hero cops break silence code

[new testiment]

This thread is dedicated to the exceptional good cops, the very, very special kind.

The ones who, true to their oath and in the name of Protecting and Serving The Public, risk everything (careers, friendships, retaliation, safety) and STEP FORWARD AND CROSS THE CODE OF SILENCE LINE AGAINST BAD COPS.

Such are truly heroes in our books.

Unfortunately the news will usually be about how this apparently small breed of GREAT cops are being retaliated against by the two types of bad cops who appear to line the ranks – the criminals and those that look the other way.

But, it's a start.

[Officer John Liberatore]

Fellow cop testifies Simoes used excessive force on woman

WHITE PLAINS - A Yonkers police officer said yesterday that his colleague Wayne Simoes used excessive force when he threw Irma Marquez to the floor of La Fonda Restaurant on March 3, 2007, breaking her jaw and bruising her face.

Officer John Liberatore was the first witness called to the stand yesterday as Simoes' federal criminal trial began in U.S. District Court in White plains.

Liberatore said he saw Simoes grab Marquez around the waist, lift her into the air and throw her to the ground.

Afterward, Liberatore said he went to his partner Officer Todd Mendelson and asked him, "What the ... just happened?"

Simoes, 39, is accused of violating the rights of Marquez, a 44-year-old home health aide, in the incident.

The incident gained national notoriety when Marquez's lawyer in a civil suit released a surveillance video of the incident that appears to show Simoes body-slamming Marquez to the ground.

Simoes' defense contends that he slipped on the wet barroom floor and dropped Marquez on his way down to the ground.

Andrew Quinn, Simoes' lawyer, yesterday ripped into Liberatore on cross-examination, pointing out that Liberatore told Yonkers police Internal Affairs investigators that he didn't see the incident.

Simoes, who remains free on bond, faces up to 10 years if convicted.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20090519/NEWS02/...

[Great Idea]

Hey this is a great idea to honor some really heroic police officers.

Now since we've all heard so much about how many of these honest police officers there are of this type, then it is expected that this thread will be soon overflowing with rightfully deserved honor and not simply articles about someone simply doing their everyday job.

[Treu and Lieswald]

Deputies Jeff Treu and Randy Lieswald

Neb. county gives OK to settlement in rights case
NELIGH, Neb.(AP)-

Antelope County supervisors have agreed to pay a total of more than $11,000 to two former deputies who sued the county and the sheriff alleging they were fired after reporting civil-rights violations.

County leaders signed off on the settlement Tuesday.

Former deputies Jeff Treu and Randy Lieswald sued Sheriff Darrell Hamilton and the county in July 2008.

They alleged they were fired after complaining to Hamilton and others about the department's operations.

Among other complaints, they reported that a fellow deputy conducted background checks on them and others in violation of their civil rights.

The county will pay Lieswald $4,400 and Treu will be awarded $6,909.

On the Net:

U.S. District Court of Nebraska, http://www.ned.uscourts.gov/index.html

http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp...

[OAM]

Reply to 1551 wrote (a couple of times):
"Since that fact is inarguably true, anyone one with half a brain or knowledge of statistics knows that the problem is therefore.." SMALL.

Your attempt at disinformation is more than obvious.

Your litany of stories proves the opposite of your summary argument. The answers to a few simple questions dismantles your position:

The citizens complained to whom?
The honest cops.

The bad cops were investigated by whom?
The honest cops.

The cases against the bad cops were filed by whom?
The honest cops.

The arrests of bad cops were made by whom?
The honest cops.

The trials were prosecuted by whom?
The honest prosecutors with honest cops as witnesses.

Apparently, the honest law enforcement personnel do not tolerate the presence of the bad ones in their midst.

Therefore, there must be an overwhelming majority of honest law enforcement personnel who root out the small percentage of aberrations."

This is not meant to belittle these words. It's an honest effort to praise the brave Serpico (sp) type cops out there.

[TRULY TRIED]

I tried. I truly tried.

Nothing found for today. Perhaps tomorrow... all you others, please join in, there must be thousands of these stories out there.

Right?

[OFC Frank Serpico]

OAM wrote:

This is not meant to belittle these words. It's an honest effort to praise the brave Serpico (sp) type cops out there.

OK , that's a good point. Here's a partial summary of the true life story of Officer Frank Serpico - a TRUE POLICE OFFICER HERO.

The film opens with Frank Serpico covered in blood and slumped in the backseat of a police car as it races to a hospital with lights and sirens blaring. He has just been shot in the face by another cop. The rest of the movie tells the story of Serpico's career up to this moment, starting with him becoming a police officer in 1960. He is very idealistic and believes in non-brutal methods to catch criminals.

Serpico also refuses to join in on police corruption, specifically that which involves shaking down and taking payoffs from gambling and drug dealing organizations.

His refusal to take bribes earns him the suspicion of his fellow officers throughout the majority of the precincts to which he is assigned.

At first Serpico tries appealing to his bosses about the corruption, but gets nowhere. He enlists a highly-connected fellow officer, Bob Blair in his fight against corruption, but not even he can crack the city administration's general indifference.

His campaign and the resulting complications and harassment within the department take a toll on his mental health and his relationship with fiancee Laurie, who ultimately leaves him.

[OAM]

LOL! I saw the movie. I guess I am showing my age here.

[Reply to 7]

Your stated: "...He (Serpico)has just been shot in the face by another cop."

Oh, really? That is not how it is depicted in the movie. That is also not historically accurate. Moreovoer, you know that your statment is false. The rest of your post is a cut and paste job from Wikipedia. Please compare and contrast your post to:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serpico

This is actually what Wikipedia about the shooting:

"As a result, he is shot in the face during a raid on a heroin lab due to his fellow officers' reluctance to come to his aid." BUT you already knew that.

While not trying to defend the reluctance of his partners to assist, Serpico was in fact shot by a Drug Dealer.

Yes, apprehending Drug Dealers is dangerous even under the best of circumstances. This of course begs the questions:
Why would you intentionally misrepresent who shot Frank Serpico?
What else have you intentionally misrepresented?

[Officer Michael W Quinn]

In the spirit of ultimate brotherhood, I’d like to add another Police Officer To The (Actual) Hero Cop List:

Decorated Officer Michael Quinn, author of

“ The Police Code of Silence. Walking With The Devil ( What Bad Cops Don’t Want You To know and “Good” Cops Won’t Tell You)”

wrote:

“This book is about my battles - won and lost – with the Code of Silence.

These are real stories, about real crimes, committed by real cops.

Every day in our newspapers we can find another instance of police abuse of authority or criminal behavior.

Our police chiefs will tell you these are the “bad apples” or the “pockets of corruption” representing only a very small number of our officers.

But they’re a handicap the rest of us have learned to live with for far too long.

That’s the problem..

Too many “good cops” have learned, through the Code of Silence, to tolerate bad cops and too many bad apples have escaped consequences as a result.

This isn’t a regional or local problem.

It is a nationwide problem that is undermining the quality and legitimacy of good police work.

They are symptomatic of a nationwide change in police policy from “protect and serve” to “convict and incarcerate”.

“Creative report writing” and testi-lying” in court have become a commonplace practice as a means of ensuring that suspects are convicted and incarcerated.

The Code of Silence is about lies and deception.

It lies to the community and deceives them about what cops are actually doing, and it lies to the cops who use it and deceives them about what they are accomplishing.

Contrary to what some will say, this book is not about judging cops.

I wrote this book because I love cops.

We are family and like family, I am duty and honor bound to those who helped me find my way when I lost it.

Now I am in a position to help others find their way.

If I did not, if I quit now, I would be as guilty as those who use the Code of Silence to cover their illegal acts”.

WOW ! Officer Quinn is all about duty and honor – just like his brother and sister. Those are words, backed by acts, of a true Police Officer Hero.

[OAM]

Here is another link about book along those same lines. It discusses some "whistle blowing cops" who had their photographs used for target practice by their fallen brothers. Scary stuff.
But at least now I know what to google to find more of these stories.

http://www.geocities.com/prohibition_us/lalaw...

[RE Serpico]

Reply to 7 wrote:

Your stated: "...He (Serpico)has just been shot in the face by another cop."

That is also not historically accurate. The rest of your post is a cut and paste job from Wikipedia.

Honey, you are absolutely right about one thing – he was not shot in the face by a cop.

While cutting and pasting from wiki and writing our own comments ( Believe it was indicated that the comment was based on the movie summary) we screwed up.

He was shot in the face by a drug dealer because a dirty cop PURPOSELY DID NOT BACK HIM UP IN RETALIATION FOR SERPICO NOT ABIDING BY THE CODE OF SILENCE AND PROTECTING THE RAMPANT COP CRIMINALITY.

So dear, what’s your point?

That the Code doesn’t exist?

That Frank Serpico wasn’t (RIP) a TRUE HERO COP?

That sometimes someone mistypes or misspells something that also does not change the point being made (he’s a hero)?

Now, when are you going to “girl-up” and apologize for citing “AKA CAPTAIN BLACK AND HIS BAND OF SPACE PIRATES” AS A CREDIBLE SOURCE (he’s da man, yeah he’s da man!)?

Here we go and try and do something nice and you have to go and be a whiney pathetic shrew. Just like when you were a whiney pathetic little brat child.

(OAM please forgive us for our horrible mistake, LOL)

[OAM]

Sigh. Long, bitchy e-mail to follow. ;)

Seriously, though, I found a very interesting paper on the subject at hand.

http://www.jlup.org/journal/vol3issue1current...

It addresses some of the problems a young rookie may have, had how they may come about being the cops to "look the other way".

The headers include:

The Character of Police Departments
Using Public Office for Private Gain
Use of Excessive Force
Retaliation
The Cost of Retaliation

It even uses Frank Serpico as an example.

[Officer Chris Kershaw]

Fired Vancouver police officer sues city

Seeking an unspecified amount of money and to win back the job he lost nearly 14 months ago, a former Vancouver police officer filed a lawsuit Thursday in Clark County Superior Court.

Chris Kershaw, 41, claims he was fired for speaking up on behalf of former Officer Navin Sharma — who later won a $1.65 million discrimination settlement from the city — and unfairly singled out so the city could claim a white officer received the same treatment as Sharma, a native of India.

Kershaw, an Iraq War veteran, said Thursday that since his April 1, 2008, termination he has re-enlisted in the U.S. Army and is working in real estate with his wife. The couple have a 15-year-old son, and Kershaw said he re-enlisted so he could afford health insurance for his family.

His suit seeks compensation for back pay and lost benefits, as well as money for emotional distress and humiliation.

"This is all about righting the wrongs the city has done," Kershaw said. "And it's about me getting my job back."

In addition to the city, the suit names City Attorney Ted Gathe and Assistant Police Chief Nannette Kistler as defendants. Kistler, then a commander, was "directly involved" in firing Sharma in 2006 and Kershaw in '08; the ultimate decisions were made by Gathe, said Greg Ferguson, a Vancouver attorney who, with Portland attorney Michael Wise, filed the lawsuit.

In early February, the city's Seattle law firm denied the tort claim Kershaw filed 60 days earlier giving notice of his intent to sue the city for allegedly violating employment law.

At that time, attorney Mike Patterson said Kershaw was fired for poor performance and lying to his supervisors.

Patterson, reached by telephone Thursday, said the lawsuit does not change the city's position.

"Let's put it this way," he said. "There is nothing that is new, and we stand by our previous denial of the claim."

Kershaw faced no retaliation for offering testimony supporting Sharma, Patterson said.

"We just don't believe there is any substantiation to the claim that somehow we retaliated against Mr. Kershaw for his support of Mr. Sharma," he said. "In our investigation, there was no evidence to give credence to that."

Another one of the claims in Kershaw's lawsuit, that the city targeted him in part to demonstrate it treated white officers as shabbily as minority ones, is "totally unfounded," Patterson said.

According to Kershaw's lawsuit, the officer "had not been subjected to any type of formal discipline … prior to Officer Sharma filing his federal civil rights and racial harassment lawsuit in November 2006."

Kershaw, who received a Medal of Valor for rushing in to help Cpl. Christopher LeBlanc when LeBlanc was shot during a July 2007 SWAT standoff, was retaliated against after being identified as one of seven officers who was going to testify on Sharma's behalf, according to the lawsuit.

City officials have always denied wrongdoing in Sharma's firing, but have said their former insurer, AIG, decided to settle to end costly litigation.

The city said Sharma was fired for making mistakes on drunken driving reports, but his attorneys have said they were minor errors.

http://www.columbian.com/article/20090522/NEW...

[Fouroam]

OAM wrote:

Sigh. Long, bitchy e-mail to follow. ;)

Good Resource!

Love ya!

[MISSING IN ACTION]

STILL SEARCHING FOR THOSE HERO COPS ARTICLES EVERY DAY.

The kind doing something way above what their job calls upon them to do - as part of their job. like the exceptional ones who brak the code of silence to uphold justice.

Just been unable to find one example lately.

On the other hand we literally can not keep up with the daily landslide of crooked cop articles.

[Offc Connie Johnson]

Flint police inspector suing the city foR mistreatment by fellow officers

FLINT, Michigan -- The fallout from former Mayor Don Williamson's short-lived Citizens Service Bureau continues.

Former CSB inspector Connie Johnson is suing the city, claiming another officer tried to run her over with a car and that male officers belched in her face.
She also claims she was given the finger and called a lesbian by other officers, according to a federal lawsuit filed by her attorneys this month.
Johnson was one of five officers handpicked by Williamson in 2006 for a special police bureau he created.

The unit was immediately criticized by other officers and resulted in lawsuits filed by 45 white officers who claimed they were bypassed in favor of black officers.

Last week, a federal judge allowed reverse discrimination suits filed by the white officers to proceed to trial -- a prospect that could cost the city millions if the officers win.

All of the officers chosen by Williamson for the CSB were black, except for Johnson who is white.

In her lawsuit, Johnson claims she bore the brunt of reprisals from officers upset by the CSB.
After the unit was disbanded, Johnson claims the was still harassed and that last fall an officer "grabbed his crotch" and mocked her.

Flint Police Officers Association President Keith Speer declined comment on the lawsuit.
Johnson said she filed a gender harassment complaint with the city but said no action was taken, according to the lawsuit.

In January, she alleges that she had placed first in testing to become deputy chief but said she was demoted to officer when police Chief Alvern Lock took over in February.
Lock, she said, also took her parking spot.

The final straw came when Lock assigned her to patrol the city's north side alone after she went on medical leave because she was distraught.

Johnson's gun, badge and keys were taken and she was placed on unpaid leave where she currently remains.

The lawsuit claims sex discrimination, retaliation, civil rights violations and violations of the state's whistleblower act.

City spokesman Bob Campbell declined comment on the allegations and said it is city policy to refrain from discussing pending litigation.
Johnson's attorney, Lisa M. Panourgias of Bloomfield Hills, said she stands by the complaint.

"We feel that she has been abused," said Panourgias.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/200...

[4 Dougie K]

FOR DOUGIE, here’s how a real police chief, a real man, runs a good police department. You could learn a thing or thousand from Police Chief Herbert Blake.

Chief Blake takes hard line against wrongdoing
Hendersonville Police Chief Herbert Blake urged his department to move on after the arrest of a fellow officer Rector for beating his wife and said he made no apology for firing the officer after his conviction.

Chief Blake's e-mail to police department personnel:

"As we all know, Travis Rector’s employment has ended with the city of Hendersonville. I am asking that all of us please move forward and learn from the circumstances that led to his demise.

And no, I did not act like an office linebacker; prompting some to become pundits of the prudence and objectivity I tried to show — like I promised
I would, the very first time I had the opportunity to introduce myself to the department as chief.

Talk tough if you want; but push comes to shove; you would want the same for you. We call that due process.

On another note, I hope no one is working here and is trying to use their employment to work against the betterment of this police department.

If you are, shame on you.

You will not succeed.

I also want to make it cogently clear that the city is going to hold its employees accountable. There will be no rush to judgments under my leadership; but also, no winks or nods to wrong doings. You will be held accountable. If you don’t think so, whose got next?

To end, no organization, no individual, or relationship improves during the good times.

It’s those hardships, akin to what we just went through that offers us the chance to improve.”

Rector was convicted this month of assault on a female for hitting his wife, Kelli, after an argument about his infidelity.

He was sentenced to 12 months of supervised probation.

http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20090529/...

[Offc Randolph Franklin]

PLEASE READ POSTS 1700 - 1703 ON "MURDER OF THE SOUL" FOR THE COMPLETE STORY OF THIS HERO OFFICER.
HE OPPOSSED WRONGDOING WITHIN THE RANKS.

HIS OWN DEPARTMENT USED A SWAT TEAM TO RAID HIS HOME IN RETALIATION.

OFFICER FRANKLIN WAS NOT INTIMIDATED. HE'S SUING THE LOT OF THEM.
(
ISN'T IT FUNNY HOW COPS FIND NOTHING WRONG WITH THESE RAID - UNTIL SOME HOW THEY GET RAIDED????)

A SWAT unit rousted Randolph Franklin from his South L.A. home in 2006. They found nothing. Today, still on the job, he wants to know why they came that morning.

Until it all went bad, Randolph Franklin used to talk with pride about his life in the Los Angeles Police Department. Wear a badge for nearly half of your 50 years and somewhere along the way it becomes more than just a job.

He was proud as well of the life he built on Woodlawn Avenue -- an unremarkable street set amid the gang violence and poverty of the city's southern swath. It's an odd place for a cop to live.

But it was where a black kid from a Mississippi trailer park managed to buy a real house. It was where he turned an old, beat-up bungalow into a real home with dark red trim, marble fireplaces and trendy bamboo stalks along the edge of the lawn.

In the early morning darkness of May 25, 2006, Franklin's two worlds -- his life on Woodlawn and his life in the LAPD -- collided.

The phone in his upstairs bedroom woke him from a dead sleep at 4 a.m. His wife was away visiting her family, and their two small children slept down the hall.

The voice on the line identified himself as a lieutenant with the LAPD's elite SWAT unit. The house, he told Franklin, was surrounded. Peering out of the bedroom window, Franklin saw it was no joke: a knot of heavily armed officers were pressed up against the house.

Snipers were perched on the neighbor's porch.

A helicopter hovered overhead.

[Hugh R Manes]

Hugh R. Manes dies at 84; lawyer fought for victims of police misconduct

He tried more than 400 cases in his 40-year career in Southern California, winning a record-setting $23 million for a group of Samoan Americans beaten by L.A. County sheriff's deputies.

Hugh R. Manes, a veteran civil rights lawyer who for 40 years fought for victims of police misconduct, died Saturday at his Los Angeles home after a long battle with emphysema, according to his law partner, Carol Watson. He was 84.

Manes began representing victims of police misconduct in the 1960s, nearly three decades before the videotaped beating of motorist Rodney G. King by Los Angeles police officers threw a harsh spotlight on the issue of police brutality.
"He was a voice in the wind," said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, who called Manes the dean of police-abuse lawyers. "Doing police-abuse cases is not fashionable now and was even less fashionable then. Hugh did as much as any citizen to keep the Los Angeles Police Department in check."

Manes, a prodigious litigator who tried more than 400 cases during his career, was "probably one of the finest" advocates for police-abuse victims in Southern California, said retired California Court of Appeal Justice Robert R. Devich, who presided over a 1995 police brutality trial that resulted in a record-setting $23-million award to a group of Samoan Americans represented by Manes and two colleagues.

"He really took his position to heart and went out for his client. He could be contentious at times, but always with a lot of respect to the other lawyers up against him and ... to the court. I had a lot of respect for him," said Devich, who had been a Beverly Hills police officer and Los Angeles County deputy district attorney before joining the bench.
The attorney, who looked like Winston Churchill and could fill a courtroom with his baritone voice, encouraged and trained dozens of lawyers to handle cases involving excessive force or other allegations against law enforcement officers. He offered free monthly seminars for years at his office in the mid-Wilshire area and helped establish the Police Misconduct Lawyers Referral Service, which matched attorneys with potential clients.

According to colleagues, Manes (pronounced MAY-ness) routinely took on cases with little expectation of success or remuneration, particularly in the early years when few people believed that police officers could be guilty of misconduct.

"He did it so that they [police] would know someone was watching," said attorney Garo Mardirosian, who regarded Manes as his mentor.

Mardirosian joined Manes in representing the group of Samoan Americans who had been beaten by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies at a bridal shower in Cerritos in 1989. The $23-million award to 35 plaintiffs was believed to be the largest then imposed on an American police agency.

Manes was born in Chicago on July 7, 1924. Although Jewish, he attended an Episcopalian high school -- St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wis. After graduating, he joined the Army as a second lieutenant and served in Europe during World War II. Injured in combat, he was fond of telling people that he was awarded a Silver Star and a Purple Heart while sitting on a bed pan in a military hospital.

After the war, he earned a bachelor's degree at UCLA and a law degree at Northwestern University in 1952. He began his career at the Los Angeles law firm of Wirin, Rissman & Okrand, which was headed by A.L. Wirin, the longtime chief counsel of the ACLU in Los Angeles.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-...