Many vice cops, in particular, argued that forbidding the use of juveniles as C.I.s would force them to turn a blind eye to young people committing adult crimes. More record keeping would only increase the risk of C.I.s’ identities being disclosed. The right-to-an-attorney clause, they contended, would make it far too cumbersome to catch and “flip” a drug suspect on the spot, effectively nullifying a valuable, real-time tactic for fighting crime. Sheriff Larry Campbell, of Leon County, declared that the bill, if passed in its original form, would be “the end of law enforcement.”Behind many of these arguments was the belief that C.I. use shouldn’t be subject to uniform regulation, since the practice is inherently unsystematic and improvisatory. “There’s no such thing as training an informant,” Brian Sallee, of B.B.S. Narcotics Enforcement Training and Consulting, told me. “You direct them what to do, and if they follow those directions that will make it safer for them. There’s always going to be a risk, but when things go bad it’s usually because they didn’t do as they were told to. They get themselves hurt, not the officers. The informants cause their own dilemma.”
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Chewing People Up and Spitting Them Out
Confidential informants who get killed. But it's ok they died because it was their own fault. If this doesn't get you angry, nothing will. [Link]
5 comments:
You have a way of making it difficult for me to defend the law enforcement community. All of your anecdotal evidence is negative. Is this because nobody cares about the positive aspects of anything anymore? Only the grisly stuff gets any attention. "If it bleeds, it leads."
I know there are bad apples in law enforcement. But all this stuff tends to make all of law enforcement seem evil. Personally, I prefer it to chaos. But that's just me.
I do not mean this to tar all law enforcement, just those who are more concerned with the next arrest than whether the informant gets killed or hurt.
They broke the law, but did not deserve death.
These types are out there, to be sure. I'm just saying that you only post about the power abusers, not about the vast majority of brave souls who risk their lives every day on our behalf. I'd hate to think we take them for granted. It's your blog, your rules. This stuff does seem to attract readers...
You're right, it's not fair.
The news is not about what went right but what went wrong.
In general, no one, in any industry gets lauded for doing their job. that is what they are expected to do. It's only when things go off the rails that attention is focused.
In this case, the callousness just made me mad. They didn't seem to see the informants as people, just resources to be used and exploited.
Sadly, that's not as uncommon as one would hope. I guess it's tempting to think in terms of collateral damage, kinda weighing the end against the means. I'm not saying it's right, but... it happens. The sheer volume of crime vs the relatively restricted number of enforcement types makes stuff happen that shouldn't. The preponderance of negative stories makes it sound as if it happens all the time. It's tough on the poor schlubs who are doing their best day after day. Every time one of these stories surfaces, we take a collective shudder, because it makes us all look bad.
Post a Comment