 |
| Milwaukee |
First, it was reported that a violent street gang
calling itself the Punishers was operating within the Milwaukee Police
Department.
Now we learn a Milwaukee police officer accused
repeatedly of using excessive force and planting drugs on citizens, instead of
being disciplined or terminated, received a promotion.
When we hired Milwaukee police officers to go after
crime kingpins, we didn't realize it would turn out to be an inside job.
Milwaukee's blue crime wave should settle once and for
all whether police can be trusted to police their own. They can't.
The latest reports involve Sgt. Jason Mucha, who was
accused in at least 10 cases over a three-year period of beating suspects,
planting drugs on them or both.
We all have an image of internal affairs divisions
within police departments based on pro-police TV shows that portray internal
investigators as over-zealous weasels out to savage the careers of dedicated
officers trying to do their jobs.
Not in Milwaukee. Internal affairs investigations for
the department are handled by the Professional Performance Division.
Despite a clear pattern of similar, very serious
complaints against Mucha in 10 separate cases, he has received only three minor
reprimands - twice for failing to appear in court as a witness and once for
parking illegally.
And a promotion to sergeant, of course, where he's
supervised the summer anti-crime initiative to increase saturation policing in
high-crime neighborhoods.
Police Chief Nan Hegerty supports Mucha, saying he's
been doing a great job.
But others in the criminal justice system find the
behavior Mucha is accused of much more troubling. That includes at least four
judges, including some very politically conservative judges on the Wisconsin
Court of Appeals.
The first judge to take notice of the pattern of
accusations against Mucha was Milwaukee Circuit Judge Charles Kahn Jr., who
handled four cases of defendants who accused Mucha of brutality or falsifying
evidence.
"It's not really normal, at least not in my
experience, that (so many) individuals would all say that one or two police
officers did the same illegal, dishonest thing to them," Kahn said.
In August 2005, in the trial of a defendant who
claimed Mucha beat him and planted cocaine on him, Kahn allowed testimony from
others accusing Mucha of similar behavior. As a result, the district attorney
reduced a felony drug charge to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
In March 2006, a unanimous opinion by three judges on
the Wisconsin Court of Appeals - Ted E. Wedemeyer Jr., Ralph Adam Fine and Joan
Kessler - used a separate case involving Mucha to set a new standard in the
state allowing testimony to impeach the credibility of police witnesses.
Just as the state uses the criminal record of
defendants to impeach their credibility, the court said a trial judge should
have allowed five other witnesses to testify claiming brutality or planting of
evidence by Mucha to impeach his credibility.
"It is not appropriate for this court, nor was it
appropriate for the (lower) trial court, to assume that the defendant was lying
and the officer was telling the truth," Wedemeyer wrote in the unanimous
decision.
As a result of the Court of Appeals decision, a felony
drug conviction for which Walter Missouri spent two years in prison was thrown
out. Missouri testified Mucha and another officer beat and pepper-sprayed him
and shoved a baggie of cocaine in his mouth.
The promotion of Mucha suggests that the sorts of
things that can enhance the careers of police officers - securing large numbers
of drug convictions, for example - may bear no resemblance to police work that
would actually improve the community.
Why would any police officer plant drugs on a suspect?
Is there a serious shortage of illegal drugs in the community? Has the
so-called war on drugs already swept all the people off our streets who
actually possess drugs so police now have to supply their own?
People have long wondered why known drug houses are
not closed down by police. Vice squad police say they actually make a lot of
arrests out of those drug houses. It's just that the sellers are immediately
replaced.
How convenient. On a slow night, there are known drug
houses in the community where police can always count on harvesting a new batch
of drug arrests.
Attaining high arrest numbers apparently can become an
end in itself, earning officers promotions and other valuable prizes. It
doesn't matter whether the community is made any safer. Carried to the extreme,
it doesn't even matter whether those who are arrested have committed any
crimes.
Remember when politicians used to claim putting more
police on the streets would reduce crime?
Until we start arresting gang members in uniform
instead of promoting them, we could just be fueling our own blue crime wave.
No comments:
Post a Comment