Cops accused of Toys for Tots thefts ‘tarnished’ police’s image, official says

[aggiesal]

Source: DC Examiner

By Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer 12/25/08

The four District of Columbia police officers reportedly caught on tape stealing from Toys for Tots “tarnished” the department’s image, a police official said.

Police confirmed that the four officers had been put on desk jobs as internal affairs investigates them for stealing toys. Officials said if the officers did take the toys intended for the city’s youth, they will be prosecuted.

On Christmas Day, the department’s community outreach director, Yvonne Smith, fired off a message to an e-mail network for residents of the Southeast D.C. neighborhood where the thefts allegedly occurred.

Smith wrote that she’d hoped to see Christmastime news coverage include positive stories about police outreach in one of the city’s poorest, most crime-plagued neighborhoods — the 6th District in Southeast Washington — instead of a tale about the strong victimizing the weak.

The story of the four officers accused of taking the toys “starts off Christmas on a sour note, puts distance between the community and the police, and worst of all, tarnishes the image of the Department during a time when we are trying to build strong relationships to foster trust that ultimately helps us solve crimes,” Smith wrote.

...

*********************************************************************

Read more: http://www.dcexaminer.com/local/122608-Cops_accused_of_Toys_for_Tots_thefts_tarnished_polices_image_official_says.html

---

A few bad apples, ruins it for all the good apples.

[lonestarnot]

1. Damn. What a damn shame.

[NaturalHigh]

2. Stealing from the poor isn't the best way to reach out to the public.

I wonder how many kids didn't get a Christmas gift because of these ingrates.

[L0oniX]

3. Never trust a cop! O yea it's only a few bad apples ....pffft

There's enough bad apples for me to not bother picking through the bushel for a good one anymore.

[happygoluckytoyou]

4. TARNISHED? no..... just confirmed.... from Rodney King to this....

IF THEY WANT RESPECT... let's see what happens to these cops....
I would suggest PUBLIC HUMILIATION.... how about ----> > > > community service time wearing an 'i steal from kids' sign

NEXT TIME SOME F'ing OFFICER TELLS YOU HOW TO ACT, AND TAKES THAT CONDESENDING ATTITUDE----> REMEMBER, UNDERNEATH HE SUCKS

[bitchkitty]

5. Yes, I guess 4 cops proves that all cops are bad.

Just like Ted Bundy proved that all law students are serial killers. And Gacy proved that all Democrats are pedophiles and murderers. Monica Lewinsky proved that all female White House interns give blow jobs to Presidents. And George Bush proves that no politician should be trusted - that means Barack Obama is not to be trusted.

Do I really need a sarcasm icon here? I've met bad cops before, but I've been saved by good ones, and I would hate to live in a place where there were no police.

[1monster]

6. No, but it only takes one bad experience with a less than clean cop, one who

enjoys intimidating people, or even just a surly or grumpy cop, to sour people's view of law enforcment officers in general. Fear of those who are supposed to protect us isn't desirable.

And there seem to be a whole lot of bad experiences.

Both my husband and I had intimidating experiences with our county's finest.

I was picking my stepson up after work and stopped in the fire lane while he got in (He was waiting for me there.). There was a cop sitting in the cross walk behind me who had to have seen my stepson get in the car.

He pulled up to me, blocking me on the side as I was beginning to pull away from the curb, rolled down his window and just looked at me...

After a few seconds, I said (in an annoyed voice, I'm sure), "I was just picking up my stepson!" He didn't say anything, just continued to look at me. Since I had done nothing wrong, I decided I wasn't waiting all night for him and I drove off.

Two days later, my husband, who was driving a tourist vehicle, was stopped by a county mounty for supposedly running a red light. He had gone through the traffic light as it was turning yellow and turned into a tourist center. The cop stopped him there.

The thing is, my husband had not run the red light (and had witnesses, including another law enforcement officer in the seat behind my husband), but the cop did run the red light in his zeal to catch a (non)lawbreaker. (I was at the tourist center and saw it.)

Those are mild experiences compared to others I've heard of, but they were unsettling especially since I had see other such stops in the weeks before...

[norepubsin08]

10. You forgot to add that Ted Bundy was being groomed by

the republican party to run for office. He was working for then republican governor Dan Evans. I know the family well, sang for his step dad's funeral!~!!

[happygoluckytoyou]

13. ODD... hundreds of cops accused of abuse--> and the ONLY 4 bad ones were caught on VIDEO TAPE

YEARS of blacks being railroaded in the south...
HUNDREDS of cases where the police are accused of abuse but BACK EACH OTHER UP that it never happened...
...... and then baboom!!! RODNEY KING.... and EVEN THEN the cops lied UNTIL THE TAPE BECAME PUBLIC
----had there been no FILM, it would have happened AGAIN!!!
...................YES.... 4 cops prove that MANY cops are bad

[bitchkitty]

16. LAPD was notorious before Rodney King -

and LAPD is ONE police department and I will grant you that they were rife with corruption. Sorry, but I don't believe that every cop in the world is tainted by it. That's an idiotic viewpoint.

If you're going to say that all cops are bad because of the bad ones, then you have to say that all blacks, or all Asians, or all women, or all teachers, or all preachers, or all children, or all dogs, or all whatever are BAD because at one time or another, one of their race, gender or species committed a bad act.

I'm not a cop groupie. I am a fanatic for the truth though - even if it's not what I want to hear.

[LanternWaste]

27. And the corollary then is also true?

And the corollary then is also true? That being, if we find an example of four police officers being kind, courteous and going over and above the call of their duty, we may then surmise that "that MANY cops are good"?



Or does your admirable use of logic work if and only if it fits a predefined opinion we hold...?

[Leftest]

14. How many more examples has there been?

These four are only the latest ones in a long line of examples. And those are only the ones we know about. What are the odds that all the examples we know about make up all the examples out there? That's a bet I know I wouldn't make in Vegas.

[bitchkitty]

15. OK, granted - there are bad apples in the

various law enforcement agencies. There are far more good ones. But you don't hear about the good ones, only the bad ones, because a good cop who does his job and doesn't hurt anyone doesn't get any press.

[Leftest]

17. Sorry, but I disagree with you

I was here (video clip below) and watched them shoot women, children and other peaceful protesters and this isn't the only example I've witnessed in my life. I don't know what color your skin is, but, I am going to make an assumption that you're white. If you are (even if you grew up in a mostly minority community) you just don't have the same frame of reference that us brown and black skin folks have.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_nHFVKD9rs

[bitchkitty]

18. I'll give you that,

but what about black, latino or asian police? Are they exempt from your contempt?

[Leftest]

20. A big NO! I play not favoritism

I look at it just like the point which is made in this Malcolm X speech.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znQe9nUKzvQ

In fact, my brother is a deputy sheriff in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department. Of course I'll always love my brother, but, I have told him that in this Malcolm X speech the shoe fits him. I don't like him being a cop and he's knows it from my out spokeness. But its his life and his choice and I don't try to lean on him for it. But the point being. I don't really cut my own brother any slack (even though I love him and he knows I do), and I cut the least amount of slack toward other minority cops who act like......well, act like cops. The reason is because I see them as described by the above video link showing an excerpt of one of Malcolm X 's speeches.


Peace,
Leftest

[Leftest]

21. Allow me to share this with you

In these two pictures below I am with my father. The oldest boy in the one picture is my brother the deputy I mentioned above. These pictures taken at around 1969 or 1970 are of us visiting my father in prison - conjugal visiting units.

Why was my father in prison? For having possession of a few marijuana joints. In reality why was he in prison? Because he was Mexican. See, when I was a little child Torrance California (one amongst others cities) had a policy that they even displayed on a big white sign with bold black letters. I can still remember it even though when I was that young I didn't understand what that meant beyond knowing that being what we were meant we were treated different. That big white sign hanging off a stone rail bridge just outside of old downtown Torrance said: "If You Are Mexican or Black You Have To Be Out Of The City by 7:00 pm." This is the real reason why my father was sent to prison for six months. He tried to go to the store after 7:00 pm to buy us kids some ice cream.

That's just one example out of a long list I've come to see happen to family and friends throughout my 42 years. I won't even get into all the police brutality, harassment and ugly conduct to include racism towards us I've experienced or witnessed.












Peace,
Leftest

[bitchkitty]

22. But what if there were no police?

Would you want to live in an anarchistic society?

It's true I can't relate to your experiences as a Latino - but I've been in the middle of a riot (Piedmont Park, Atlanta, in the 70s). I've been on the wrong end of a gun. When my enraged boyfriend attacked me with a butcher knife in a tavern, I would never have been safe from him again, if the police had not taken him away. Or my friends would have taken matters into their own hands and committed murder for me - I would not want to have lived with that.

My point is that you can't live in a society that doesn't have laws, and laws have to be enforced. I don't deny that there are bad policeman. I certainly don't deny, being from Georgia, that there are racist policemen. But there has to be law, and there has to be people that enforce the law. Otherwise it comes to an "only the strong survive" world, and strong as I am, I wouldn't want to live in that world.

I'm truly sorry for your father's experience. A child should never have their parents taken away for such a flimsy, unjust reason.

[Leftest]

24. Having police is fine, no disagreement there

An anarchistic society won't work. There's too many people who'll turn it into chaos thus requiring laws and law enforcement. The problem is that today's police are: 1) too militarized. 2) frequent law breakers themselves. 3) too biased against liberals and minorities. 4) Use way too much force too often.

The problem isn't with having laws and law enforcement officers. The problem is having laws which violate the constitution or the founding principles of our country, and, a prevalent law enforcement system which doesn't police itself unless they have no choice after being caught on camera.

I know I have already posted a couple of short video clips to help illustrate my points. Its something I like doing because I do believe a picture says a thousand words. Below I am gonna post a couple more short video clips only to illustrate the unprofessional and childish behavior common throughout police forces. This type of behavior is common. The last two videos are to show that it isn't just minorities who are brutally assaulted by police. Its just much more prevalent against minorities.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaMpG4fK_FQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqueqArhzc


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riboisae0JY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwVDZW3B72M



Police are suppose to represent the law. They are not judge, jury and executioner, and, they are NOT suppose to be lawbreakers themselves and protect the fellow officers who break the law.

Thanks for your responses bitchkitty.

Peace,
Leftest

[1monster]

25. Did you watch the video posted up thread of the peaceful protest broken up

by LA riot police, who turned it into a police riot?

If that is the police, we can do without and would be better off without them.

The militarization of our community police forces started in the seventies with the "SWAT" teams.

The idea for military-style police forces drove out the neighborhood cops and somehow we the people, the citizens, the taxpayers, who they are supposed to protect, became the enemy.

In effect, we are being occupied in our own country.

[bitchkitty]

26. Not fair to use the LAPD as an example.

That's like saying Hitler represented all those born in Austria.

[1monster]

28. Baloney. The New York Police have gunned down innocent victims for being black.

On more than one occasion.

There have been several instances where police in big cities have sodomized (impaled) victims while in custody with various objects to the point that they have had to be hospitalized.

Indefensible tazings of people who pose NO danger whatsoever (including a six year old!), many times when they are already restrained with handcuffs, happen all over the country.

A police officer was caught on tape dumping a quadraplegic out of his wheelchair because she "thought" he was faking his paralysis.

I've seen loads of videos (on YOUTUBE) of police officers beating up on people who are not a threat or harassing people who have done no wrong. And these vidos were from ALL OVER THE COUNTRY. Not just L.A.

When I left home many, many years ago, my father was a Lieutenant (he may have attained higher rank after I left) in the Auxillary Police and he also did police/fire/ambulance (before and after 911) dispatching, so I grew up around cops. My neighbor of many years was the county sheriff. Great guy, great neighbor, but the common mindset is that if you are suspected for any reason, your are guilty and should be treated as such... and as such is not nice.

That attitude is very common, even among the "good" cops.

And that attitude leads to abuses that should not ever be tolerated. And is tolerated far too often all over this country.

[norepubsin08]

9. I whole heartedly agree All fucking pigs are worthless

and should be scraped from the face of the earth as scum...that goes for prosecutors, probation officers and judges too! Specially the federal ones..talk about arrogant attitudes...we have invested them with way too much power!!!

[Skittles]

23. I hope you are trying to be sarcastic

else you suck

[Earth_First]

7. I'm curious (and the story doesn't give many details)...

if this was good old fashioned larceny; or was this a case of a few cops under the stress of economic duress willing to sacrifice it all to provide for their children.

[Muttocracy]

11. wondered that too - stealing for their kids, or to sell stuff, or what? nt

[Recursion]

12. DC is DC

If you haven't lived there it's hard to get how God-awful corrupt nearly every local service is, cops included.

Fenty is trying his best; I'll give him that. It's just that he's facing a very uphill climb.

All this said, DC is my favorite city in the world.

[NeoConsSuck]

19. And Nassau County, NY is Nassau County, NY

same shit happened there about 15 years. Cops stealing from a toy bin meant for needy children.

[Recursion]

8. Since the Marines run Toys For Tots...

...just drop the cops off at the 8th & I Barracks and see if they learn the error of their ways.