Hinds County and Morton police team up on 11 drug arrests – Jackson Clarion Ledger

The Clarion-Ledger Published 5:35 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017 | Updated 5:39 p.m. CT Feb. 9, 2017

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A search of a vehicle driven by Corey Lewis and April Littleton of Jackson revealed over 4,000 tablets of ecstasy, approximately 25 grams of hash, and approximately one ounce of ecstasy powder, and a gun.(Photo: HCSO/ Special to The Clarion-Ledger)

Hinds County special investigations and Morton police officers have made 11 felony arrests in an effort to cripple the drug pipeline on I-20.

The arrests took place over the period of a little more than a week.

"These are not victimless crimes. A large portion of these illegal narcotics are headed to our communities, to the hands of our children," Sheriff Victor Mason said. "I'm not about to sit back and ignore it."

According to a series of releases from the Hinds County Sheriff's Department, on Jan. 27, four people from Pennsylvania with ties to West Africa were apprehended in a tan 2007 Inifiniti for careless driving on I-20 in Morton. Deputies located marijuana and a gun, as well as around three gallons of an unknown chemical in a hidden compartment.Alex Robinson, age unavailable, was charged with felon in possession of a firearm and possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle.Woryah Kamara, Matthew Sawher, and Willie Besson, all ages unavailable, were charged with possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle.Besson is pending deportation to Liberia, West Africa. They were taken to the Scott County Jail.

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On Jan. 29,Marion Watts Jr., age unavailable, of Clinton, was stopped for careless driving on I-20 westbound in Morton. Police said he was driving a rental 2017 Chevy Malibu and refused to give consent to a search. AK9 alerted to the trunk of the vehicle where authorities foundfive poundsof high grade marijuana hidden in a box in the trunk. The shipment, according to police, was headed for Clinton.Watts was charged with trafficking a controlled substance.He was booked in at the Scott County Jail.

On Jan. 30, Westly Lara, age unavailable, of Lubbock, Texas,and Jennifer Millar, age unavailable, of California were stopped for a traffic violation on I-20 West in Morton. A K9 alertlead to the discovery of THC in liquid formdesigned for e-cigarettes, 20 grams of high grade of marijuana and a compartment built in the vehicle under the center console containing marijuana and approximately$44,000in cash.Both were charged with possession of a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit a crime. They were booked into the Scott County Jail.

On the same day,Hinds County officers assigned to the Special Investigations Unit stopped a late model SUV rental on I-20 around Edwards for a traffic violation.Officers became suspicious when the odor of marijuana was coming from the vehicle.

SEE ALSO:3 JSU students arrested on drug, counterfeit charges

After a search of the vehicle, officers discovered 2 pounds of hi-grade marijuana hidden in the rear hatch of the SUV.The driver, Lathero Stringer, and passenger Quinton Holly, both ages unavailable, both of Terry, were charged with trafficking a controlled substance.Both subjects were booked in at the Hinds County Detention Center in Raymond.

On February 7, police on I-20 west in Morton initiated a traffic stop for careless driving on a Toyota Camry which led to arrest of Corey Lewis and April Littleton, both ages unavailable,both of Jackson for aggravated trafficking of a controlled substance and twocounts of trafficking of a controlled substancewhile in possession of a firearm.

Authorities said a consensual search revealed over 4,000 tablets of ecstasy, approximately25 grams of hash, and approximatelyone ounce of ecstasypowder, and a gun. Police said the drugs were headed to Jackson.Both Lewis and Littleton were booked in the Scott County Jail.

"We are pleased with the results of this joint effort. We always look forward to working with multi jurisdictions in efforts to stop the illegal drug activity coming through our state," said Morton Police Chief Nicky Crapps.

READ: FBI seizes weapons related to multi-state drug network

ContactTherese Apelat 601-961-7236 ortapel@gannett.com.Follow her onFacebookandTwitter.

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Hinds County and Morton police team up on 11 drug arrests - Jackson Clarion Ledger

Cop Block Founder Ademo Freeman Arrested in Ohio for Drug Trafficking/Possession VIDEO – Free Keene

Cop Block founder and Free Keene blogger Ademo Freeman has been arrested while driving in Lebanon, Ohio by Ohio State Police. Despite Ademo not consenting to a search, trooper Jeffrey Martin claimed that because he allegedly smelled the odor of cannabis, that he had probable cause to search.

Ademo was placed into a cruiser, then the trooper(s) broke open a lock on a suitcase. They asked him how much marijuana he had, so presumably thats what they found inside at this point we cant know for sure. Ademo was placed under arrest and taken to the Warren County Jail, all while asking trooper Martin his thoughts about victimless crimes. All of this is heard on a 40+ minute video recorded and live streamed on Ademos cell phone to his facebook page.

Ive taken the time to edit the video down to less than 15 minutes as well as boost the audio levels. I included portions that I couldnt make out what was being said, in case you can. Heres the edited video, which does not have long periods of silence and noise of cars passing:

According to Ademos jail record, hes expected to be arraigned at Warren Municipal Court in front of judge Robert S. Fischer on Tuesday, February 14th. Hes facing three charges including trafficking in drugs, a third degree felony, and two counts of possession of drugs, one a third degree and the other a fifth degree felony. Ohio actually has their criminal court case records online and you can see Ademos case record here. (The jail record says the other count of possession is class three, but the court record says class five.) Hes also been charged with a burnt-out tail light.

Ohio state statutes say that third degree possession or trafficking of marijuana is between 1,000 and 20,000 grams. Fifth degree possession is between 200 and 1,000 grams. Both are felony level charges, and he could be facing as many as eleven years in prison. There is a fundraiser to assist with legal fees that you can help with here.

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Cop Block Founder Ademo Freeman Arrested in Ohio for Drug Trafficking/Possession VIDEO - Free Keene

Owners of Seven California Collision Repair Shops Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 – BodyShop Business

California authorities are attempting to break up a family-run organized crime ring involving the owners of seven body shops that allegedly bilked insurance companies out of more than $500,000.

Detectives from the California Department of Insurance detectives and investigators with the Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force arrested seven suspects, charged an additional 22 who are self-surrendering, and still are seeking 11 more suspects for allegedly running an organized automotive insurance fraud ring

The state filed more than 230 felony charges against 40 suspects in connection with crimes committed in seven auto body shops across Coach Valley, a region in between Los Angeles and San Diego. The body shops staged up to 40 false insurance claims receiving payouts totaling $560,492 from 10 different insurance companies, including some of the largest auto insurers in the nation, according to authorities.

This was an elaborate conspiracy to rip off insurers to the tune of nearly a half a million dollars, said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. The cost of fraud is shouldered by consumers who pay higher premiums when insurers pass along their losses.

The seven body shops are:

Investigators from the Department of Insurance initially received information about the crime ring in 2014, as part of a previous bust of suspects allegedly running a similar crime ring. Investigators with the departments Urban Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force allege that the owners of the seven body shops conspired with employees and family who posed as insurance consumers and filed fraudulent claims for collisions that were either staged or never occurred at all.

Two examples of fraudulent claims filed by the conspirators included one claiming substantial bodily injury in which the insurer paid over $100,000. In another, the suspects allegedly staged a collision that targeted an innocent motorist leaving her vehicle with significant damage.

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Owners of Seven California Collision Repair Shops Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 - BodyShop Business

High rates of parental incarceration among African-Americans means that criminal justice reform is now education reform – USAPP American Politics and…

African-American schoolchildren have a one in four chance of having a parent who is in jail, or who has been previously incarcerated. In new report Leila Morsy and Richard Rothstein argue that incarceration of African Americans which has been on the rise due to increasingly punitive sentencing policies as well as the ramping up of the War on Drugs has made a significant contribution to the racial achievement gap in education. They write that criminal justice reform is now education reform, and that it should be high on educators lists of concerns.

During the 2016 election campaign, the now President Donald Trump advocated a nationwide policy of stop-and-frisk, a police practice concentrated in low-income minority neighborhoods that invariably leads to the arrest and eventual imprisonment of men, African American men in particular, for non-violent victimless crimes. Yet stop and frisk as well as excessive sentencing for minor crimes, are not primarily federal policies, and the Trump administration has little influence over them. These are policies and practices of local and state governments, and reform is no less realistic or urgent now than it was before the presidential election.

Our new report, Mass Incarceration and Childrens Outcomes, however, urges education policymakers and educators in states and localities to pay greater attention to the mass incarceration of young African American men. The evidence is overwhelming that the unjustified incarceration of African American parents, fathers especially, is an important cause of the poorer performance of their children. On any given day, 10 percent of African American schoolchildren have an incarcerated parent; 25 percent have a parent who is or has been incarcerated. The numbers of children affected has grown to the point that we can reasonably infer that our criminal justice system is making a significant contribution to the racial achievement gap in both cognitive and non-cognitive skills.

Two policies have been mostly responsible: a more punitive sentencing policy, including prison terms for violent crimes that have increased by nearly 50 percent since the early 1990s; andthe declaration of a war on drugs that has included severe mandatory minimum sentences for relatively trivial victimless drug offenses. The incarceration explosion is primarily an expression of our race relations and of the confrontational stance of police toward African Americans in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage. (The incarceration rate of middle-class African Americans has declined and has made no contribution to the rapidly rising rate of incarcerations.) Young African American men are no more likely to use or sell drugs than young white men, but they are nearly three times as likely to be arrested for drug use or sale; once arrested, they are more likely to be sentenced; and, once sentenced, their jail or prison terms are 50 percent longer, on average.

Comparing the children of incarcerated parents with economically and demographically similar children, the former perform worse academically, are more likely to suffer from a variety of learning disabilities, drop out of school at higher rates, and have worse behavioral and health outcomes. Our report discusses the biological processes by which the stress of parental incarceration can predict these conditions.

We have reviewed sophisticated studies from diverse fields epidemiology, economics, sociology, child development that control for background factors and conclude that these differences are not reasonably the result of economic or demographic differences between the children of incarcerated parents and children of those without a criminal record. Rather, the differences plausibly result from the experience of parental incarceration itself.

However improbable reform of federal policy may seem in a Trump administration (and we hope we are wrong), many more children are harmed by the incarceration of their parents in state than in federal prisons. In 2014, over 700,000 prisoners nationwide were serving sentences of a year or longer for non-violent crimes. Over 600,000 of these were in state, not federal prisons. This reality presents an opportunity, and necessity, for educators to press for change in state and local policing and criminal justice policies that will substantially benefit their students.

We will be discussing our findings in a forum held at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. on March 15 at 10:30 a.m. US Eastern Standard Time. Valerie Strauss, the online education columnist (The Answer Sheet) of The Washington Post, will moderate the forum, and our presentation will be discussed by Glenn Loury of Brown University and Ames Grawert of the Brennan Center for Justice. It will be livestreamed here and available for viewing at the same site after the event.

Featured image credit:Jacques Lebleu(Flickr, CC-BY-NC-2.0)

Please read our comments policy before commenting.

Note: This article gives the views of the authors, and not the position of USAPP American Politics and Policy, nor the London School of Economics.

Shortened URL for this post:http://bit.ly/2k7YPg9

_________________________________

About the authors

Leila Morsy University of New South Wales Leila Morsy is a senior lecture in education at the School of Education, University of New South Wales, and a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute.

_

Richard Rothstein Economic Policy InstituteRichard Rothstein is a research associate of the Economic Policy Institute and a senior fellow at the Thurgood Marshall Institute of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

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High rates of parental incarceration among African-Americans means that criminal justice reform is now education reform - USAPP American Politics and...

Family of Collision Repair Shop Owners Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 – BodyShop Business

California authorities are attempting to break up a family-run organized crime ring involving the owners of seven body shops that allegedly bilked insurance companies out of more than $500,000.

Detectives from the California Department of Insurance detectives and investigators with the Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force arrested seven suspects, charged an additional 22 who are self-surrendering, and still are seeking 11 more suspects for allegedly running an organized automotive insurance fraud ring

The state filed more than 230 felony charges against 40 suspects in connection with crimes committed in seven auto body shops across Coach Valley, a region in between Los Angeles and San Diego. The body shops staged up to 40 false insurance claims receiving payouts totaling $560,492 from 10 different insurance companies, including some of the largest auto insurers in the nation, according to authorities.

This was an elaborate conspiracy to rip off insurers to the tune of nearly a half a million dollars, said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. The cost of fraud is shouldered by consumers who pay higher premiums when insurers pass along their losses.

Investigators from the Department of Insurance initially received information about the crime ring in 2014, as part of a previous bust of suspects allegedly running a similar crime ring. Investigators with the departments Urban Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force allege that the owners of the seven body shops conspired with employees and family who posed as insurance consumers and filed fraudulent claims for collisions that were either staged or never occurred at all.

Two examples of fraudulent claims filed by the conspirators included one claiming substantial bodily injury in which the insurer paid over $100,000. In another, the suspects allegedly staged a collision that targeted an innocent motorist leaving her vehicle with significant damage.

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Family of Collision Repair Shop Owners Allegedly Scammed Insurers Out of $560000 - BodyShop Business

Perfectionism Is Insanity And Impossible To Accomplish – Being Libertarian

This Futile Goal Is Not What Our Founders Wanted For Us

Nothing, no matter what it is, will ever be perfect.

Herein lies the problem we have in America; we want everything to be perfect! However, this is not rational, and is quite frankly ridiculous, when it comes to realism and our individual freedoms.

Perfectionism requires the removal of individual freedoms to attain a societal goal of perfect peace, protection, and safety. This is, literally, impossible to accomplish, because every one of us is a unique individual.

The preamble of our Constitution should have been the last time the phrase to form a more perfect anything was ever used.

As a nation, we strive like hell in every effort to make our cities, our states, and our country more perfect. We do this by continuously passing an avalanche of city ordinances, state statutes, and federal laws all in the supposed name of public safety, to control every aspect of our individual lives.

It is a futile attempt, however, because it is based on control. You cannot, through government control or any other fashion, make anything or anyone perfectly safe and secure. In short, you cannot legislate morality for individuals.

Plato once said Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. We have so many laws at the local, state, and federal levels, that no one can even keep up with all of them anymore. How is the average citizen supposed to know every single law in existence, when even judges and attorneys have to look them up?

To attempt to create such an environment of control over the citizenry equates to socialism or totalitarianism. It creates an invisible prison that most of the public dont even realize they are living in. This is quite the opposite of what our founders envisioned, and is why all victimless crimes quite frankly need to die in a fire.

Throughout history, whenever those in power sought to control the masses they eventually failed, no matter what means they used (except for North Korea because theyll just kill you instead). Any empire attempting to enforce perfection eventually crumbled, for various reasons.

One of the reasons why Rome fell was because it started more wars than it could afford, in an effort to control the world.

When are we going to learn from our own world history, this does not work? You cant have the level of freedom our founders meant for us to have, and at the same time, allow the government so much control over our personal lives that we dont know when we may be breaking the law in some idiotic, victimless crime. When will we learn that allowing people to be free in their pursuits, as our founders said, is the only way to perpetuate a long lasting and successful society and country?

We have the 2nd Amendment for a reason, and that is so individuals, not the government, can take care of ourselves.

The far right love the law, and those that enforce it, your rights be damned! I cannot tell you how many times one of my hard-core right wing friends would say f*ck their rights, or screw the 4th Amendment, I dont care when referencing a criminal act of another American; all while hypocritically claiming to love the Bill of Rights and be an avid 2nd Amendment supporter.

The far-left hate laws all together and want complete freedom with no rules at all. They then, hypocritically, want big government to take care of them in a never-ending system of welfare.

Neither of these systems can, or will, work long term; our founders understood this. To quote Thomas Jefferson The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining, nor aiding them in their pursuits. I would argue that this same idea should be applied to the state and local governments as well today. I mean this sincerely.

I know its a lot of reading, but seriously, take the time to read what our founders wanted for us. Here are some links to the actual words they spoke, rather than random memes you read on social media.

Our country is in massive disarray. Not because of Trump (I mean hell I voted for him), but because of decades upon decades of policies and laws that were never meant to exist in the first place.

Rediscover what Liberty means again!

* Shane Foster has worked his entire career in military, law enforcement, corrections, and as a private investigator. He has a unique perspective into how law enforcement and our judicial system operates from within its ranks, as well as knowledge on our privacy laws, in which, every day, our individual freedoms and liberties are gradually taken away from us and our individual rights are abused.

The main BeingLibertarian.com account, used for editorials and guest author submissions. The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions. Contact the Editor at editor@beinglibertarian.email

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Bitcoin, Stop Apologizing for Victimless Crime – Nigeria Today

Bitcoin is a freedom currency in a manner that isnt obvious and which is virtually undiscussed. Bitcoin is commonly linked to victimless crime, but the dynamic reaches far deeper than merely freeing individuals to buy goods and services, unsavory or not. Victimless crime is the lifeblood of the surveillance state without which big government could not function. Victimless crime creates the surveillance state.

Also read:Surbitcoin On Hiatus Amid Venezuela Bitcoin Crackdown

The arch enemy of total scrutiny is the privacy and economic anonymity of cash or digital currencies. This means something as tiny as the pseudonymous transfer of one bitcoin is a threat to the states very existence.

Daniel Krawisz of the Satoshi Nakamoto Institute was nothing more than deadpan accurate in a 2014 presentation in which he stated, Someone who promotes bitcoin who is not an anarchist is a crypto-anarchist because bitcoin is inherently anarchistic.

A victimless crime is an illegal act that violates no rights and harms only the people who voluntarily commit it. And, then, the harm is only in some cases like drug use. And, then, only in the opinion of some people who are not necessarily involved. Politically speaking, victimless crimes are also the engine that drives the total surveillance state.

Why is this true? When a crime has flesh-and-blood victims, they almost always contact law enforcement because they want restitution, justice or protection. A mugged man files a police report on the chance of getting his wallet back; a raped woman views a police lineup in the hope of finding justice; a shop owner turns in the video of a theft so that a neighborhood thug wont steal from him again. Law enforcement doesnt need to ferret out such crimes. The police can sit in one place, have victims come to them and only then investigate. If the victims prefer to remain silent, then the police have little incentive to investigate a crime with no report.

Victimless crimes are the antithesis. The criminal acts are either consensual, like prostitution, or they are committed in isolation, like drug use. In either case, the police are neither contacted nor welcomed. No one turns himself in for buying a blow job; no one files a complaint on himself for snorting cocaine. These crimes do not come and knock on the police station door.

To enforce victimless laws, therefore, the authorities must hunt down the hidden scofflaws by monitoring the general population for suspicious behavior. They track the movement of money, create massive databases, eavesdrop on all communications, employ snitches and use a multitude of other intrusive tools of surveillance.

The incredible violation of privacy and personal rights is justified by the politically useful issues of illegal drugs, prostitution, and other moral hot buttons. Actual acts of violence such as child pornography and the funding of terrorism are thrown into the mix. The argument is this: because of a small number of hidden bad actors, everyone everywhere must relinquish their freedom and wealth to the state.

In more basic terms: the further law enforcement moves away from real victims and toward victimless crimes, the more it becomes a police state that relies on total surveillance. The state knows this. And, so, anything that blocks surveillance runs the risk of also becoming a victimless crime. For example, the refusal to fill out a census form is criminalized. Many people are puzzled by why the state penalizes such an innocuous act. They shouldnt be.

In his book Seeing Like a State, James C. Scott commented, If we imagine a state that has no reliable means of enumerating and locating its population, gauging its wealth, and mapping its land, resources, and settlements, we are imagining a state whose interventions in that society are necessarily crude. Imagine a state that could not find your children to draft or your bank account to freeze. That state could not regulate your business or arrest you for peaceful but deviant practices. Acquiring data allowed the modern state to grow. The more data, the more powerful and effective its authority.

It is no coincidence that prison populations within America have risen by close to five times the level of 1980 when the war on drugs heated up. At this point, nearly 86% of federal prisoners are victimless criminals. The surveillance state has grown in pace. Appeals to compassion or common sense regarding prisoners have fallen on deaf ears because victimless crime laws serve their purpose: power and social control, which verge on being synonyms.

The term is no longer fashionable, perhaps because it highlights that people who commit no harm are being punished. The preferred term is now crimes against society. The shift in language casts society in the role of an individual who can be robbed, raped or assaulted and so must be protected by the state. This is why criminal proceedings list the state as the plaintiff even when the real victim is known. The victimization of society occurs whenever an individual peacefully transfers his own money in an unapproved manner because 1) who knows where that money came from or goes, and 2) it is not taxed or otherwise skimmed by the state and banks.

In reality, of course, victimless crimes are not committed against society but against the state. They are a modern version of crimes against the crown that is, a form of treason. The faux crimes are used to justify an ever-expanding surveillance system which forms the core of totalitarianism. They are so essential to state power that actual crimes, such as assault or theft, are often punished lightly compared to the crimes of disloyalty to the state.

Then, into the scene, bitcoin blunders like the proverbial bull in a china shop. Or so it must seem to central planners. To paraphrase John Lennon, bitcoin is what happens when the state is making other plans. The states response is a campaign of slander; bitcoin is child porn, money laundering, human traffickingfill a despicable word into the blank. What is the best response?

Stop apologizing. There are people who use bitcoin to buy immoral goods (whatever that means) just as there are people who use cash to do so. As long as the participants are consenting adults, thats their business. Not yours, not mine. The state is the one who interjects violence and harm when it points a gun at peaceful adults. Stop apologizing.

The attack on bitcoin will be framed in moral terms. It will be cast as a way to protect vulnerable and misguided individuals who use their own bodies in unacceptable ways. Or it will unfold as a campaign of resentment against those individuals who do not pay their so-called fair share toward maintaining the surveillance state.

A moral attack must be met with moral indignation, not an apology. For one thing, an apology is an admission of guilt. The banner of bitcoin should read: No victim. No crime. No apology. If an individual is victimized by fraud or violence connected to bitcoin, then law enforcement should do their job and solve an actual crime.

What do you think about Bitcoins role in victimless crimes? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Bitcoin.com, and Pixabay.

Have you seen our new widget service? It allows anyone to embed informative Bitcoin.com widgets on their website. Theyre pretty cool and you can customize by size and color. The widgets include price-only, price and graph, price and news, forum threads. Theres also a widget dedicated to our mining pool, displaying our hash power.

The post Bitcoin, Stop Apologizing for Victimless Crime appeared first on Bitcoin News.

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Bitcoin, Stop Apologizing for Victimless Crime - Nigeria Today

7 arrested for auto insurance fraud scheme – KESQ

COACHELLA, Calif. - The Riverside County District Attorney's Office has released information about a large automotive insurance fraud scheme that reportedly led to a loss of more than a half million dollars.

Seven people were arrested for the alleged violations on Tuesday but arrest warrants have been issued for 40 defendants, according to DA Mike Hestrin's release.

The 36 criminal complaints include more than 200 felony counts for crimes committed at seven auto body shops across the Coachella Valley, authorities said. The scheme involved staging up to 40 false insurance claims from which payouts totaled $560,492 from 10 different insurance companies.

Along with the seven people arrested on Tuesday, authorities said about 20 more defendants are in the process of being contacted by law enforcement.

Arrested Tuesday: Isaac Espinoza Villa, DOB: 7-23-84; Luz Virgin, DOB: 12-13-74; Samuel Salvador Gomez, 11-21-74; Moises Saldana Paredes, DOB: 7-30-89; Mauricio Lopez-Castro, DOB: 9-15-87; Jose Manuel Luna, DOB: 5-23-66; and Erika Feliz, DOB: 12-28-80. Authorities released three of the booking photos Tuesday afternoon.

All of them live in the Coachella Valley.

Investigators from the Department of Insurance initially received information about this crime ring in 2014, as part of a previous investigation in which individuals were charged with running a similar scheme.

"Insurance fraud schemes like this one steal from our local communities in the form of higher premiums," Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. "The insurance fraud perpetrated by these defendants is alleged to have caused a loss of more than $500,000; a cost that ultimately is passed on to consumers. We have to do everything that can be done to stop these criminals from defrauding the public."

The arrests were made by California Department of Insurance detectives and investigators with the Urban Auto Insurance Fraud Task Force, which includes a Riverside County DA's investigator.

"This was an elaborate conspiracy to rip off insurers to the tune of near a half a million dollars," state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said. "Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. The cost of fraud is shouldered by consumers who pay higher premiums when insurers pass along their losses. The task force is a critical tool in combating the multi-billion-dollar problem of insurance fraud."

The case is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Mark Zubiate of the DA's Insurance Fraud Team. KESQ News Channel 3 and CBS Local 2 will keep you updated as investigators continue to move forward with the case.

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7 arrested for auto insurance fraud scheme - KESQ

Meth arrests, seizures surge in Bowling Green | News | bgdailynews … – Bowling Green Daily News

A Bowling Green woman who died in December after being found unresponsive in a hotel room is one of the countys latest methamphetamine casualties.

A toxicology report recently received by the Warren County Coroners Office shows the 38-year-old died from acute intoxication by the effects of methamphetamine, hydrocodone and gabapentin, Warren County Deputy Coroner Dwayne Lawrence said.

Were seeing a lot more of those things, Lawrence said of methamphetamine-related drug overdose deaths.

While Louisville, Lexington and northern Kentucky are awash in heroin, methamphetamine has flooded the illicit drug market in Bowling Green.

Methamphetamine trafficking arrests increased by 54 percent within the city limits of Bowling Green in 2016 compared to 2015, Bowling Green Police Department spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward said.

When it comes to substance abuse, it depends on what county you are standing in as to what the biggest threat is, Kentucky Office of Drug Control Policy Director Van Ingram said.

Statewide, the number of meth trafficking arrests is up 53 percent.

It doesnt surprise me, Bowling Green-Warren County Drug Task Force Director Tommy Loving said. Thats due to the increase we have seen here in crystal meth coming into our region. It originates in Mexico and the Southwest border. It follows the traditional smuggling routes from west to east.

The percentage of task force methamphetamine seizures is up 825 percent in 2016 over 2014. In 2014, task force detectives seized563 grams of meth or about 2.3 cups. Last year detectives seized 5,213 grams or about 22 cups. A typical dose commonly referred to as a hit of meth is one-quarter to one-half of a gram.The number of drug task force undercover methamphetamine buys also spiked from39 in 2014 to 76 last year.

As recently as six years ago the majority of methamphetamine used and sold here was home cooked using ingredients readily available in any supermarket. Meth users have now shifted to crystal meth, which is made in drug cartel-controlled super labs in Mexico and the Southwest. Crystal meth has a higher purity level and packs a more potent high but comes with the risk of fatal overdose not typically found in homemade meth.

Prior to 2015 I had never heard of a death from a meth overdose, Loving said.

I think we already had a strong addict base here for methamphetamine, he said. The supply is following the demand. Its difficult to say if we have more users. Its apparent to me the crystal meth is replacing the locally produced meth. And if there is an upside to that, the dangers from meth labs are decreasing just because of the sheer drop in meth labs.

As home cooked meth decreases in use, the number of meth labs found also decreases. In 2015 there were 59 meth lab incidents in Warren County. Last year the number dropped to 15.

Meth labs are very dangerous to the community if they explode into a fireball in a hotel room or apartment that you are standing next to, Loving said. By reducing meth labs thats the only upside in reducing danger to the public and police officers. The down side with this more pure meth is in all likelihood more people will have the potential to become addicted to it. There are all sorts of long-term health problems that if you dont overdose and die its going to kill you.

Probably 90 percent of your crime is driven by addicts stealing to obtain money to buy more drugs. So whatever your drug problem is in your community, you can pretty well assume that thats driving 90 percent of the crime in your community along with neglected children at best and certainly child abuse at worse, he said. Because when people are addicted to this drug and other drugs many times their children will be their last priority, and to those that would say drug crimes are victimless crimes, maybe they should go with us sometimes and see the children.

Follow Assistant City Editor Deborah Highland on Twitter @BGDNCrimebeat or visit bgdailynews.com.

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Meth arrests, seizures surge in Bowling Green | News | bgdailynews ... - Bowling Green Daily News

Campaigners say Rabobank should face trial for ‘crimes against … – DutchNews.nl

Rabobanks headquarters in Utrecht. Photo: Depositphotos.com

A human rights campaign group wants Rabobank executives to stand trial for being accessories to criminal activities carried out by drug cartels in Mexico, the Volkskrant reported on Thursday

The claim by lawyer Gran Sluiter, who is representing Mexican human rights organisation SMX Collective, states the bank has been involved in complicity to murder and other crimes against humanity and being part of a criminal organisation, the paper writes.

The case comes in the wake of a lengthy American investigation into money laundering at full Rabobank subsidiary Rabobank N.A. in the Mexican border city of Calexico.

Staff at the bank, which has since closed, allegedly held back documents and failed to report suspicious transactions. According to anonymous sources the American justice department now has sufficient proof to charge the bank.

Consequences

If the public prosecutors office agrees to press charges it will be the first time a bank will stand accused not only of money laundering but also for the consequences this has for the Mexican population.

Money laundering is a not a victimless crime. Drug cartels are extremely violent and money laundering is crucial to their operations. Thanks to the banks who let them get away with it they are able to invest millions in their criminal activities, the paper quotes Sluiter as saying.

Rabobank spokesman Hendrik-Jan Eijpe told the paper the bank is cooperating fully with the investigation but refused to confirm or deny if the bank knew of the presence of drug cartels in Calexico, a charge laid firmly at its door by Sluiter who said the bank chose to look the other way.

Impunity

The paper cites the case of British bank HSBC which admitted having laundered 820m for Columbian and Mexican drug cartels. The bank settled out of court and paid a $2bn fine.

According to former head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD) Antonio Maria Costa banks are a law unto themselves. No banker has ever ended up in jail for money laundering. As long as governments protect them they will continue to launder money with impunity, the Volkskrant quotes him as saying.

Sluiter hopes his case will change what has been a trend of banks escaping prosecution and getting away with paying fines.

Chances are that the American investigation will end in a settlement. And the American court is not considering the damage done to the Mexican population. We want the Dutch public prosecutor to fill that gap. This case could be a precedent and help stop these criminal practices, Sluiter said.

More here:

Campaigners say Rabobank should face trial for 'crimes against ... - DutchNews.nl

Police aim to prevent prostitution, human trafficking – Woburn Daily Times

BURLINGTON - The Burlington Police Department recently met with managers and employees from all six hotels in town to discuss issues in the hospitality industry that affect law enforcement, especially the problems of prostitution and human trafficking.

Over the course of the past two years, Burlington detectives have been engaged with the leadership teams in Burlingtons hotel industry, and have set goals to promote healthy business while eliminating sex crime and quality of life concerns in the community.

Prostitution is not a victimless crime, Police Chief Michael Kent said. More often than not, listings that have historically appeared on websites like Craigslist and Backpage are advertising victims of human trafficking. I applaud our hotel industry in Burlington for working with the police department to address these issues.

At a recent meeting at Grandview Farm, detectives shared a presentation with employees that they previously made at a large conference in Boston for the Human Trafficking Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) coalition.

The following issues were discussed:

Hotel managers advised detectives that human trafficking awareness has become part of their training programs.

Managers were advised to call the police department if they suspect that there is prostitution or possible human trafficking taking place in their hotels.

Hotels were urged to partner with the police department and allow for reverse stings to take place. By reducing the demand, you reduce the supply.

This is important due to the number of robberies, assaults, and even homicides that are taking place in hotels that involve some form of prostitution prostitutes are getting assaulted and robbed and potential Johns are getting assaulted and robbed. In July 2015, a woman was murdered after meeting a man in a hotel in Burlington after she posted an ad on an online classifieds website.

Why this Matters in Burlington

Burlington, with a population of 25,000, is also home to a large and diverse commercial base, with tens of thousands of commuters coming to work here each day. It is also at or near the intersections of three major highways north of Boston and has a large hospitality industry as a result.

The growth of Burlingtons hotel industry -- six hotels online and two currently under construction -- has spurred economic opportunities for the town and its business base, but with this growth has come an increase in crime.

Recently, there have been several assaults and robberies, two confirmed cases of human trafficking and the discovery of a drug lab in a Burlington hotels.

The strong partnership between Burlington Police and the hotel industry has led to two major sex trafficking cases since 2015 and several sting operations targeting customers of prostitutes, resulting in dozens of arrests. Prior to 2015, Burlington Police had never had a human trafficking report.

Homicides have also gone up. Since 2012 there have been three murders (2012, 2014, 2015) and three attempted murders (2013, 2015, 2016), one of which was at a hotel. As a result, hotel leadership has become a vital partner for law enforcement, as they can take a number of preventative measures to help prevent quality of life crime and violent crime from occurring in the first place.

It is important to form partnerships with all of the hotels in Burlington so that investigations and operations aimed at reducing and preventing prostitution and human trafficking will take place in the future, said Burlington Police Detective Lieutenant Steven OMeara, who led the presentation.

Detective Anne Marie Browne, and Detective Jim Tigges also took part in the presentations at Grandview Farm and CEASE (Coalition Engaged in a Smoke-free Effort).

A Regional Issue

The CEASE coalition consists of 11 metropolitan areas across the country that are committed to reducing human trafficking and sex crimes. Burlington is part of the Boston region, and Burlington Police Department detectives have special training in human trafficking and sex crime.

During the meeting with the hotel industry, an inspector from the Division of Professional Licensure was also on hand to demonstrate how individuals routinely access popular online websites where hotel prostitution is advertised. According to the Coalition on Human Trafficking, 70-80 percent of all human sex trafficking happens in hotels.

Ongoing Work

Going forward, the Burlington Police Department will continue planning future operations while working with the local hotels in order to combat human trafficking and sex crime. Burlington Police plan to make these types of meetings a recurring event.

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Police aim to prevent prostitution, human trafficking - Woburn Daily Times

Arizona and California Auto Insurance Fraud Busts – Claims Journal – Claims Journal

GO-PRO Video Leads to Conviction of Insurance Fraud Suspect

Robert Atlas falsely reported to GEICO that he had crashed his 2012 Corvette Stingray while exiting the I-10 freeway, on the exit ramp at Wild horse pass in Chandler Arizona. Robert was paid $61,465.11 by GEICO for the loss of his Corvette. It was later discovered that on October 10, 2015, Robert Atlas had actually raced his Corvette Stingray in a drag race at a drag racing event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. He subsequently lost control of his corvette during the race and crashed into the concrete barrier totaling his Corvette Stingray. This crash was captured on a Go-Pro video and published on YouTube. The policy does not cover damage caused to the vehicle if it was involved in drag racing. Robert was later shown the video footage and he admitted to making the false claim to GEICO Insurance.

On 1-25-17, Robert Atlas pled guilty to Insurance Fraud as a Class 6 Undesignated offense and as required by the Plea Agreement he paid the entire amount of restitution back to GEICO Insurance prior to sentencing. He was sentenced to two years supervised probation and was assessed $1,560.00 in court costs.

The case was investigated by the Arizona Department of Insurance Fraud Unit and prosecuted by the Arizona Attorney Generals Office.

The San Diego County District Attorneys Office and California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones announced a major auto insurance fraud ring takedown, which was operating in San Diego County.

Nine defendants have been charged with 34 felony crimes including filing fraudulent auto insurance claims. Six defendants were arrested on January 31, and police are searching for one more. Two people received notices that they have been charged and must appear in to court.

When cheaters scam insurance companies, law abiding citizens end up footing the bill, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said. Our insurance fraud team did an excellent job collaborating with the California Department of Insurance and Highway Patrol to dismantle this crime ring.

Operation Persistent was a two-year investigation that uncovered a web of fraudsters who victimized insurance companies over several years. The ring used various schemes to file 34 false insurance claims for auto property damage. The schemes included staged collisions, non-existent collisions, using already damaged vehicles, and phony vehicle thefts.

The crimes were discovered thanks to the diligent efforts of the San Diego Automobile Insurance Fraud Task Force. The joint task force is dedicated to investigating all forms of auto insurance fraud and is supervised by the California Department of Insurance. It is made up of law enforcement officers from the Department of Insurance, the San Diego District Attorneys Office, and California Highway Patrol. The National Insurance Crime Bureau also provides support to the task force.

Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime, said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. We all pay for these crimes when insurers pass along the losses through higher premiums.

The San Diego ring made false insurance claims totaling approximately $200,000. The defendants bilked 12 insurance companies out of about $125,000. Victim insurance companies include: Allstate, Access, GEICO, Infinity, State Farm, Rental Insurance Services, Fred Loya, Nationwide, Alliance, Farmers, Nations, and Travelers.

Insurance fraud can directly impact the lives of law-abiding people and staged collisions have taken the lives of innocent people in our state, said Jim Abele, border division chief for the California Highway Patrol. The California Highway Patrol is dedicated to reducing collisions, vehicle theft, and insurance fraud. The San Diego Automobile Insurance Fraud Task Force partnership provides a needed focus on auto-insurance crimes and enables better sharing of case information among fraud fighters.

Defendants include: Yesenia Perez, 26; Darice Orozco, 37; Oscar Vargas, 31; Jesus Diego, 31; Roberto Ramirez, 27; Abel Ramirez, 31; Maria Linares, 24; Juan Augustin, 30; and Francine Moreno, 25.

Maria Linares and Juan Augustin will be arraigned February 3, at 8:30 a.m. and Jesus Diego and Yesenia Perez will be arraigned February 7, at 1:30 p.m. All arraignments are scheduled in Department 12 of the downtown courthouse.

Abel Ramirez, Roberto Ramirez, Oscar Vargas and Darice Orozco were arraigned Wednesday and pleaded not guilty. Their next court date is February 10, at 8:30 a.m. in Department 53 of the downtown courthouse.

Read more:

Arizona and California Auto Insurance Fraud Busts - Claims Journal - Claims Journal

Victimless Crime Constitutes 86% of The Federal Prison …

When we talk about the war on drugs, which is increasingly turning into areal war, we often overlook the fact that the criminals involved in the drug trade arent actually violating anyones rights. When a drug dealer is hauled before a judge, there is no victim standing behind the prosecutor claiming damages. Everyone participating in the drug trade does so voluntarily.However, there area lot more crimesfor which this is also true. Millions upon millions of Americans have been thrown into cages without a victim ever claiming damages. It is important to look at the burden this mass level of incarceration places upon our society.

In light of that, let us review some statistics which demonstrate just how destructive the mass incarceration of victimless criminals has become to our society.The 2011 federal prison population consisted of:

Drug offenses are self-explanatory as being victimless, but so too are public-order offenses, which also fall under the victimless crimes category. Public order offenses include such things as immigration, weapons charges, publicdrunkenness,selling lemonade without a license,dancing in public,feeding the homeless without a permitetc..

The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world. Presently756 per 100,000of the national population is behind bars. This is in contrast to an average world per-capita prison population rate of145 per 100,000(158 per 100,000 if set against a world prison population of 10.65 million), based on 2008 U.N. population data. In other words, the U.S. incarcerates its citizens at a rate that is 5 times the world average.

In 2008, according to the Department of Justice, there were 7,308,200 persons in the US corrections system, of whom 4,270,917 were on probation, 828,169 were on parole, 785,556 were in jails, and 1,518,559 were in state and federal prisons. This means that the U.S. alone is responsible for holding roughly 15% of all the prisoners in the world.

In other words, 1 in 42 Americans is under correctional supervision. This constitutes over 2% of the entire U.S. population. That percentage jumps up drastically if we limit the comparison to working aged adult males, of which there are around 100 million. Over 5% of the adult male population is under some form of correctional supervision, alternatively stated, 1 in 20 adult males are under correctional supervision in the U.S.

According to 2006 statistics, 1 in 36 adult Hispanic men are behind bars, as are 1 in 15 adult black men. If we limit the data to black males between the ages 20 to 34,1 in 9 are behind bars. Keep in mind that 86% of those men in federal prisons are there for victimless crimes. They have not stolen any property, damaged any property or harmed anyone directly by their actions. Of course, if you are reading this and live in the US, you are paying for all those people to subsist on a daily basis. Roughly34% of all prisoners in the U.S. are incarcerated for victimless crimes.

In California in 2009 it cost an average of $47,102 a year to incarcerate an inmate in state prison. In 2005 it cost an average of $23,876 per state prisoner nationally. In 2007, $228 billion was spent on police, corrections and the judiciary. That constitutes around 1.6% of total U.S. GDP.

Of course, being the good economists that we are, we must not just look at the cost to incarcerate and police, but also at the opportunity cost to society that putting all those able-bodied men behind bars creates. When a man is put behind bars he is obviously incapable of contributing anything to society. He becomes a complete burden to society while producing nothing in return for the expenses he creates. He becomes a black void of resource destruction. Its important to remember that moneys value is directly related to the consumer goods that a society produces. If a society produces nothing of value, the money it uses will also be worth nothing of value. If a huge portion of able bodied workers is locked behind bars, society is effectively penalized twice once for the resources that are diverted into the prison industry and it is penalized again for the opportunity cost of the lost labor of those prisoners.

I find some dark humor in the fact that those who engage in victimless crime dont create any real victims until they are put behind bars, at which point they cause the State to steal $47,000 a year from the tax paying public. In our justice system today, victims are victimized twice; once by the perpetrator of the crime against them, and the other by the State which then forces the victim to pay for the punishment of their assailant. Clearly our societys notion of justice is logically ridiculous. Its apparently not OK for someone to steal from you, but its perfectly acceptable for the State to steal from you if the State is going to use that money to punish the person who stole from you. what kind of asinine system of justice is that?

What is justice? Isnt justice making a victim whole once again? Isnt justice punishing a criminal for the damages he imposed upon his victims?I propose that the only real justice that can be enacted in a free society is monetary punishment in the form of taking the perpetrators property and handing it to their victim, or ostracism by defamation of character.

I know some people will cry that under such a system violent criminals will be left free to roam the streets, but isnt that what our system is doing now? Consider that if a man commits a violent crime today, he is put behind bars for some arbitrary length of time with hundreds of other violent criminals, after which he is released back on to the streets. Do you think that criminal is going to be more dangerous to society after spending years locked in a cage with other violent criminals or less dangerous? Numerous studiesshow that prison eitherincreases, or has no impact on, recidivism. Thus, it all comes down to punishment. Isnt being branded a criminal, along with monetary punishment to make a victim whole once again, enough? How difficult do you think your life would be if you were convicted of murder, everyone knew about it and half your assets and income were being handed to your victims family? The rest of your life would be a living hell.

Putting people behind bars does nothing but squander resources. It deprives society of able-bodied workers and costs society massive amounts of resources which are stolen from the general public through the coercive theft of taxation. Consider how much richer American society would be today if it had an additional 5% of the male population working to produce goods and services in the private sector labor force.

Economist David Friedman has put together a fantastic presentation on how society could be organized in such a way as to eliminate all victimless crime while simultaneously eliminating the necessity of the State to steal from the victims of crimes to pay for their assailants punishment. After youre done watching Friedmanspresentation, check out thisfantastic comicput together by the Real Cost of Prisons project.

If you are interested in learning more about private law and private defense, listen to thisseries of essaysby economist Robert Murphy andthis lectureby economist Hans Hoppe.

The statistics cited in this article can be verified atDrug War Facts.org

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Victimless Crime Constitutes 86% of The Federal Prison ...

Types of Crimes – Overview and Discussion

By Ashley Crossman

Updated December 13, 2016.

A crime is defined as any act that is contrary to legal code or laws. There are many different types of crimes, from crimes against persons to victimless crimes and violent crimes to white collar crimes. The study of crime and deviance is a large subfield within sociology, with much attention paid to who commits which types of crimes and why.

Crimes against persons, also called personal crimes, include murder, aggravated assault, rape, and robbery. Personal crimes are unevenly distributed in the United States, with young, urban, poor, and racial minorities arrested for these crimes more than others.

Property crimes involve theft of property without bodily harm, such as burglary, larceny, auto theft, and arson. Like personal crimes, young, urban, poor, and racial minorities are arrested for these crimes more than others.

Hate crimes are crimes against persons or property that are committed while invoking prejudices ofrace, gender or gender identity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

The rate of hate crimes in the U.S. remains fairly constant from year to year, but there have been a few events that have caused surges in hate crimes. In 2016, the election of Donald Trump to president was followed by ten days of hate crimes.

Crimes against morality are also called victimless crimes because there is not complainant, or victim. Prostitution, illegal gambling, and illegal drug use are all examples of victimless crimes.

White-collar crimes are crimes committed by people of high social status who commit their crimes in the context of their occupation. This includes embezzling (stealing money from ones employer), insider trading, tax evasion, and other violations of income tax laws.

White-collar crimes generally generate less concern in the public mind than other types of crime, however in terms of total dollars, white-collar crimes are even more consequential for society. For example, the Great Recession can be understood as in part the result of a variety of white-collar crimes committed within the home mortgage industry. Nonetheless, these crimes are generally the least investigated and least prosecuted because they are protected by a combination of privileges of race, class, and gender.

Organized crime is committed by structured groups typically involving the distribution and sale of illegal goods and services. Many people think of the Mafia when they think of organized crime, but the term can refer to any group that exercises control over large illegal enterprises (such as the drug trade, illegal gambling, prostitution, weapons smuggling, or money laundering).

A key sociological concept in the study or organized crime is that these industries are organized along the same lines as legitimate businesses and take on a corporate form. There are typically senior partners who control profits, employees who manage and work for the business, and clients who buy the goods and services that the organization provides.

Arrest data show a clear pattern of arrests in terms of race, gender, and class. For instance, as mentioned above, young, urban, poor, and racial minorities are arrested and convicted more than others for personal and property crimes. To sociologists, the question posed by this data is whether this reflects actual differences in committing crimes among different groups, or whether this reflects differential treatment by the criminal justice system.

Studies show that the answer is both. Certain groups are in fact more likely to commit crimes than others because crime, often looked to as a survival strategy, is linked to patterns of inequality in the United States. However, the process of prosecution in the criminal justice system is also significantly related to patterns of race, class, and gender inequality. We see this in the official arrest statistics, in treatment by the police, in sentencing patterns, and in studies of imprisonment.

Updated by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

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Types of Crimes - Overview and Discussion

Not Victimless: Understanding the harmful effects of …

Written by Syed, T.

Syed, T. (1997). Not Victimless: Understanding the harmful effects of police corruption. In Servamus, Vol. 91, No. 1.

In Servamus, Vol. 91, No. 1, 1997.

Talha Syed is a former Research Intern at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.

The assumption that police corruption is wrong or a problem to be combatted is often taken for granted in many discussions or analyses of the topic. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the term "corruption" is not neutral, that its connotation of "moral perversion" or "depravity"1 implies that anything labelled corrupt must just inherently be "bad" and is not to be tolerated. Thus, there is sometimes little attention paid to what is wrong with corrupt acts. However, a reliance on a moral view of corruption which just assumes it to be bad can lead to an inadequate understanding of the problem. Especially when corruption seems to be quite widespread and an almost accepted part of some "sub-cultures", unless we articulate exactly what is wrong with it, some people may wonder why it needs to be combatted at all and if it is not better to just ignore it.2

This paper seeks to identify the major effects of corrupt acts on the criminal justice system, police relations with the public and the organisational culture of the police. It will emphasise the "civic morality"3 side of police corruption, i.e., the social harm that corrupt acts result in. The primary purpose of this discussion is to combat the view of police corruption as "victimless". It seeks to bring to the attention of the reader the very damaging effects of corrupt acts and to point out that such acts not only have indirect consequences, but often identifiable victims.

Before outlining some of the major effects of police corruption, it is important to have some idea of what is being referred to by the term "police corruption". Thus, this paper starts by defining police corruption. After that, the effects of corruption are divided into two sections: first, those that have more easily identifiable victims and second, those whose effects need to be viewed in a broader context. Where appropriate, examples of corrupt acts are provided to illustrate the points being made. This is not meant to imply that either the effects of police corruption are always easily distinguishable from each other or that each corrupt act has only one effect. Rather, this exercise is an attempt to broadly outline some of the major effects of corrupt acts and identify some of the practices most strongly related to specific effects.

The definition of police corruption used in this paper is the following:

Thus, to be considered corrupt, an act:

Must be a violation of South African criminal or civil law or qualify as misconduct under the SAPS or traffic officers regulations.4

Must use either the legal or organisational powers of the police. That is, in committing the act, a police officer needs to have made use of some form of knowledge, access, credibility or legal or other power available to her/him by virtue of her/him being a member of the police service.

Must be motivated by the desire to achieve some identifiable personal, group or organisational benefit or reward.

An officer not arresting someone for possession of dagga in return for some money would be an example of a corrupt act using legal police powers (i.e., the discretionary power of non- enforcement). An example of organisational powers being used would be an officer using her/his access to police records to steal and destroy a case docket in return for payment of some sort. In addition, if the officer destroyed the docket of a case where a friend or family member was the defendant, it would also be an example of corruption, as the benefit of helping someone close to you is clearly identifiable. Finally, a police commander ordering her/his officers not to investigate the alleged criminal activities of a politician who is influential and friendly towards the police is also acting corruptly, since there is a benefit to the organisation in terms of continued support from the politician.

It should be noted that there are some "improper" or questionable police practices and forms of misconduct that are not necessarily forms of corruption. One example would be an officer acting in a racist or prejudicial manner towards an alleged offender, perhaps by being discourteous or perhaps by other, more overt means (eg. using unnecessary force). Since it is difficult to identify any tangible gain for the officer involved, such an act would not be defined as corrupt in terms of the definition being used here. However, it needs to be recognised that such actions are still problematic - and may even be crimes - and that they may have the same effects as forms of police corruption. Also, such behaviour may still be viewed by some people as "corrupt". Thus, in the following analysis of effects, where especially appropriate or relevant, practices other than those formally defined as corrupt are also identified and discussed.

What the effects in this section have in common is that they often entail an identifiable person or group of people being harmed and are quite closely connected with the actual operation of the criminal justice system. In fact, they usually result in either the perversion, obstruction or diversion of the aims of justice. Also included in this group are practices which serve to divert police resources towards a particular group, and therefore potentially increase the vulnerability of other individuals, or groups, to crime. As such, the types of corruption looked at in this section often have the most obviously detrimental impact. However, it may not always be the case that a person committing some of the corrupt acts discussed here will concern her/himself with the very direct and dire consequences of her/his actions.

There are a few different ways in which corrupt acts committed by the police result in direct forms of victimisation. One obvious way is when the powers available to police officers are used in committing crimes that have direct victims. One example of this is outright stealing from individuals and businesses. This usually entails officers using their access to certain areas, such as unlocked shops, crime scenes or vehicle compounds, to help themselves to various goods. Officers have also been known to collude with professional criminals in operations such as car hijacking rings. Such cases, as Gauteng anti-corruption unit (ACU) Senior Superintendent Adrian Eager points out, are "particularly perturbing as some of [the] vehicles are obtained" by methods "which could involve murder."5 In such a case, police officers need to realize that they are not just using their powers to rob people, but, by giving police assistance to these operations, are also guilty of complicity in the assault and sometimes murder of the car owners. Another example where officers are only one step removed from the shooting or killing of people is when they sell firearms from police storage or when they rent out their own issue for a brief period.6

Another form of victimisation relates to the investigation of cases and the securing or providing of evidence. When police officers use "illegitimate methods" - such as lying about the circumstances surrounding an arrest or tampering with evidence - simply in order to secure convictions and falsely enhance their performance it must be viewed as corrupt. (In circumstances where such illegitimate methods are used in building cases against legitimate suspects, the use of such methods is still an offense; but since it is no longer motivated by personal gain, it is not, according to the definition being used, corrupt.) Such actions may result in the unlawful arrest or conviction of possibly innocent defendants. An example is the case of the junior examiner in the Western Cape who allegedly mismatched numerous fingerprints in order to provide "favours" for detectives, by helping them to falsely "build stronger cases."7 Another instance is what is referred to as "verballing" among police officers in Queensland, Australia - when the police corroborate earlier falsifications or fraudulently strengthen the case against the defendant by lying in court , knowing that their credibility as officers will give their testimony more weight than that of the accused.8

There are other cases of perjury that are forms of corruption and result in direct victimisation. As mentioned earlier, even though racist or brutal acts committed by police officers are usually not, strictly speaking, forms of corruption (as they result in no obvious gain), they are instances of victimisation. Thus, when an officer covers up for such behaviour by committing perjury, such as by claiming that the victim resisted arrest or was abusing the officer, it is not only a corrupt act (as the officer is gaining by avoiding personal harm), it is also a part of the victimisation process.

The practice of receiving kickbacks is one that is often viewed as victimless. However, besides the fact that certain businesses or people are not given a fair chance to compete for work, kickbacks can also have other, very direct victims. One type of kickback, discussed by James Morton in his look at police corruption in Britain, was when police officers in London would use their considerable "influence over the distribution of legal aid work" to direct cases to specific lawyers, in return for money or other payment or favours. One result of this practice was that lawyers had to be wary of offending, or being "hostile" to the police, and make sure that they "let the police officers down lightly if there were discrepancies in their evidence." In one instance, a "young solicitor who had given the police a hard time whilst defending and obtained an acquittal" was told by a senior partner that "he had received a call from a senior officer reminding him that the firm also relied on the police for their prosecution work."9 In effect, their ability to effectively do their job was compromised, with their clients, the defendants, being victimised. Also, kickbacks that officers receive from businesses such as towing operations or car garages can also lead to victimisation, with officers seeking, or even manufacturing, violations to enforce for the sole purpose of making corrupt funds One example, also from Morton's study, was of officers seeking out and citing vehicle owners for infractions such as driving with worn out tyres and, rather than handing out fines, giving them warnings and directing them to "a co-operative garage", one that gave the police regular payments.10

The extortion of money by police officers is also an overt form of victimisation. Here, police powers of enforcement or police authority may be used in committing a corrupt act. One example of this is the allegation that some police officers in the US Virgin Islands "routinely shake down prostitutes" and "illegal aliens", extorting money from them "by threatening to turn them in to the Immigration and Naturalization Service."11 A South African example of extortion was an incident where five officers used their police authority in allegedly falsely informing a man that "his vehicle had been used in a crime and would have to be confiscated", seizing his car and demanding R6000 for its return.12 Also, when officers refuse to do their jobs, or suggest that certain tasks will not be done, or done properly, unless the person needing police assistance "greases the wheel", they are certainly victimising the hapless citizen.

One final instance of direct victimisation is the case of police officers siding with, and often providing police powers to, "favoured" people or businesses, usually ones that provide some goods (eg. free meals, drinks), when they are in conflict with other citizens. There are reported cases of, for instance, police officers serving, in effect, as security or bouncers for businesses like pubs or restaurants and helping such establishments "take care" of troublesome customers.13 In such cases, it is clear that such customers are being victimised with the police taking a particular side rather than acting in terms of the principles of law enforcement.

"Fostering impunity" here refers to those situations when corrupt acts committed by police officers serve to provide those who have violated the law with immunity against having the law properly enforced against them. This occurs when perpetrators of specific criminal acts are able to receive lighter punishments, or avoid punishment altogether, for their crimes. In assisting such perpetrators, police officers obstruct the criminal justice process and contribute to further injustice done to the victim. Such practices should therefore be understood as amounting to a form of secondary victimisation.14 Reports of police commanders interfering in investigations, to the point of travelling to other jurisdictions to have cases against powerful criminals quashed, are instances of this type of secondary victimisation. Also, every time an officer sells or destroys a docket, s/he has become an accessory to the crime (which could be murder) allegedly committed in that case. The same goes for those who assisted in the escape of Josiaha Rabotapi, a man "wanted in connection with 16 murders and 13 armed robberies."15 Finally, a more subtle way of helping offenders escape the consequences of their acts is for officers to "make a bad case", one that they know the defence can exploit, or to intentionally perform in court in such a way as to help the defendant's case.16

In connection with the above forms of obstruction of justice, a further consequence of this fostering of impunity is the damage it does to other police officers' morale. When officers committed to catching perpetrators and solving cases see their work undone time and again by other officers, it cannot but have devastating consequences for morale. Even if officers are unaware that it is other police officers who are undermining their work, simply witnessing the neutralisation of their efforts can lead to considerable frustration and despair. As one victim of a car hijacking put it when the alleged perpetrators was set free soon after "quick detective work" had led to their apprehension: "the detectives were very excited about the bust. I feel sorry for officers who had worked so hard to catch these guys, but how can you lose high-priority criminals like that?"17

A further form of fostering impunity is when police protection of offenders becomes more regular or systematic. Often, such corruption is linked with organised crime rings such as drug syndicates. Here, the fostering of impunity has at least two major effects. First, it allows drug traffickers (or car hijackers or firearms smugglers) to consistently evade law enforcement and thus more effectively run their operations. Thus, police officers are directly complicit in the devastating harm that drug trafficking (or other organised criminal activity) causes a community and its members. Second, it is certainly not unknown for those who deal in drugs to be engaged in other criminal activity, often in the course of running their business, such as racketeering, armed robberies and murder. By allowing these criminals to remain at large and by giving them the message that they are immune from being brought to book, corrupt officers are actively facilitating the committing of these crimes. In Latin American countries such as Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, where such police collusion with drug cartels is believed to be rife, it can reach the stage where the criminals are viewed as "more powerful than government". Here, the consequence of fostering impunity is "that the drug barons are not simply above the law - they are a law unto themselves."18

Of course, granting immunity through corrupt acts is not limited to police interactions with those commonly perceived as serious criminals. A less obvious, seemingly more benign or even innocent case would be traffic officers who solicit or take bribes for not enforcing traffic violations such as speeding. Such corruption may be justified or rationalised away as not having a victim or any negative consequences, yet it is a perfect illustration of the negative consequences of corrupt acts which foster impunity. The fact is, every time it is done, it contributes to a culture of lawlessness on the road, or at least an attitude that the laws need not be taken seriously. However such laws exist for a reason - to ensure road safety. If they can be flouted with relative ease, it contributes to a decreased level of respect for the rules of the road and may lead to an increase in hazardous driving and traffic accidents. Such long term consequences of corruption are no less real or damaging for being more removed from the individual act and need to be understood by officers whose job it is to ensure that laws aimed towards the security of people are not violated with impunity.

Connected with the above point is the more general impact that acts of favouritism may have on police, and public, perceptions of the law. When people such as politicians, police officers in general and friends of police officers are seen to be given favourable treatment with regards to the enforcement of violations of the law, this feeds into a culture of impunity. In the words of one analyst, such treatment increases people's perceptions of "the fallacy of impartial law enforcement."19 The law is seen to be malleable, not fairly applied to all and thus applicable only to those without influence or connections. These perceptions may have the reverse effect of Robert Klitgaard's "fry the big fish"20 approach to combatting corruption. Klitgaard recommends that to effectively send the message to the general public that corruption will not be tolerated, one needs to expose and prosecute prominent people in a society who are guilty of corruption, thereby making it clear that no one is above the law. The granting of immunity to some may have the opposite impact of undermining the legitimacy of the law, in effect contributing to a view of the law which sees it as applying "just for the little guys"21 and an attitude which views getting caught, not the actual infractions, as being the problem, or something to avoid.

This category refers to instances of public resources, in the form of police time, property or person power, being stolen, misdirected or unfairly allocated, thereby draining the resources available for proper or legitimate law enforcement ends. Often, the end result of this is that the overall efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice system is hampered. One example of this is when business owners, such as those operating a restaurant or pub, provide police officers with "perks" such as free or discounted meals or drinks and in return get more visits and protection from the police. In effect, they buy more service from the police, causing an improper distribution of police resources which results in other businesses or community members being treated unfairly and not receiving adequate police services. Furthermore, when this type of misallocation becomes even more serious, such as the case of some police commanders in Mexico selling "security services", in the form of on duty officers working as private security guards, to "merchants and bankers", it is no longer just a case of some favourable treatment towards a few businesses. Rather, it is clear that the policing resources, which are paid for with public money, are being diverted for entirely private ends.22

The selling of police resources can reach the point where legitimate police services are used for improper or even illegal ends. Examples of this are incidents uncovered by the Mollen Commission on corruption in New York of on duty officers using their uniforms or police vehicles to provide protection and escorts for drug transactions.23 This entails police powers being corruptly used for the pursuit and facilitation of criminal activity and while it goes beyond the diversion of resources, such diversion is one of its negative consequences.

Another example of this kind of diversion of resources is the case of Australian politicians in the 1970's using the police for "surveillance of troublesome politicians and other opponents of the ruling regime."24 However, in this case, when such subversion of police powers takes place within the context of a broader misuse of the police, it is unclear if individual officers were necessarily acting corruptly, as they may have simply viewed these tasks as part of their job, with no extra personal incentive or reward. Nevertheless, it is clear that such a (mis)use of the police still results in a form of misallocation or diversion of resources from legitimate to illegitimate ends.

Some other forms of misuse of resources should also be mentioned at this point. Forms of misconduct such as sleeping on the job or absenteeism also serve as a drain on police resources and are therefore similar in impact to cases of "diversion". While such actions may not, strictly speaking, be defined as corrupt (since neither really uses any form of occupational power), they do reduce the ability of the police to operate effectively and, as a result, also deprive the public of services that have been paid for.

One final set of practices in this group are more general forms of "office" corruption that involve the abuse of powers not exclusive to the police. One example, cited by James Morton in his survey of police corruption in Britain, is of senior officers using workers, such as gardeners, who are being paid with police funds, to do private work.25 In Victoria, Australia, as a response to large sums of cash being stolen by police from the pool of lost money turned in by members of the public, one police department simply "covered the losses through its general budgetary process allowing the thief to escape with the cash."26 Here, both the theft and the decision to not cover up for the perpetrator resulted in a misuse of public resources. Finally, outright theft from public resources, such as the alleged collusion between a police inspector and a community policing forum member in the Northern Province to embezzle money from a "peace rally fund"27 is a further example of the corrupt depletion of public resources.

This section discussed those "less direct"effects that most corrupt acts have in common. Such effects are not so much about any identifiable victims being harmed but rather have more to do with negative consequences for the organisational culture of the police and the relations between the police and the public. The costs discussed here are perhaps less immediately perceptible, but no less significant. They damage areas such as the morale of honest officers, the level of integrity of the police and the degree to which citizens are willing to co-operate with the police. Thus their impact needs to be seen in a broader context.

One of the most universal and damaging effects of corrupt acts, especially of those viewed as "petty" or without victims, is that any one act contributes to an attitude or culture which is conducive to future acts of corruption. Every instance of corruption bends or violates a rule or law and, similar to the granting of impunity, may contribute to an officer's perceptions of the law as applying differently to different people and increase the ease with which violations can be rationalised. Lawrence Sherman points to this in his study of how officers become corrupt. He espouses what may be called an "evolutionary view" of corruption, where there is a progress in "moral depravity" with a corrupt officer beginning with minor acts and possibly ending up committing major violations.28

The first opportunities for corruption that an officer is exposed to and may take advantage of are usually what are viewed as minor violations - such as petty theft from a store that has been broken into or a small bribe for not enforcing a parking violation. An officer may justify such corrupt acts as having no "real" victim and therefore harmless. However, it is here that an officer's self-image can begin to change, from an honest person committed to upholding the law to one that may sometimes break a rule or two her/himself. With each infraction, further violations become more palatable and gradually, more serious crimes may be able to be rationalised. For example, an officer who regularly commits "harmless" thefts from crime scenes or drug busts is more likely to "take the next step", such as soliciting corrupt funds for protecting illegal gambling rackets, than an officer who refuses the initial opportunities. A little over a year ago, there was a story in Business Day of an officer who was found guilty of "violating a corpse by removing its heart" so that he could sell it.29 Once an officer has undertaken such an overtly pre-planned activity, one that required more than just taking advantage of opportunities that came his way, one wonders to what degree he is still able to retain any moral constraints on his actions or still view himself as having sufficient integrity to be a police officer.

A similar point has been made by many analysts with regards to the progression of vice-related corruption as well as its connections with other corrupt acts with more direct victims. Sherman asserts that the process between taking a bribe for allowing a bar to remain open for an hour longer to accepting money for allowing drug deals is a gradual one filled in by steps such as "looking the other way" for prostitution and gambling offences in return for a pay-off.30 With each step, a more serious (from the officer's point of view) violation is overlooked and rationalised by being victimless and thus "ok" to not enforce. What may happen is that eventually an officer's frame of reference has changed so much that an activity once thought unimaginable (i.e., "helping drug pushers")31 may become acceptable. Even within the parameters of colluding with drug syndicates, there are degrees of wrongdoing, degrees that can eventually become blurred. As David Sisk has pointed out, officers who initially draw the line at accepting bribes for not enforcing laws dealing with the possession or selling of drugs may soon be induced to "promote the criminal organizations" that pay such bribes and "such promotion will include a reluctance to enforce laws against crimes with victims when committed by these same organisations."32

Besides changing an officer's self-image or perception of what is acceptable, petty corrupt acts can lead to more serious ones in other ways as well. One way is when the giving and taking of bribes becomes so routine or common that it is almost expected. A range of activities, such as kickbacks from towing operators and legal firms, bribes for speeding up firearm license applications or paying commanding officers in order to receive vacation time (as happens in Mexico city),33 can contribute to such an atmosphere flourishing. Even "gifts" from members of the community, where no exchange takes place (i.e., the officer provides no immediate service for the gift), can lead to an officer becoming accustomed to receiving "perks" or payments in the course of her/his job. As the National Director of the Anti-Corruption Unit Stefan Grobler points out, officers find it very easy to adjust to having a higher income, to the point where they may become dependent on corrupt funds to maintain their lifestyle.34

In addition to the effects that committing corrupt acts has on an officer her/himself, it also has an impact on the general culture of a police organisation. Each time an officer commits a corrupt act in front of other officers, the group's tolerance level for such behaviour may increase. By taking small kickbacks or bribes or engaging in petty theft, corrupt officers send out a message to each other that such behaviour is acceptable and perhaps even encouraged. These messages or signals help officers "size up" others in the organisation, differentiating between those who will commit corrupt acts and those who will not. Furthermore, they affirm the attitude that "the formal rules", either of society or of the police organisation, "are largely a sham". Instead of such rules, what is to be followed is the informal "code" of the sub-group of peers that often forms the most important reference group for an officer.35 Petty corrupt acts also play an important role in socialising new recruits into this sub-culture. An illuminating example is provided by one former officer who, on his first shift, witnessed his "old timer" partner steal "25- or 30-cent candy bars" from the supermarket. Upon entering the patrol car, the partner insisted he share in the "loot" and told him that "everybody did it and that [he] should get used to it."36 In such a case, where the value of the goods being stolen is so small, it is clear that the importance of the act is as much symbolic as it is material. Also, once an officer has committed a corrupt act, no matter how petty, her/his willingness or ability to expose or discuss the corrupt activities of others may be severely diminished.

The ability of the behaviour of corrupt officers to "convert" those officers seeking to remain honest should not be underestimated, particularly where such behaviour is part of the culture of a particular police department. First, it scarcely needs to be pointed out that seeing their peers commit even minor acts of corruption can have a devastating impact on the morale of those officers who are committed to upholding the law. Second, by not going along with such corrupt activities, honest cops risk alienating themselves from their peers, a dire consequence indeed in such a close-knit occupation, especially when one considers that there may be situations when an officer's life may depend solely on the support provided by her/his peers. This isolation from one's peers and the low morale of an honest officer may be further compounded by the fact that an honest cop, by refusing to "play by the rules", can be hindered in her/his career advancement. More than one observer of police culture has noted the kinds of demotions, transfers and menial tasks that are the lot of an honest officer, largely as a result of the fact that they make the "wrong" arrests (i.e., enforcing violations against those who pay bribes or are influential) or do not go along with other officers' thefts and graft.37 In addition to the damage this does to an effective officer's productivity, such ostracisation may also lead to an honest officer, after considerable resistance, becoming corrupt.38

It should be noted that, in respect of the above processes of how corrupt acts become acceptable, forms of police misconduct other than corruption can also play a significant role. The Mollen Commission found that in addition to encouraging junior officers to steal or take bribes, senior cops socialised new recruits into a culture of breaking the rules by encouraging them to engage in acts of brutality, "as a rite of initiation to prove the officer is a tough or 'good' cop",39 i.e, one that plays by the rule of the peer group. Also, infractions committed by officers in an effort to do their jobs (which can be described as the use of "illegitimate means for legitimate ends"), such as lying in a police report in order to establish grounds for searching a suspect, may also lead to police officers viewing the law as not applying to them. One former detective in New York, Robert Leuci, claimed that it was such "well-intentioned" infractions which were his introduction to rule-breaking, but that they soon became "a casual thing" and not long after, he had "graduate[d] to bigger crimes" for personal gain.40

One other type of corruption which has a strong impact on spreading a culture of corruption, or at least allowing corrupt activities to flourish, is when officers collude in the covering up of corrupt acts. This can take a number of forms, from acts of misconduct, such as not properly following through on investigations or "burying" troublesome files (i.e., those cases that suggest some police involvement in corrupt acts), to illegal acts such as perjury. The motivation for such actions may vary. It may be personal gain in the form of an officer helping out a friend. Or it may be a kind of organisational gain, in the form of a general recognition and acceptance among the police that cops are to be given special treatment - treatment bordering on immunity from law enforcement. Or, as perhaps is often the case, such interference may be the result of a desire to try to avoid damaging publicity, either for a specific unit or for the police service as a whole. In any case, such actions are corrupt. Officers cannot decide whether or not a certain investigation ought to be pursued based solely on its possible negative consequences for their friends or for the police in general. By using police powers such as access to documents, influence over other officers or credibility in a court of law in order to effectively undermine an investigation they are guilty of, at the very least, serious misconduct and often of committing criminal acts. As asserted by the Mollen Commission, it is very unlikely that corrupt officers in New York would have been able to operate effectively without the collusion of usually honest cops such as commanding officers and those in the internal affairs department involved in the "burying" of files and the obstruction or prolonging of investigations involving corrupt activities by other police officers.41

One impact that basically all corrupt activities have is that they decrease public trust in, as well as respect for, the police. Any corrupt act - from citizens witnessing minor kickbacks (eg. from tow truck operators) or "gifts" given by business owners, to reports in the press of bribe taking or collusion with criminal syndicates - reduces the confidence people have in the fairness, integrity and honesty of police officers. Recently, a police inspector in Mpumalanga was found guilty of a variety of "petty" corrupt offences such as demanding "brandy and bags of peanuts from job applicants and residents applying for firearm licenses". The magistrate who sentenced him stated that, rather than inspiring confidence among citizens in the police, the former inspector "ha[d] convinced people that it is simple to buy the police" and that "his actions destroyed his community's trust in the police and the law".42 The damage that corruption does by reducing public confidence in the honesty of the police has a few different consequences.

Perhaps the most severe harm that a decrease in public trust of the police has is that it causes a deterioration in relations between citizens and officers and, as a result, reduces the effectiveness of policing in a community. As Mpumalanga Police Commissioner Alfred Malete has stated, a large number of arrests are "made due to the community co-operating with [the police] or reporting crimes to [the police]".43 Without such public involvement, police efforts in fighting crime are severely hampered. A case in point is the San Jose police department, who, before Joseph McNamara became police chief, had very poor relations with the city, marked by distrust and animosity on both sides. As McNamara states, officers needed to "realize that unless people reported crimes, provided evidence, served as witnesses and - when on juries - believed police testimony, criminals would not be convicted." It was only after efforts were made to repair relations between the public and the police that "the police made more arrests than ever and crime decreased to the point that San Jose became one of the safest large cities" in the United States.44

Thus, given the importance of public assistance to the police in fighting crime, it is easy to see the detrimental effect of police corruption. Perceptions of corruption result in a lack of trust in the police service. A poll taken last year revealed that 67% of respondents believed that members of the SAPS accept bribes and over half said that they felt "that the police lack credibility" and view them as being "corrupt and having no integrity".45 If people lose faith in the integrity of police officers, the amount of cooperation the police receive from the public also decreases. This can reach the point "where many people don't even bother to report many criminal activities"46 to the police, having no confidence in either the abilities or commitment of officers to solve cases. Perhaps the following statement referring to the impact of corruption on police community relations in the US Virgin Islands puts it best: "Public distrust of officers often means that victims and potential witnesses don't come forward and criminals go free."47

Another impact of the lack of public trust in police officers that occurs as a result of perceptions of corruption is the decrease in credibility that police officers have as officers of the court. As the Mollen Commission states, the impact of this on the performance of the criminal justice system "can be devastating." Public trust "in even the most honest officer" may be eroded, leading "the public to disbelieve police testimony" with the result being that "the guilty [are] set free after trial."48 Last year this scenario played itself out in the city of Philadelphia, with over one hundred convictions "overturned in cases involving six police officers who pleaded guilty last fall to corruption charges." As a result, one district attorney asserts that many "current cases that should result in convictions [are] being dismissed because juries and defense lawyers [are] increasingly questioning the integrity of police officers."49 To cite one more example, in the US Virgin Islands, "charges of corruption on the force are so widespread that defense attorneys routinely try to discredit police officers testifying in court."50

In understanding the impact of corruption on officer-citizen relations, one also needs to consider the role it plays in influencing police perceptions of their relationship with the rest of society. Many students of police culture have noted an "us. vs them" mind set being common among police officers.51 The secrecy, stress and danger of police work leads to an insular and close-knit occupational culture that results in a strong distinction being made between members of the police and regular citizens. Such a distinction often entails some officers seeing "the public as a source of trouble", or even as "the 'enemy'",52 and thus isolating themselves and their peers from the rest of society. This division may be further entrenched by a perception on the part of some officers of public animosity towards the police. Thus, any time an officer feels hostility from members of the public, her/his allegiance and loyalty to the community of officers may be strengthened and her/his ties with the community outside of the police weakened.

Corruption can be both a result and a cause of this separation of the police from society. The isolation of the police can lead to a divergence of officers' values from those that the rest of society at least professes to uphold. It may also result in a lack of recognition of, or concern over, the harmful effects that corrupt acts have on society. Thus, it can make committing such acts easier to rationalise or justify. At the same time, every instance of corruption can further reinforce the distance between society and the police by increasing public hostility and distrust towards the the police. Also, every time an officer commits a corrupt act, s/he may be affirming yet again her/his status as an outsider who follows the informal rules of a corrupt peer group, .not the formal rules of society. Thus the relationship between an "us vs. them" mentality among the police and incidents of corruption can be a circular one. As long as officers play by the rules of their peer group and the public continues to negatively label them, any rapprochement between the two is unlikely. A final point, perhaps particularly relevant with regards to South Africa, is that the negative labelling by society may be even more damaging if the police feel it to be hypocritical. That is, if there exists a feeling that most members in society also view the formal rules as being a sham, and act accordingly, then the police may feel even greater embitterment for being singled out and judged by a double standard.

A better understanding of the many effects of police corruption gives us a clearer motivation for why it ought to be combatted. Does it also provide some indications as to how one may be able to address the problem? Before concluding, I would like to suggest a few ways in which it may. First, in term of the implications of this analysis for the efforts of bodies such as the ACU, a few suggestions may be put forward. In an interview, Director Grobler stated that the ACU's priorities are those corrupt acts which have the most detrimental impact on the criminal justice system.53 Judging by the actual operation of the ACU, these would seem to be generally those identified in the first section under "at whose expense", such as the sale of firearms, docket theft or collusion with car hijacking rings. It is suggested that other practices identified in this section, such as the falsification of evidence or testimony, receiving kickbacks from legal firms or the receipt of payments from private businesses should also be listed as priorities, if there is evidence of their occurence.

In addition, while it is certainly appropriate that the ACU focus on these forms of corruption which have the most serious and direct short term consequences, one also needs to consider a few questions: To what degree are the more serious corrupt acts the end result of a process of becoming corrupt? Is their existence facilitated by an acceptance or tolerance of more petty forms of corruption? Of course, one needs to recognise the devastating and direct impact that more serious forms of corruption have on individual victims and the functioning of the criminal justice system and thus make attempts at curbing such corruption. However, some unit or body, perhaps the ACU, also needs to take responsibility for addressing other forms of corruption which may have longer term effects. If as, Director Grobler has stated, the primary concern of anti-corruption work is to combact corrupt acts "which have an impact on the way officers do their jobs",54 then there certainly needs to be a recognition and prioritisation of the need to address the earlier acts which may lead to the more serious ones.

In addressing these earlier acts it will not only be necessary to make use of investigative measures. Longer term strategies - such as education and in-service training - are also needed. Arguably some of the resources which are spent on lengthy and expensive investigations might be better utilised in training, education, increasing accountability or closer supervision, especially during an officer's first couple of years on the service?

In particular the training of recruits should focus more on discussing the effects of, and likely opportunities for, engaging in corruption. Especially with regards to the spreading of a culture of corruption, through "petty" or apparently victimless corrupt acts or the receipt of seemingly innocuous gifts, recruits need to be alerted properly about the possible complexities and moral risks that they will face in their line of work. In the words of Director Grobler, new officers have to recognise the "red flashes" or be able to hear the "alarm bells" of corruption very early in their careers.55 One of the major purposes of this paper was to assist police officers in recognising the very serious consequences of corrupt actions. If police officers are able to recognise these consequences this recognition may serve as a preventive measure against corruption, particularly if officers internalise the view that corruption does indeed have victims and that even minor acts can have a very damaging impact on how they do their job.

Finally, as was noted by the Mollen Commission, honest police officers are among the most important resource in the fight against corruption. They may be witness to a variety of corrupt acts and experience first hand the very damaging consequences of corruption. Thus, they have both the opportunity and the motive to speak out against corruption. However, as we have seen, one of the effects of corruption is the way in which it ostracises and may silence honest officers, especially in situations where commanding officers are acting corruptly by "looking the other way" with regards to corrupt cops. Thus, a major task in fighting corruption needs to be to "provide constant support and recognition to officers who, by reporting corruption, choose to do what is right rather than what their [peer group's] culture expects of them." It must be made clear that "those who expose corruption will be rewarded, and those who help conceal it punished."56 Honest officers need to acknowledge the harm that even minor corrupt acts may cause and take steps to oppose each instance which they are witness to.

1 As defined in Collins English Dictionary, 3rd ed., HarperCollins, Glasgow, 1991 p. 39 1.

2 For one example of this, see the review of James Morton's survey of police corruption in Britain, Bent Coppers, by Rudolf Klein in the Times Literary Supplement, 28 January 1994, p. 26.

3 For a discussion of "private" versus "civic" morality, see Loek Halman "Is there a moral decline? A cross-national inquiry into morality in contemporary society", International Social Science Journal, 45, 1995, pp. 426-427.

4 For the purposes of this paper, not only members of the SAPS, but also traffic officers, who fall under local or provincial "safety and security" jurisdiction, are regarded as police officers.

5 Glynnis Underhill and Kurt Swart, "Probe into cop corruption runs into 'obstacles"', Star, 29 June 1996.

6 This example was provided by Stefan Grobler, director of the Anti-Corruption Unit, in a personal interview on 22 May 1997.

7 "Fingerprint scam uncovered", Star, 14 February 1997.

8 Mark Finnane, "Police Corruption and Police Reform The Fitzgerald Inquiry in Queensland Australia", Policing Society, Vol. 1, 1990, pp. 166-167.

9 James Morton, Bent Coppers, Little Brown and Co., 1993, pp. 224-225

10Ibid, pp. 225-226.

11 Mervin Claxton, "Corruption and Disorder: Police Department at Core of Crime Crisis", Public Service, 13 December 1994, online: http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/1995/winners/works/public-service/13corruption.html

12 "Policemen held on charges of extortion', Business Day, 23 October 1996.

13 Morton, op cit, p. 211

14 Sharon Hammond and Justin Arenstein, "Township thugs still have police on their side", Weekly Mail and Guardian, 6 September 1996.

15 Sasha Jensen, "Police helped 'most wanted'", Star, 20 February 1997.

16 Such forms of police "assistance" to defendants and their counsel is discussed in P.K. Manning and J.L. Redlinger's "Invitational Edges", Carl B. Klockars and Stephen D. Mastrofski, eds., Thinking about Police: Contemporary Readings 2nd ed. MacGraw-Hill Publishing, New York, 1991, p. 359.

17 Priscilla Singh, "Suspicion on police after suspects freed", Star, 20 February 1997. 14

18 "Crime and Transformation", Financial Weekly, 24 April 1997.

19 Lawrence Sherman, "Becoming Bent", F. Elliston and M. Feldberg, eds., Moral Issues in Police Work, Rowman & Allanheld, 1983, pp. 253-265.

20 See his article "Frying Big Fish: Campaigns against Corruption", Indicator South Africa Vol 9/No 3, 1992, p. 13.

21 D. Bell, cited in Ellwyn Stoddard's "Blue Coat Crime", Carl B. Klockars, ed., Thinking about Police: Contemporary Readings 1st ed., MacGraw-Hill Publishing, New York, 1983, p. 339.

22 Sam Dillon, "Mexico City Police Fight Corruption Within Ranks", New York Times News Service, 18 October 1995, online: http://www.latinolink.com/mexlOl8.html

23 Mollen Commission Report, Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, City of New York, 1994, pp. 32- 33.

24 Finnane, op cit, p. 164.

25 Morton, op cit, p. 220.

26 Raymond Hoser, "Police Corruption in Victoria", 1996, online: http://www.lexicon.net.au/~adder/vrb1.htm

27 Sello Seripe, "Inspector in scandal", New Nation, 8 August 1996. 1996.

28 Sherman, op cit, pp. 253, 263. It should be noted that Sherman's analysis does not assume that all officers follow this path - he does state the importance of individual differences in background, values and character. In any case, the following discussion only partly draws on his model.

29 Bonile Ngqiyaza, "Body parts judgement", Business Day, 14 March 1996.

30 Sherman, op cit, p. 263.

31Ibid, p. 259.

32 David Sisk, "Police Corruption and Criminal Monopoly: Victimless Crimes", Journal of Legal Studies, Vol. IX, June 1982, p. 403.

33 Dillon, op cit.

34 Personal interview with Stefan Grobler, 22 May 1997.

35 Sherman, op cit, pp. 256-257.

36 Stoddard, op cit, p. 344.

37 For three examples, see Morton, op cit, pp. 229-230, Shenim, op cit, p. 258, and Stoddard, op cit, pp. 344-345.

38 Sherman, op cit, p. 258 and Stoddard, op cit, pp. 344-345.

39 Mollen Commission, op cit, p. 47

40 Sarah Glazer, "Police Corruption", Congressional Quarterly Researcher, 24 November 1995 p. 1046.

41 Mollen Commission, op cit, pp. 90- 101.

42 "Police inspector is jailed for 18 years", Citizen, 18 March 1997.

43 "8 policemen arrested", Sowetan, 18 July 1996.

44 Cited in Glazer, op cit, p. 1049

45 Sharon Chetty, "Police 'not doing enough to fight crime'", Sowetan, 28 March 1996.

46 Angella Johnson, "Police chief is shipped out after R70m thefts", Weekly Mail and Guardian, 29 November 1996.

47 Claxton, op cit.

48 Mollen Conmmission, op cit, p. 43

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Not Victimless: Understanding the harmful effects of ...

State crime – Wikipedia

In criminology, state crime is activity or failures to act that break the state's own criminal law or public international law. For these purposes, Ross (2000b) defines a "state" as the elected and appointed officials, the bureaucracy, and the institutions, bodies and organisations comprising the apparatus of the government. Initially, the state was the agency of deterrence, using the threat of punishment as a utilitarian tool to shape the behaviour of its citizens. Then, it became the mediator, interpreting society's wishes for conflict resolution. Theorists then identified the state as the "victim" in victimless crimes. Now, theorists are examining the role of the state as one of the possible perpetrators of crime (Ross, 2000b) whether directly or in the context of state-corporate crime.

Green & Ward (2004) adopt Max Weber's thesis of a sovereign state as claiming a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Thus, the criteria for determining whether a state is "deviant" will draw on international norms and standards of behaviour for achieving the states usual operating goals. One of those standards will be whether the state respects human rights in the exercise of its powers. But, one of the definitional difficulties is that the states themselves define what is criminal within their own territories, and as sovereign powers, they are not accountable to the international community unless they submit to international jurisdiction generally, or criminal jurisdiction in particular.

As international crimes, a state may engage in state terror and terrorism, torture, war crimes, and genocide. Both internationally and nationally, there may be corruption, state-corporate crime, and organized crime. Within its territorial borders, some crimes are either the result of situations where the state is not the direct criminal actor, e.g. arising from natural disasters or through the agency of bodies such as the police. More usually, the state is directly involved in excessive secrecy and cover-ups, disinformation, and unaccountability (including tax evasion by officials) which often reflect upper-class and nonpluralistic interests, and infringe human rights (Ross, 2000a). One of the key issues is the extent to which, if at all, state crime can be controlled. Often state crimes are revealed by an investigative news agency resulting in scandals but, even among first world democratic states, it is difficult to maintain genuinely independent control over the criminal enforcement mechanisms and few senior officers of the state are held personally accountable. When the citizens of second and third world countries which may be of a more authoritarian nature, seek to hold their leaders accountable, the problems become more acute. Public opinion, media attention, and public protests, whether violent or nonviolent, may all be criminalised as political crimes and suppressed, while critical international comments are of little real value.

Barak (1991) examines recent history through Reaganism and Thatcherism which led to a decline in the provision of social services and an increase in public security functions. In turn, this created the opportunity for injustices and state crimes involving the suppression of democratic functions within the state. As Johns and Johnson (1994) note, "The concern of the U.S. policy elites is not, therefore, with the establishment or protection of democracy; it is with the establishment of capitalism world-wide and with the unimpeded control of resources and markets" (p7) "Panama is an especially good example of how the rollback strategy involves subverting or overthrowing not only governments that are socialist or left-wing but the governments of countries that seek full independence from the economic, political, or military influence of the United States" (pp9/10) But, in terms of accountability, they argue that the coverage of the invasion demonstrated "just how subservient the corporate media had become to the political elite in the United States" (p63) Hence, even in democratic countries, it can be difficult to hold political leaders accountable, whether politically or legally, because access to reliable factual information can be limited.

Within the context of state-corporate crime, Green and Ward (2004) examine how the debt repayment schemes in developing countries place such a financial burden on states that they often collude with corporations offering prospects of capital growth. Such collusion frequently entails the softening of environmental and other regulations. The debt service obligation can also exacerbate political instability in countries where the legitimacy of state power is questioned. Such political volatility leads states to adopt clientelistic or patrimonialist patterns of governance, fostering organized crime, corruption, and authoritarianism. In some third world countries, this political atmosphere has encouraged repression and the use of torture. Exceptionally, genocide has occurred.

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State crime - Wikipedia