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Simplepowa
In Pursuit of Knowledge


Registered: 03/06/09
Posts: 4,310
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Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner
#18614939 - 07/26/13 01:25 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Drugs AlterNet / By Kristen Gwynne
Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner The latest example of why paid police informants are not always a good idea.
July 26, 2013 | The Black male owner of a head-shop selling so-called "tobacco" products in Scotia, New York seems to have been the victim of a police informant's set-up. Surveillance video from Dapp City Smoke Shop shows an unnamed white man in a leather jacket pull what appears to be crack cocaine out of his pocket and place it on the counter. The paid, confidential informant for the Schenectady County Sheriff's Office then photographs the drugs as "evidence."
Head-shop owner Donald Andrews was charged with felonies -- criminal sale and criminal possession of a controlled substance -- that could have put him behind bars for 25 years. Forced to close his store, Andrews had spent three weeks in county jail before his lawyer insisted the grand jury view the surveillance footage. On April 25, after authorities saw the tape, charges were dropped.
This week, the community gathered at a Christian Leadership Conference and expressed their concern with policing tactics, particularly incentivizing bogus busts by using paid informants. Many of them, facing their own charges, have a lot at stake in procuring convictions, however unethically. Community members also expressed concern that the set-up was racially motivated.
"With an informant like this, he will lie and plant things and he can't really be trusted," Robert Outlar, told NEWS10 at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Many of Andrews' supporters are concerned the same paid informant has acted afoul before, prompting calls for District Attorney Robert Carney to review past cases with which he was involved. The Schenectady County Sherriff Dominic Dagostino however, told NEWS10 he does not believe there are other problems related to the informant. How he could be so sure, given the circumstances, is not clear.
"We believe that police used this same person on other matters, including those involving residents who may have pleaded guilty out of fear of lengthier incarceration or after having concluded that no one would believe they were framed if they denied the accusations," Outlar also said.
Dagostino's officers are currently on the look-out for the unknown informant, who skipped town and is facing perjury and possession charges. According to NEWS10, he participated in seven other cases, two of which led to convictions. Andrews' case is not the first time a paid informant has been linked to shady behavior, but is simply the latest installment in examples of what can go wrong when cold hard cash is linked to a conviction.
Kristen Gwynne is an associate editor and drug policy reporter at AlterNet. Follow her on Twitter: @KristenGwynne
VIDEO ON THE LINK
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/surveillance-video-shows-police-informant-planting-drugs
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Carl Sagan - "Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people." --- Robert Pirsig - "When one person suffers from a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer from a delusion it is called religion." --- Brian Cox - "[One] problem with today’s world is that everyone believes they have the right to express their opinion AND have others listen to it. The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense."
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snoot
look alive ∞



Registered: 01/30/05
Posts: 9,644
Loc: 45º parallel
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: Simplepowa]
#18614967 - 07/26/13 01:30 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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lol, I hope they all get it in the ass.
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∞ I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. - Simone de Beauvoir -
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SCleROTiUM_LICK
ResearchedFiction Writer


Registered: 11/08/06
Posts: 884
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: snoot]
#18616791 - 07/26/13 07:14 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Cameras for the win!!!
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Sykey
Oscar2dope


Registered: 04/09/05
Posts: 105
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: SCleROTiUM_LICK]
#18617388 - 07/26/13 09:15 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Ban all police informants that have previously been charged with a crime, or not charged due to future cooperation
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most



Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 8,246
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: Simplepowa]
#18618594 - 07/27/13 06:30 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Charge the cops with possession and prosecute them under the same law! Give 'em 25 years in jail. THAT would be JUSTICE!!!
Just another reason to hate and distrust law enforcement and "law" enforcers. What scum bags!!!
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
Edited by Nature Boy (07/27/13 07:55 AM)
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: Nature Boy]
#18618668 - 07/27/13 07:03 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nature Boy said: Charge the cops with possession
Cops are allowed to posses drugs in the performance of their duties.
Did you even read the article?
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most



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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#18618776 - 07/27/13 07:46 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I'm OK with that principle when they are discharging their duties lawfully. In this instance, they were not - and therefore I am proposing that the protections normally afforded them should NOT apply. I stick with my original demand. Charge everyone involved with possession. See how they like THEM apples.
Sorry if I was unclear. I didn't include all the steps in my thought process. If this was a math problem, I'd lose points for simply writing down the right (IMHO) answer. 
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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luvdemshrooms
Two inch dick..but it spins!?


Registered: 11/29/01
Posts: 34,247
Loc: Lost In Space
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: Nature Boy]
#18618887 - 07/27/13 08:45 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Demand away It'll do jack shit.
To start, it was the informant. Next, note the cops are looking for the informant who bolted. Add in the facts that cops can possess drugs legally while on the job.
Now if it can be proven that the cops encouraged or condoned him planting the drugs, then that's a different matter.
Nothing in the article suggests that that's the case.
-------------------- You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most



Registered: 07/09/07
Posts: 8,246
Loc: Samsara
Last seen: 2 months, 5 days
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: luvdemshrooms]
#18618929 - 07/27/13 09:02 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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I admit that I am operating under the assumption that it was the cops who supplied the informant with the crack and that it was their plan all along - thought up and condoned by the cops to take down the head-shop owner.
It's not outside the realm of the possible that the hypothesis/assumption is correct, or very nearly so, given the unpopularity of these businesses.
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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mylfgur
Untitled



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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: Nature Boy]
#18619378 - 07/27/13 11:40 AM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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Quote:
Nature Boy said: I admit that I am operating under the assumption that it was the cops who supplied the informant with the crack and that it was their plan all along - thought up and condoned by the cops to take down the head-shop owner.
It's not outside the realm of the possible that the hypothesis/assumption is correct, or very nearly so, given the unpopularity of these businesses.
N.B.
Highly improbable that police provided an informant with drugs. Money to buy drugs? Perhaps, but definitely not evidence. The article covers the most probable scenario that the informant was dirtying people on his own accord either to have a charge dropped or scrounge up some cash for his habit. Not all police departments utilize clandestine tactics.
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Nature Boy
Stranger than most



Registered: 07/09/07
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Re: Surveillance Video Catches Police Informant Planting Crack On Business Owner [Re: mylfgur]
#18619739 - 07/27/13 01:33 PM (10 years, 9 months ago) |
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You might very well be correct. I have an inherent distrust of law enforcement. The shenanigans in Texas are a classic example. Roadside strip search of young girls - cops sticking their fingers in their pussies just because they CAN.
N.B.
-------------------- All submitted posts under this user name are works of pure fiction or outright lies. Any information, statement, or assertion contained therein should be considered pure unadulterated bullshit. Note well: Sorry, but I do not answer PM's unless you are a long-time trusted friend. If you have a question, ask it in the appropriate thread.
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