Legal Commentary

'Elite' Balitmore Officers Sued For Civil Rights Violations

By TChris

It's easy to understand why Baltimore disbanded its "Special Enforcement Team," a group of "elite" police officers who apparently considered themselves above the law. Their misconduct caused the city prosecutor's office "to dismiss more than 100 Circuit Court cases the officers had investigated in the previous two years." Now a civil rights suit has been filed by a man who "says a band of rogue cops held him at gunpoint in the street, stripped him and searched his rectum in front of about 30 onlookers."

The strip search victim isn't the only person whose civil rights were violated by the "elite" officers. [more...]

[Attorney Steven] Silverman said that his office reviewed "scores and scores of prior arrest records" and found numerous "obvious and blatant constitutional violations by this rogue group." The complaint alleges nearly 50 instances of questionable activity by officers, which frequently included spotting drugs from vast distances, eliciting spontaneous confessions and regular "serendipitous discovery of individuals possessing contraband."

An earlier lawsuit alleges that officers "illegally detained, assaulted, searched, humiliated and generally terrorized residents without justification."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on February 05, 2009 (boomark / email).