Ethics

TN Cops Plant Drugs, Abuse Suspect

By Ed Brayton

Here's another textbook example of that "new professionalism" that, if I have anything to say about it, will haunt Justice Scalia until the day he dies. Cops in Tennessee arrest a guy wanted on a domestic violence charge. He gets out of the car with his hands raised, is attacked by a police dog and then the cops plant drugs on the guy. And they do it with a hand signal seen on video.

As the attorney in the piece says, if you've got a hand signal worked out for when to plant drugs on a suspect, this is something you do on a daily basis. Of course, we already knew this. Remember the Kathryn Johnston case in Atlanta, where police officers who turned state's evidence admitted that the entire vice squad carried drugs in their squad cars to plant on people. Video below the fold.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).