Police reports claimed Raymundo Martinez threw a beer bottle outside a bar, prompting the officers to search him, whereupon they discovered a bag of cocaine and arrested him. Officers stuck with this story through preliminary hearings — er, isn't that perjury? — until Martinez's lawyer presented the bar's surveillance tape to the prosecution. "Instead of two officers approaching a man drinking on a public street, the video shows more than two dozen police from the SOS unit raiding the bar and searching everyone, and arresting Martinez inside the bar," sayeth the Trib. Charges against Martinez were dropped, but now the question is: Why didn't anyone investigate the SOS cops after something this damning surfaced?The Chicago Tribune has the video.
To those who are upset that a "druggie" got away, I say be upset about the fact that these cops didn't believe the dictates of the 4th Amendment to the Constitution applied to them, and were willing to lie to cover up their breaking the law. They only got caught via video evidence. Would you have believed the cops or the witnesses without the video? (Does this remind you of Brett Darrow?)
[University of Chicago] law prof Craig Futterman sums it up pretty perfectly: "You have 30 officers in a clearly illegal sweep, and they knew it. There's clearly something wrong with the culture there."The culture of us versus them, the culture of a standing army. It needs to change.
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