Fairfax County police officer cases overturned for planting drugs during traffic stops

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why the police need to be abolished.

Not retrained. Not reimagined. Not defunded.

ABOLISHED.

We need a reformation. But seriously, you were just bashed in the head by a mugger, who do you call?

NP: For me, that has been a terrifying decision: knowing that both my best option for getting help also has a very high risk of putting me in even more danger — in ways that I will absolutely unable to control.

I say this as someone who has worked directly with police officers in community oriented programs. I have had LEO friends and even a family member. But I also have had some frightening encounters with LEO. So, yeah, I would call the police, but I would do so knowing that I could be inviting someone way more terrifying into my life than the mugger who, at least in your example, didn’t shoot to kill.

You know that you have much higher risk of being killed by someone other than a police officer, right? For a Black man, the lifetime risk is 1 in 1,000. 0.1% That's double the risk to all men, which is 0.05%, and that needs to be addressed. We absolutely have to make policing safer. But I worry that we have skewed the public perception of just how risky an encounter with a police officer really is. People are changing policy based on emotion and not data.

Statistics are nice and all, but an issue that you’re not looking at is the ongoing stress of knowing that officer friendly might kill you. Might. That’s an ever-present possibility when I’m going about my day. So yeah, my emotions count, and will indeed drive my opinions regarding policy.

I get that this might not be your personal experience, or even your entire community’s experience. It doesn’t help the situation when you dismiss very real, ongoing concerns. You also likely have no idea how many encounters I have had with police or armed private security guards — at work, or just trying to live my life in peace. What for some people is just a safe presence hovering in the background, for others is an ever-present source of stress — because I never know which one of those encounters might put me in that moment of risk.

When I woke up years ago, in NYC, to a knock on the door, and saw a young, white, cop clutching his gun, my first thought really was not: “Well, I’m female, so I have less than 1% of having this turn out badly.”


https://www.huffpost.com/entry/oath-keepers-law-enforcement-60-minutes_n_607d21c9e4b0deb3d5b63067

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dude is accused of stealing drugs from the police property room, planting drugs on innocent people and stopping motorists without legal basis.

Question:
What officers in the police property room cooperated or were not doing their job properly and need to be charged as well?

Excellent point. This was not a stealthy, one-time thing.

[Anonymous]

The Brevard County, Florida Sheriff’s Office that hired him didn’t do the most basic to due diligence. They accepted a letter from the HR Department and didn’t follow up with the PD at all. And if they had even googled him they would have found extensive reporting on the investigation that was already underway when he resigned.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/06/29/ex-fairfax-police-officer-under-fbi-investigation-made-racially-motivated-traffic-stops-prosecutor-says/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dude is only 25. Holy sh#t. And he’s already got 400 convictions under his belt?

Wtf. This kid has been pulling this crap as soon as he joined the force. He didn’t learn it on his own. This might end up taking down a whole swath of the Fairfax County police.

He could have learned it from his dad, who was on the force in Arlington for years.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/04/16/convictions-dismiss-jonathan-freitag-fairfax/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dude is accused of stealing drugs from the police property room, planting drugs on innocent people and stopping motorists without legal basis.

Question:
What officers in the police property room cooperated or were not doing their job properly and need to be charged as well?

Excellent point. This was not a stealthy, one-time thing.

Safe bet it's not an aberration solely occurring in Fairfax County either.

[Anonymous]

Fairfax county said he was eligible for rehire, due to what they call a “clerical error.” They were also not sending the personnel paperwork to Brevard county, who asked repeatedly for it.

This was a coordinated effort to protect an obviously dirty cop. Under Chief Roessler, they also hid the details of the shooting of John Geer. In case anyone forgot, Virginia had to sue Fairfax county police to get the details of the shooting. Once they came out, officer Torres was fired, then convicted of manslaughter. Torres was kept on the force and on the street for the two years this fight worked its way through the courts.

I’m glad Roessler retired. He should have been fired several years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why the police need to be abolished.

Not retrained. Not reimagined. Not defunded.

ABOLISHED.

We need a reformation. But seriously, you were just bashed in the head by a mugger, who do you call?

I guess PP would call a kindly social worker to talk to the mugger.

[Anonymous]

wow. is he a known white supremacist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:wow. is he a known white supremacist?

Who are you asking about?

[Anonymous]

Poor Elon Wilson. What a nightmare for him - he had a 5 month old baby when he went to jail. Hopefully he’ll get a giant settlement and rehired by DC Fire Department.

As a side note - this case should remind you to always, always be skeptical of police testimony if you’re a juror.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wow. is he a known white supremacist?

Who are you asking about?

I’m asking what would motivate a 25 year old white police officer to systematically target black people with false charges. Being a member of an organized white supremacist group could explain it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wow. is he a known white supremacist?

Who are you asking about?

I’m asking what would motivate a 25 year old white police officer to systematically target black people with false charges. Being a member of an organized white supremacist group could explain it.

You’re a bit naive. What do you think motivates lots of white men to be police officer? The organized supremacist org you’re looking for is the police itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is why the police need to be abolished.

Not retrained. Not reimagined. Not defunded.

ABOLISHED.

We need a reformation. But seriously, you were just bashed in the head by a mugger, who do you call?

NP: For me, that has been a terrifying decision: knowing that both my best option for getting help also has a very high risk of putting me in even more danger — in ways that I will absolutely unable to control.

I say this as someone who has worked directly with police officers in community oriented programs. I have had LEO friends and even a family member. But I also have had some frightening encounters with LEO. So, yeah, I would call the police, but I would do so knowing that I could be inviting someone way more terrifying into my life than the mugger who, at least in your example, didn’t shoot to kill.

You know that you have much higher risk of being killed by someone other than a police officer, right? For a Black man, the lifetime risk is 1 in 1,000. 0.1% That's double the risk to all men, which is 0.05%, and that needs to be addressed. We absolutely have to make policing safer. But I worry that we have skewed the public perception of just how risky an encounter with a police officer really is. People are changing policy based on emotion and not data.

What is the denominator in that risk: encounters or general population?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:wow. is he a known white supremacist?

Who are you asking about?

I’m asking what would motivate a 25 year old white police officer to systematically target black people with false charges. Being a member of an organized white supremacist group could explain it.

I believe this sort of thing has been going on for a long, long time. Did you ever look at Philando Castile’s driving record. He got pulled over very often. It wasn’t his driving. On the night he was shot, he got pulled over for having a “wide set nose,” which “matched the description” of a robbery suspect. It’s all police talk for driving while black.

A POC friend of mine was pulled over while riding a bicycle and arrested on a warrant that had already been satisfied. This sh!t happens all. The. Time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Brevard County, Florida Sheriff’s Office that hired him didn’t do the most basic to due diligence. They accepted a letter from the HR Department and didn’t follow up with the PD at all. And if they had even googled him they would have found extensive reporting on the investigation that was already underway when he resigned.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2020/06/29/ex-fairfax-police-officer-under-fbi-investigation-made-racially-motivated-traffic-stops-prosecutor-says/

They wouldn't have had to google him if we had a National Police Force Database that lists on-force shootings/killings, infractions, and each officer's employment history.