April 16, 2015
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The couple of dozen cops I”ve known personally”including a nephew”were all decent and conscientious people. Rogue cops surely exist, though, and cause great suffering. I was just reading (in New Yorker magazine) about the case of John Restivo here on Long Island, who served 18 years for a crime he should never have been convicted of. Planted evidence, forced confessions, jailhouse informants bribed to lie with time off their sentences … it all happens.
And yes, it happens to blacks too. Here’s one: Rosean Hargrave, just released after 23 years in jail after a dubious conviction driven by zealous homicide detective Louis Scarcella.
Whether Hargarve is innocent of the murder he was sentenced for, and whether Scarcella is the vindictive sociopath he’s drawn as, I can”t say: but accounts of the Hargrave case don”t give the impression that it meets the “reasonable doubt” standard.
Law enforcement can be a rough and ready business. Sure, Fergusons and Trayvons happen: so do Ruby Ridges and Serpicos.
On the other other hand, I recall a conversation I had thirty years ago with a guy I was attending classes with in London. He had had a former career as a prison probation officer, and had a fund of colorful stories about his clients. One day I asked him: “How many of the people doing time in prison are innocent?”
His reply: “Innocent of the thing they were convicted for? Around five percent. Innocent of anything criminal at all? Fewer than one percent. Way fewer.”
Elaborating, he explained that neighborhood cops know who the bad actors are, and get frustrated at not being able to nail them for crimes they know they”re guilty of. When they can, cops vent their frustration by “stitching up” a bad guy for something equivalent he didn”t do.
“It’s naughty,” he added, “but probably for the social good.”
