Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Who Are The Bad Guys Anyway?

Former Star reporter Dick Cady once won a Pulitzer prize for his investigative reporting on widespread corruption within Indianapolis' police department back in the 1970s. Because of his work, a lot of police officers went to jail and a prosecutor was shown the door by voters. Many years later he penned a mystery novel, The Executioner's Mask, which is described as "uncovering a police force decaying from corruption and a city collapsing under its own injustice." As Matt Sledge wrote in reviewing Cady's book in 2004, Cady wasn't writing about our city during the 1970s, but the present day:

Cady still sees Indianapolis as a city with a seamy underside of corruption. It can be hard to believe this in 2004, at a time when everything appears to have been corporatized and sanitized, and every politician has a perfect sound-bite excuse for every misdeed. Cady’s book is a portal into an Indianapolis that still exists. It’s not just the Midwestern mid-sized market that the ad execs on the coasts see. It’s a living, breathing community that needs to be vigilantly guarded by people with a sense of honor and a love for the place they call home. Gannett has a habit of buying up papers with a few Pulitzers hanging on the walls. When Gannett came to town, Cady left The Star, along with a host of talented, veteran reporters. No Pulitzers have followed.

And so it is with amazement when today's Star reporters routinely report in today's newspaper a guilty plea from IMPD officer Noble Duke for tipping off members of the Haughville syndicate last summer as the feds prepared to round more than three dozen of its members up in one of the biggest drug busts in recent Indianapolis memory. After reading my post today on the Star report, a regular Advance Indiana reader wrote to me in complete anger. With his permission, I am sharing with you his reaction to the story:

Please forgive me if I'm over reacting but that article in the Star reads like a complete whitewash of the entire affair. Numerous questions abound.

1) The crooked cop gets tagged in June immediately following this HUGE raid and NO ONE in this entire city, including the blogsphere, doesn't know about? That's extremely hard to believe.

2) The crooked cop states that he acted as an informant to the drug dealers because of "association or friendship"? Are we supposed to believe that!

3) The crooked cop doesn't just inform one dealer he contacts AS MANY AS 15 DEALERS!

4) The crooked cop says he did not receive ANY MONEY by tipping off these dealers and stated to one dealer that "I could lose my job doing this". Does IMPD and the media expect the public to buy this story!

5) The crooked cop is NOT IN JAIL, HE'S STILL OUT ON THE STREET! Isn't that a wee bit unusual considering the magnitude of the crime?

6) Who is INDIVIDUAL # 1 that the crooked cop first tipped off? This person was arrested so why wasn't their name released?

7) IMPD Spokesman Sgt. Paul Thompson states: " This type of behavior is not acceptable". NO SHIT!!!!!
If the reader sounds a little bit upset, he has every right to be. The reader is a respectable member of our community who has fought tirelessly to clean up criminal elements threatening his own neighborhood. Sadly, he discovered that the neighborhood cops he called upon for assistance were more interested in aiding the drug dealers operating a crack house down the alley from his home than they were in helping him to clean up his neighborhood. "If you don't like it, then move," he was told by one of the cops. When he attempted to use self-help to run the crack dealers out of the rented house, IMPD responded in kind by handcuffing him and placing him under arrest, and then taking him on a several-hour ride in the back of a police paddy wagon before dropping him off at Mid-Town Clinic to be evaluated by a psychiatrist. When the psychiatrist came in the room to see him, his first question to the man was: "What did you do to piss off the police?"

After police finally raided the neighborhood crack house in question, TWO WEEKS LATER!, the police found no drugs. It turns out the raid was all for show. The principal drug dealer at this location was briefly handcuffed while the police searched the home. He was later uncuffed and permitted to drive away in one of those big black SUVs that drug dealers seem to always drive. Of course, he likely had been tipped off about the raid by a "friendly cop." The drug dealers moved to a new location where the neighbors wouldn't complain and the neighborhood cops wouldn't be bothered by intruding neighbors who won't stop complaining until the crack house is gone. The new location was probably a rented home owned by the same east side business which seems to rent a lot of houses in this city to drug dealers.

At some point, people have to say enough is enough. Tomorrow, Mayor Greg Ballard will deliver his state of the city address. Will there be any talk of cleaning up corruption in IMPD? Will Mayor Ballard acknowledge the existence of corruption in IMPD? Last year, city taxpayers were compelled to pay an additional $90 million in extra taxes to pay for public safety. Isn't it ironic that some of the very people who benefit from the higher taxes we're now paying and who are charged with helping to protect this city are in fact the persons responsible for the crime which is tearing our city apart?

8 comments:

CircleCityScribe said...

One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch! This was an isolated incident of a single dirty cop.

Now, if you want to find Ghost Employment, please ask the prosecutor what has been done about Monroe Gray?

If you want Official Misconduct, what indictment is forthcoming for 'Bones' Ackles, Carl Drummer, Tony Duncan?

What about the Constable corruption??? Constables should be eliminated due to their corruption, and why is it that only Marion Co has them? ...Perry Twp's been receiving the attention from channel 59, but Center has a constable repeatedly mentioned in abuse in multiple reports, Washington Twp has its Paul Woods affair....and how can Carl Drummer be a deputy constable?

Who claimed illegal homestead tax exemptions? What perjury charges have been filed? Whose written about it?

Mann Law, P.C. said...

Single isolated incident. I doubt it. Anybody who has any exposure to the criminal justice system, knows that it is not true. Police officers lie under oath in court cases daily. Perjury a felony. The prosecutor turns their heads as they need the police to catch real criminals. Police officers arrest people without probable cause. Police sign affidavits under oath on matters they know nothing about because a prosecutor asked them to do so. Like in Rodney King the "good citizens" don't care so long as thye keep the criminals in the bad neighborhoods.

Chris Worden said...

Amen, on police corruption. That's not partisan, unlike the investigations indy4u2c is talking about, which are ALL politically motivated. If there was a crime committed by Tony Duncan, Carl Drummer, or Dr. Ackles, Brizzi would have charged them already. Mismanagement isn't criminal, it's just really, really stupid.

Gary R. Welsh said...

If it only was a case of one bad apple, indy4u2c. Yes, most IMPD officers are honest and dedicated public servants, but there are more than just a few bad ones. The good police officers wish someone would do something about the bad ones who give them a bad name.

CircleCityScribe said...

"True Conservative"....after vomiting upon reading your blatent and outright lies, I decided to ask you (directly) if you have a single example of your 'glittering generalities', or are you really just a Left-wing Extremeist, creating propaganda?

Again, I challenge you to an example of what you assert, 'True Conservative'!

CircleCityScribe said...

P. S. I provided examples of corruption that can be proven, yet nothing has yet been done.

Mann Law, P.C. said...

indy4u2c

Nothing other than transcripts of depostions where police have admitted such. And records of innocent people have had to spend thousands of dollars to prove police have lied only to ahve prosecutors "off the record" agree that there was no basis for the charges but not willing to do anything about it due to the political ramifications. I have seen the police getting worse over the last 30 years. Much due to the law and order mentality who think violating people's rights to get a conviction is okay. Sure there are good police officers but they are getting fewer. I know many officers who cannot wait to retire and are embraaressed by what they see from the new breed.

If left wing is supporting people's constitutional rights then that is what I am. If left wing means people should get a fair trial that is me. I am amazed at you self professed law and order types who think that the constitution only protects you and your ilk. You complain about people getting off on technicalities like the 4th,5th and 6th amendmensts to the constitution. You say constables should be removed due to corruption and mention 3 of 9 constables. What proof do you have?The small claims courts serve a very real need to the taxpayers of Marion County. How many courts and how much money would be expended to do away with them? How are you going to handle the thousands of small claims cases? The cosntables cost the taxpayers nothing. The people who use the service pay for it. Sounds like a Republican idea.

CircleCityScribe said...

True Conservative: you fail to mention any specifics. As for constables, the proof is visible. Washington Twp Constable Woods was charged with Official Misconduct when he took over a city street to be used for a private event. Roy Houchins has been on TV...with his passing out of badges & credentials...and Tony Duncan: need I say more than his name? A 1/4 million dollar home? Appearance in polling places while armed and with candidates!

Constables are not needed, and have developed a corrupt fiefdom. The sheriff would best serve small claims court papers...

...and a former Center Twp constable was brought to task for taking illegal payoffs to serve papers.

Yes, True Conservative, I believe in a fair trial. If you have evidence of perjury, please submit it to the prosecutor. As an officer of the court, he is bound by standards of professional conduct to take proper action.

Now you talk of "transcripts of depositions"....are you an attorney that held said depositions? If so, did you adhere to the standards of professional conduct and take proper aciton? -I know that crafty attorneys often ask questions in one way and later proport the answer to be false in a different light. That is called argument, not perjury. Some crafty attorneys can do something like ask if it were daylight at the time of the incident, then point out that the incident happened at 6:00 p.m. and follow up with "Isn't that evening?" when the deponent answers yes, it is evening, the crafty attorney then grandstands saying: "so it wasn't daylight, it was evening...were you lying then or are you lying now?" The true answer is that the deponent did not lie at all, but gave what the deponent believed were honest answers.