So far in these stories people have been brutalized and traumatized, but they have survived. Let's take a look at someone who wasn't quite so lucky. In fact, all things considered, his luck was just like Verrill luck: always in and always bad.
Leonard Cure from Georgia was convicted in 2003 of armed robbery. One problem: he didn't do it. Yet he spent almost 20 years in prison paying for a crime he never committed. That's shit luck right there. Or is it? I searched around and couldn't find a lot of details about that arrest. I'm willing to bet that the arrest was full of bullshit, and that the cops framed him. But I can't say that for sure because I don't have enough info.
Regardless, he was set free in 2020. Fast forward to a few months ago and his encounter with a cop named Buck Aldridge. Aldridge pulled Cure over for speeding, and from the get-go Aldridge acted like a dick. He screamed at Cure, saying he was charging Cure with reckless driving. A little different from speeding, but in that area it seems that going faster than 100 mph automatically means you're being reckless. Which is bullshit, by the way. It is easy to drive 100 mph and not be reckless. I've done it many times and will do it again. But in that area of the country the bullshit stands.
Imagine doing time for nearly two decades for a crime you didn't commit, being released and having that conviction vacated, and then this asshole pulls you over, and instead of asking the age-old question all cops can't help but ask ("Do you know how fast you were driving?") he screamed in Cure's face about it. Right off the bat. He then demanded that Cure get out of the car.
Cure does. He obeys the command to put his hands on the hood. But then comes the command to put his hands behind his back to be handcuffed, and Cure does *not* obey. Would you? Once you're in the system, whether you're guilty or not, YOU ARE IN THE SYSTEM. YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE THAT STRIKE AGAINST YOU UNTIL THE DAY YOU DIE. But in addition to that, doing that much time for committing no crime? That is traumatizing. Would you be so willing to go back in the system? Even if it's for reckless driving (which is really speeding, a offense punishable by a mere fine) instead of, say, armed robbery?
Cure doesn't want to go back in the system. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't fight back. He just refuses the command. Aldridge, instead of being reasonable and admitting that he's up to bullshit, shoves a taser in Cure's back.
Unlike JD from last night's GF, Cure is an adult. A strong adult. So instead of meekly allowing himself to be brutalized by a cop who just stepped out of the gray zone and into the fuck-you-I-get-to-kill-you-because-I'm-a-cop zone. As Cure fights back and actually manages to grab the cop's throat, Aldridge shoots Cure to death.
A lot of people are using the same argument for Cure as for Trayvon Martin. Cure (and Martin) were violent and needed to be killed. If you are attacked, you should be able to defend yourself even if it means killing the attacker. HOWEVER. When you, yourself, are the cause of that violence? Nope. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. In Zimmerman's case, he harassed a kid and harassed him and harassed him until Martin fought back, thus making it socially acceptable to kill him.
What do you do when you come upon a beehive in the wild? Personally, I'm inclined to walk away from it swiftly and not bother it in the slightest. Zimmerman (and Aldridge) chose to grab the beehive and shake it up like a snow globe and then kick it around a bit and then had the gall to act surprised when he got stung.
If someone fucked with a beehive like that, would you think that he's a good guy? Or would you believe that he deserved to get stung because he's an idiot and a piece of shit?
But even former police officer (current criminal justice professor) Thaddeus Johnson said that Aldridge fucked up from the get-go. "He escalated the situation with Mr. Cure. He has no control over his emotions." He said Aldridge deserved to be fired and added, "We have to hold officers to a higher standard even though they are human." I can think of no better summary for this series than that quote.
How much you wanna bet that Aldridge was a problem before this incident? Heh. No bet. Good choice. Because when he started out his law "enforcement" career he worked in another Georgia town where he was fired for use of excessive force THREE times. There aren't details about the first two, but for the third he assisted with a traffic stop. He had to keep an eye on a woman in the car. NOT arrest her. Just keep an eye on her once she's out of the vehicle. He picked her up and hurled her to the ground, then handcuffed her so he could, uh, keep an eye on her?
Her crime? Letting an unlicensed person drive her car. OH NO! Heaven forbid!
When he got fired for that? A few months later he was hired by the sheriff's department who would let him kill Leonard Cure. Because cops are a lot like child raping priests. You get caught raping a child? We'll just move you to another parish where they don't know about your proclivities. You get in trouble for roughing up a woman for letting someone without a drivers license drive her car? We'll get you in with another law enforcement agency.
And it's not even Aldridge's first incident with the sheriff! Aldridge chased after someone eluding him, and when the car crashed, he rushed to the vehicle and dragged out the driver so he could beat the shit out of him. As someone who has been in a car crash, I know what it's like to get hit in the face with an airbag. It stunned me, and I could not act within the first minute or so of the accident. If someone dragged me out of the car to beat the shit out of me, I wouldn't even think of fighting back. My brain needed to catch up to my body before I could so much as get out of the car. I imagine the victim felt much the same way.
And Aldridge isn't alone with the sheriff's dept. Six of his fellow officers in 2022 were indicted and fired for beating the shit out of people they already had in jail. And one motor incident, which is almost kind of funny if it wasn't so fucked up. Christine Newman is singled out for pulling the motorist over and, when the motorist refused to get out of the vehicle, Newman got her into cuffs and then slapped her and, the cherry on top, slammed the motorist's head into her patrol SUV. Why was she pulled over in the first place? She didn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign.
Two months later Newman was declared Deputy of the Month! She was fired a year later for "aggravated assault" and "violating her oath of office." There aren't details about this incident, though.
Let's move on from Georgia to Alabama, to a place called Reform (and what a collar-puller of a name!). Micah Washington survived his encounter, but according to his aunt, "[H]e's not the same. You can tell he's not the same."
Washington's car was by the side of the road, and he was changing a flat tire. That is the only thing he did to draw police attention to himself. The officer approached, wanting to know what was going on. Washington explained and then asked for help. "Are you here to help us?" You know. The "serve" part of "to serve and to protect."
"No, I am not," the officer said. She demanded to see his ID. He complied. She led him to her vehicle, handcuffed him and put him in the back. Safely detained. Washington could not harm anyone if he wanted to.
The officer chose that moment--when he was handcuffed and defenseless--to tase him. For good measure, she charged him with a bunch of bullshit like dealing fentanyl (where the fuck did that come from?) and obstruction of governmental operations (whatever the fuck that means) and resisting arrest (even though he complied every step of the way).
The officer is on leave right now. There is no word of any investigation into her behavior. Washington and his family are suing. I hope they win.
Let's head over to Charlotte, NC, where a couple smoking outside of Bojangles were approached by the police. Before going any further, it should be noted that cannabis is illegal in NC. The cops accused one of them of smoking weed. She denied it, saying it was a cigarette she legally bought at a smoke shop. It's not entirely true, in that it was not a cigarette. But it's not, strictly speaking, weed either. It was later tested and came up positive for THCa. Technically that's not illegal. It's hemp-derived, not cannabis derived. So yes, legal to have.
The officers then said they were going to arrest them. The couple wanted to know why, and the cops refused to tell them.
It should be noted that the police don't have to tell you why you're being arrested. I don't know how that's fucking legal, but there you go.
Understandably they were reluctant to go with the police. Once you're in the system, YOU'RE IN THE SYSTEM FOR LIFE. Even if exonerated. So they resisted, and suddenly a lot of backup officers showed up to pile on. One in particular, Vincent Pistone, kicked the woman's leg 17 times, trying to hit a particularly painful pressure point. Even his superiors said the first three strikes worked. The other 14 were excessive as he continued kicking her while the others worked to handcuff her.
She broke the law. She deserves what she gets. Right?
Two things. One, it is impossible to go your entire life without breaking the law. Even if it's little shit like speeding or jaywalking or even not returning a library book. That last one is, indeed, a crime in IL. You can be prosecuted for that one. So don't get up on your high horse. I have never met someone who has never committed some kind of crime. Two, SHE DID NOT BREAK THE LAW. If you learn nothing else from this series, please know that even if she did break the law and that was a real cannabis joint, she did not deserve to be kicked in a pressure point 17 fucking times.
Thankfully the charges were dropped. Also, I'm sure Pistone was fired, right? Eh, about that. He got suspended for 40 hours (a mini vacation as a reward for violating someone's rights) and had to go through more training. HE SHOULD BE IN FUCKING PRISON. Vicki Foster, the assistant chief of the PD, had a few thoughts about her boys.
Vicki Foster added that even in the calmer moments, Pierre and Lee were resisting arrest. She said despite moments where it doesn’t look or sound like they are fighting officers, if a person isn’t answering their questions or doing what an officer asks, that is considered resisting.
And:
“At the end of the day, we always have to remember that if you assault an officer, it doesn’t matter what that is. When there is a smack, a push, you know, whatever that is, you now put yourself in a situation where his use of force his or her use of force is going to be justified,” Foster said.
I'm not saying that use of force is wrong. Sometimes it's called for. But maybe getting kicked in a pressure point 17 times for being merely suspected of smoking weed is a bit harsh, don't you think? And here's the chief of the PD with one final bullshit quote for you: "We're not robots. If there's an expectation that we'll always say and do the right things, then I think that's something that will never happen."
It's not often that the police admit to being objectively bad at their jobs, but there you go.
OK, one more story for the night. This one goes toward what the cops will do to make sure their arrest numbers look good. And it's not even in the contiguous states! We're heading out to Hawaii for this one.
Ammon Fepuleai was visiting Hawaii from American Samoa and was pulled into a DUI checkpoint by the cops. I think I've ranted and raved about how those should be illegal elsewhere, but I'm going to let that go for now because this is TOO FUCKING LONG. Once you get me started on police brutality, I am kind of longwinded.
ANYWAY. He was pulled into a DUI checkpoint. One of the cops flat out lied and said that he smelled alcohol. Here's the problem: Fepuleai doesn't drink. Ever. He told the officer this. Remember, the cops are trained to never trust you, and these cops were no different. They ran him through field sobriety tests, and then he blew 0.0 on the breathalyzer. 100% not a drunk driver.
Did the cops say alcohol? No, they really meant drugs. You're under arrest for "driving under the influence of an intoxicant."
Once they're on the way to the PD the cop turned off his body cam WHICH BAFFLES MY FUCKING MIND BECAUSE POLICE SHOULD *NOT* HAVE THAT ABILITY. I wonder how much money goes into making sure all officers have body cams so we can prove when they're breaking laws AND THEN THEY CAN JUST TURN THEM OFF?!?!?!?!?!
This guy turns his off and says to Fepuleai that he's guilty, so he should just save the time and not go through the drug tests. Remember, NEVER TRUST A COP EVER. Fepuleai never learned that lesson, so he agreed to skip the tests and let them say he's guilty. He was able to bail himself out with $500 and was on his way. When he got home to American Samoa he got notification that the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, and he received his drivers license in the mail. What did he *not* get back? His $500 bail.
He says he should have never listened to that asshole. He said, "He shouldn't have given me that advice, and I hope they're not giving other innocent people the same advice."
A traffic attorney and former HPD officer named Jonathan Burge says he's heard from many other clients that this is exactly what the police are doing.
Sure, it's lo-fi corruption, but it's still corruption. And it's making criminals of innocent people.
The police are objectively bad at their jobs, but they are very good at making citizens into criminals on paper. Once you're in the system, you're there for life.
To be continued tomorrow night.
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