Anyone see the cops convince an innocent man he was guilty of murder...

[NNN0LHI]

...on 60 Minutes a few minutes ago? Classic police techniques were used on some guy who may best be described as not the sharpest tool in the shed. His lawyer explained that most people can be convinced they committed a crime using these techniques because we are all brought up believing "cops don't lie". How many innocent people have been put to death? How many murderers have gone free because the wrong guy was convicted?

Don

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Cops do lie! Most people do not understand this and this is....

why innocent people are convicted.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. They dehumanize people even without knowing for sure they

committed the crime. For example, local cops were working with a federal drug team when they stopped a driver who, they claim, was a known drug dealer. The feds were in the front of the car pointing their weapons at the driver, telling him to keep his hands on the wheel of the car or they would shoot; and the local cops were at the car door pointing their weapons at the driver telling him to raise his hands in the air or they would shoot. The driver raised his hands and the feds shot him dead. The prosecutor who told me about it felt that it was regrettable, but the guy was a drug dealer, afterall.

Same thing with an attorney-teacher who felt that keeping voting rights away from ex-felons indefinitely was a good thing because they were bad people.

[Florida_Geek]

2. An they plant evidence.

all the time.

[bryant69]

3. What's the solution though?

Easy enough to complain about police corruption or that they "plant evidence all the time" but what do you propose to do about it? How do you think we, as members of Democratic Underground, should change our behaivor based on this information?

Also what percentage of the cops do you think are corrupt?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[The Backlash Cometh]

5. Psychology tests would be appropriate.

I don't believe, under any circumstance, that people with severe prejudices should be in law enforcement. We should weed them out and have them do something that doesn't require making judgement calls on life and death decisions.

[NNN0LHI]

6. The first thing you do is outlaw the death penalty

You can let someone out after decades if deemed innocent later, but we can't reverse the death penalty.

As to what percentage of the cops do I think are corrupt. I have no way of knowing that for sure. Though if we use Frank Serpico's testimony to the Knapp Commission and other congressional inquiries investigating corruption in the New York City Police Dept. as a snapshot, it was pretty bad at one time. I know honest cops. I know some corrupt ones too. I don't know the percentage.

Don

[alfredo]

7. With kids they will be able to go home if they sign a document.

of course the document is a confession. I have heard of that happening more than once.

[NC_Nurse]

8. I saw that

it was frightening. I felt so bad for that kid, maybe he wasn't that together..but who would be in that position?

I thought the tactics they used were disgusting! 60 minutes is like watching "Sick, Sad World" sometimes...:(

[Djinn]

9. I'd beleive pretty much anything of the cops

after watching them gangbash a friend at a nightclub that was crawling with off duty cops (the person that booked OUR function neglected to mention the presence of a police function) after the VICTIM was thrown out someone asked the pig why he did it, the reply...."coz I can"

and we were a bunch of middle class white kids, can only imagine what other less pampered folk put up with

[Nlighten1]

10. Yep...can't truss it!

I gave up on cops a long time ago...to protect and serve my ass...