The Rightists Forget To Tell You How They Let The Criminals Go Free

Not the Big Capital crooks stealing and corrupting society but the street criminals they bemoan.

All it takes is a rightist cop who needs not to get the cinviction but to lie to make himself look like hot shit. His ego is what's primary, not getting a scumbag off the streets.

Here's one example, I've seen and heard of others. In NYC, at least, it's SOP, always has been, always will be.

(The preceeding is not a slam against police, just the ones letting the criminals go free for no good reason.)

Seventeen-year-old Erik Crespo was arrested in 2005 in connection with a shooting in a New York City elevator. There's no question that he committed the shooting; it was captured on surveillance-camera videotape. But he claimed that while being interrogated, Detective Christopher Perino tried to talk him out of getting a lawyer, and told him that he had to sign a confession before he could see a judge.

Perino denied, under oath, that he ever questioned Crespo. But Crespo had received an MP3 player as a Christmas gift, and surreptitiously recorded the questioning. The defense brought a transcript and CD into evidence. Shortly thereafter, the prosecution offered Crespo a better deal than originally proffered (seven years rather than 15). Crespo took the deal, and Perino was separately indicted on charges of perjury.

Without that recording, it was the detective's word against Crespo's. And who would believe a murder suspect over a New York City detective? That power imbalance was reduced only because Crespo was smart enough to press the "record" button on his MP3 player. Why aren't all interrogations recorded? Why don't defendants have the right to those recordings, just as they have the right to an attorney? Police routinely record traffic stops from their squad cars for their own protection; that video record shouldn't stop once the suspect is no longer a threat.

Link.