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More Police Misconduct in Benton Harbor

By TChris, Section Misconduct
Posted on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 08:54:00 AM EST
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Late last year, TalkLeft called attention to Benton Harbor, Michigan police officer Andrew Collins, who invented facts that he swore to be true in applications for search warrants. His misconduct caused seven convictions to be reopened and dismissed.

Benton Harbor police officer Bernard Hall apparently decided to emulate Collins. Like Collins, Hall fictionalized the affidavits upon which he relied to obtain warrants. Like Collins, he also stole from the people he searched. Six people have had their charges dismissed or their convictions set aside, and arrest warrants against three others have been withdrawn, as a result of Hall's wrongdoing.

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    More Police Misconduct in Benton Harbor | 6 comments (6 topical)

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    America needs to realize (5.00 / 0) (#1)
    by Chuck0 on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 08:42:22 AM EST
    that this kind of behavior amongst police is more likely the rule, not the exception. Folks constantly want to take stories like this and lay it off on "a few bad apples." Horse manure! There are just too many stories like this floating around.

    HuffPo has video of Florida cops conspiring to frame a women in a traffic case where a cop hit her car. A constable in Texas tazed a 72 year old woman for noncompliance. Same with a police chief in (I think) Arkansas, who tazed a 14 year old for similar reasons. Read Balko's The Agitator. It's rife with stories of police misconduct, overuse of force and abuse of power, DAILY!

    Police in this country are thugs. Arrogant thugs at that. They are largest, most dangerous gang in America.

    I'm 50 years old and have been riding motorcycles for the last 25 of them. I've congregated, ridden, dined and drank with members of organizations that  the media has convinced us are dangerous and evil  (read motorcycle clubs) or gangs as the media tells us. I have always had more to fear from gangsters with guns and badges than I have ever had to fear from an HA, Bandido, Outlaw, Pagan, Mongol, etc., etc, etc.

    More Police misconduct (none / 0) (#2)
    by NMvoiceofreason on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 09:08:33 AM EST
    A lawyer in DC gets arrested for mouthing off to police officers. Is being a police officer a protected class under hate crimes legislation? If so, this guy is in BIG trouble.

    Of course, if the Constitution meant anything, these cops would get a formal reprimand in their jacket and the attorney would get a six figure settlement. But none of that will happen in the free speech freezer that is America today.

    I lived there (none / 0) (#3)
    by Ballzebub on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 09:29:54 AM EST
    I used to live in St. Joseph which is right across the river from Benton Harbor. I'm white. The area is RIFE with white racism and I have also encountered black racism as well. The average white man in St. Joseph is just shy of a card carrying KKK member and most of them would be if the social stigma of inclusion with that hatefilled group wouldn't mean local repercussions from the few non-racist locals OR jeapordize their lucrative summer festival income. The white side racism breads in that area and we are talking assaults on blacks, cross burnings in the country, etc. St. Joseph Michigan is hands down one of the most bigoted, racist small towns in Michigan I have ever lived in (and I was there for 18 years).

    I don't think it's a race issue. (none / 0) (#4)
    by Chuck0 on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 10:19:26 AM EST
    It's a cop issue. Same as the arrest of Gates. His arrest wasn't racial. He was arrested for "contempt of cop."

    Parent
    Maybe not directly, but . . . (5.00 / 0) (#5)
    by rea on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 10:38:26 AM EST
    It's no accident that this type of police misconduct tends to happen to people who have little power.  Benton Harbor is 95% black in a county in which the population is 16% black--draw your own conclusions.

    Parent
    maybe, but... (none / 0) (#6)
    by Ballzebub on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 11:44:29 AM EST
    When racism is do deeply seated as it is in that area, you can not separate it from daily behavior of authority figures. Benton Harbor police are the dregs of the polic force for the most part. You DON'T end up a police officer in Benton Harbor unless you have been rejected or are running from other depts in other states where you F**KED up royal. Having said that, there is a prevailing attitude in "the hood" of Benton Harbor that absolutely, positively hates whitey so badly it becomes a disease spanning generations. The Benton Harbor fire dept is a target for potshots every time they arrive at a fire in Benton Harbor. The trucks have many bullet holes from neighbors "watching" the fireman activity. I'm not making this up. This is the same as the KKK wannabes on the white side of the river who dearly hate black folks with a passion and jump lone blacks at night when they can. Both sides have built walls and are generating their own self sustained communities of hatred. Benton Harbor is a BROKEN community and so is St. Joseph. Hate reigns supreme and there will not be an end to it in our lifetimes. I lived there. I saw this and experienced it.

    Parent
    More Police Misconduct in Benton Harbor | 6 comments (6 topical)

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