirty trio went down in a DEA investigation that included an informant who wore a wire. They were caught on surveillance video and audio recordings robbing local dealers of drugs and cash as they executed search warrants on homes and cars. They would take the drugs to a storage locker, where a fourth man would pick them up and sell them. Police recovered 275 grams of cocaine from the locker. All three are on leave pending the outcome of the criminal investigation. They are charged with a string of crimes, including burglary, manufacturing or delivering between 100 and 400 grams of cocaine, official misconduct and theft between $10,000 and $100,000 in a school or place of worship. At last report, they were all behind bars on $750,000 cash bail.
In New York City, an NYPD officer was indicted last Thursday on charges he falsified paperwork to cover up his involvement in an illegal search and arrest. Officer Isaias Alicea is charged with 10 counts of offering a false instrument for filing and two counts of official misconduct. According to the District Attorney's Office, the charges result from a February 2012 drug sales case in which the charges have been dismissed.
In Miami, a Miami police officer was convicted last Friday of planting drugs on suspects, stealing money from drug dealers, and lying to investigators. Sgt. Raul Iglesias, 40, was convicted of eight charges following a two-week jury trial. Evidence at his trial showed that he planted cocaine on one suspect and stole drugs and money from others. Other evidence showed that $800 went missing from a box of money Iglesias thought was drug profits. In fact, the money was an FBI plant. Four detectives in his unit testified against him. He's looking at up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced in March.
Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
Comments
hahaha serves em right, eh
hahaha serves em right, eh Father Phillip? (yeah Phil, despite what I said in the opium book reviews, BTW im gonna buy all those books, i will still call you Father Phil for two reasons. I really liked alot of that Opium article a few posts down, it was awesome writing skills, yo. lol. Seriously. And the other reason is because im totally aware of the bishop who went to Asia and came back to crusade against drugs and I know he was a big player in getting the drug war started so you can be father Phil. A sick bastard bishop started this war so we'll have our own Father Phillip end the goddam thing.) I love these corrupt cop posts man. You are seriously awesome for putting them up. A WINNER IS DEFINITELY YOU.
man I love these. I can read them all, all day. I'd quote Ice T right now but Idk if it'd be against posting rules. But it's true.
I know for some reformists it's real tough sometimes, especially the older reformers among us, to imagine a world without a war on drugs. I know it's hard, but I think even the older reformers who have seen so much prohibition destruction can somewhat envision fixing this war on drugs mess. I totally know that it's probably impossible to envision a police free world and altogether its kind of a different topic but let me say this some cops are good cops. Hell, I'll never forget the one sub zero night in Portchester freezing to death and withdrawals about to come on when me and my team scored some cash and saw The Man. We felt better and had to decide whether or not we'd sneak into the public housing building and sleep on the warmer staircase or creep into the freezing abandoned warehouse by the wood factory or whatever that thing is on the road where the Lobster Shack used to be. Well anyway PC isn't the nicest neighbor, far from a war zone ghetto though. But considering WASP Greenwich is right next store we all know that it's pretty much a sport cops target. Not only that but being anglo-saxon as the three/four of us were, dirty junkies as it is, walking around a highly Brazilian/Portugese/Hispanic/Black neighborhood, yeah we kinda stood out. That and the bastards working at the grocery stores and malls never gave us any love so we'd always have to be on our toes, anybody would call the cops on us cause everybody, aside from some of the minorities whom knew a thing or two about persecution, they'd maybe felt bad for us and they wouldn't call the police but the piece of crap manager of the grocery store over there, white like us but in a different world, probably enjoying his prescription pain killers with alcohol or if not him definitely his anglo saxon wife and so whatever look at us and hate us. Try to eliminate us. Whatever. So yeah, we'd constantly get stopped by cops. "I.D please" oh so annoying.
You know, in my life globetrotting the world for warm places to stay, good places to beg for money, good prices for dope, and asylum from police, the constant profiling and "I.D please" made me realize something that I think a certain portion of the drug reform community may probably not be aware of or not consider. I think Father Phillip, bless his heart, is totally aware of it and that's maybe why we're lucky that he posts these corrupt cop stories up for us. But to the section of the reform community that may be smoking the dank nugs in nice apartments or houses, with decent enough jobs, degrees or dilpomas, maybe lucky enough to not have too much direct dealing with cops or maybe had an occassion or two of the BS incident that should be illegal called "whats this? hmm i pulled you over for speeding or a blown tail light but holy canoli your car smells like pot [when it doesnt]." I think if youre a reformist and your dealing with cops is nothing or limited you may say to yourself something I hear all too often from our side of the drug war "ah man, its so tough on these cops. they got a job to do you know? they should be focusing on the real crimes."
well no man. not so fast. No. i think that's a cop out. no pun intended. I think that's giving cops a free pass.
I know StopTheDrugWar has vouched for Jarecki's "The House I Live In" as well as other popular reform sites but I have to say guys you really need to see it if you havent. It's on VUDU now for 3 bucks to rent. You gotta check it out man. Some cops in there joke about us getting our tubes tied or nuts cut off to prevent births.
I think that there definitely are cops that you can describe with the "damn, it must be hard. its a job. they dont wanna do it" but even then, ive got to say, i personally have a hard time feeling that way because as the sentence says "they dont wanna do it" well damn it they dont have to. If they dont want to, they dont have to. Any police officer DOES NOT HAVE TO feed you that BS "your car smells like me" line and they dont have to feed you that "just doing my job man" line. Whatever they do to us drug users THEY DONT HAVE TO.
There's tons and tons and tons of great police related literature out there. Details on cops details on their psychological profile etc. Hell man I got a GED just so I could go to community college to take criminal justice courses so I could see if I could find out more about the enemy. yep. The enemy. To me they really are tangible proof of an enemy in this war on drugs. The foot soldiers against us. We've got cartel leaders that have foot soldier and foot soldier drug dealers and us foot soldier users and they've got the Drug Czar, DEA executives and foot soldier agents and foot soldier cops. I was not surprised to find out in criminal justice just how many cops are alcoholics, closet cases, high divorce rates and suicidal. I wasn't surprised at all. Tells me in a way they kind of realize they're evil bastards.
I dont like cops getting free passes "its just a job" no man. They dont have to do anything to us. Before they're police they're human beings. They dont have to ruin our lives, our families lives, destroy our marriages, destroy our kids, they don't. They choose to though. And to be honest, from what I've experienced in my life from one state to the next, one city to the next, one country to the next, I have to tell you that I feel like they enjoy it. I feel like they get this sense of "us vs them" "good vs bad" and I think they love it. They love being dogs for their superiors. They love getting arrests and getting patted on the head and thrown a bone by their superiors. I think they love finding us and finding drugs on us and hurting our lives. I think they are $#!t stirrers in this drug war and they know they are and they love it.
So that's why I love what Father Phil does. I think hell yeah give them a dose of their own medicine. Embarass them. Humiliate them. These corrupt cops that get busted, GOOD! Tell the world. Just like they embarass us when they very publicly have us face down on the ground in handcuffs as someone records it with their phone to humiliate us on the internet. They love it. They think they're so tough and everything. LOL. Cops are kind of like school teachers. They know nothing but the system. They are born into going to school like a teacher, a teacher lives and goes through kindergarten through college, spending their entire life in a school setting with school rules, school culture and then decide to be a teacher and thus spend their entire professional lives in school. I think that totally messes with their head. They get real life and school life life culture and school culture crossed up. HEY MAN, there MUST BE A REASON lots of teachers dress like crap and seem like space cadets. If they arent warped by school culture then maybe they're just frat boys/sorority girls that dont wanna grow up and like the time off and all that stuff and wanna just get drunk and have sex forever. Fine. Whatever. Cops are insulated too.
They act so tough man. Like in the "House I Live In" for a few secs check out this one cop in a bullet proof vest with a fake tan a full arm tattoo dark shades short hair. WTF? Dude what do you think you are man? Tom Cruise in mission impossible? DUDE youre not a tough guy. Cops aren't tough guys. They're as pathetic and as un-street smart as a kindergarten teacher. You defend the Sesame Street system man, who the hell are you kidding man? LOL!! I remember smoking cigs and avoiding the cold in a diner once when this group of retired cops were talking about setting up this get together for the retired police reunion. LOL. All these bastards had on horribly exaggerated NYC Italian American accents and they spoke about what they were doing like it was illegal. DUDE YOUR NOT F'N MAFIA. MAFIA HATE COPS. MAFIA ARE THEIR OWN POLICE. I think some cops are so retarted they get infatuated with certain criminal cultures and they sort of act it out like they are these tough guys. NO MAN. youre F'N LAME. We don't like you. You kill yourselves because you know that everybody hates you. Youre not a tough guy. Youre as tough as big bird. Who the hell is that dude in the house i live in kidding with his tatoos? DUDE YOU LOOK LIKE A MORON.
So thank you Father Phillip for not giving these bastards a free pass. Just like the war on drugs hasnt been an institution since the dawn of man, neither have police. It may be hard to believe but policing is just like the war on drugs. A relatively modern institution. The length of time these two things have existed are so insignificant as to not even be worth mentioning when considering the history of planet earth as a whole. New inventions that are bad inventions and need to end. Keep up the good work Father Phillip.
In reply to hahaha serves em right, eh by CJ (not verified)
Thanks
It Happens All The Time
I think it is so sweet to see true justice occur. If only the thousands of other corrupt cops could be caught, then I'd feel safer. But, they aren't, and I don't. Corrupt cops got me once, and I live in a little spot on the map. Now, I hope the cameras I live with constantly help to protect me from them.
In reply to It Happens All The Time by Scooter (not verified)
Corrupt cops and courts
I live in northwest Iowa in a small town and the scale of misconduct and tax scams has boiled over to singling out innocent law abiding citizens for theft by crooked attorneys and the third district court under Tom Millers rule in Iowa.I liken it to the wheel of doom.When a deputy files bankruptcy and builds a brand new house 2 years later or our DA gets a divorce from his wife and has a 250000 restitution for screwing a dispatcher and knocking her up a few years prior.3 child support payments,allimony,restitution,marries a woman half his age,births another kid and buys another nice home on a 85000 a year salary how the hell he does it is a mathimatical wonder.We are ruined as are alot of other people and these failures are doing better now than ever.Oh and by the way,Gov.Terry Branstad just appointed our former DA to circut judge in the 3rd district.Our former DAs dad is a retired cheif district judge(son of a judge) Does anybody else see a pattern?
In reply to It Happens All The Time by Scooter (not verified)
Home security cameras
Buy a home surviellence system now before the law comes a knockin(if they knock dont let them in)once they see that you got something they want they wont stop with the scams of scoring your hard earned belongingings.Keep your cameras small and wirless that way you can move them around and well hidden.Once the law enforcement scams are afoot what ya gonna do call the perpitraitor of the crime.I've experienced it first hand.
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