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| NEWS > 23 August 2006 |
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Police acted illegally suggest
In recent months South West Regional Voices have reported on two blatant examples of anti-white racism practised by South West police forces. In November we reported how the Avon and Somerset Constabulary discriminated against young white job applicants as a matter of policy. We also, a little later, reported on the Gloucestershire Constabulary doing exactly the same thing! These actions making a mockery of their claims to be even-handed, equal opportunities employers and promoting good community relations.
We have this evening received the following communication from our Bristol and... Read more
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Hattiesburg American - Hatties
23 August 2006
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Deputies' actions scar police
Repugnant, repulsive and revolting are just a few choice words that describe the actions of three former Jones County sheriff's deputies accused of misdeeds while they were members of a task force established to ferret out illegal drug activity.
And those are gentler adjectives.
What was once known as the Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force can now go down as a public farce, all thanks to the actions of Roger Williams, 44; Chris Smith, 34; and Randall Parker, 32. On Tuesday, the three former deputies waived their right to a grand jury investigation and agreed to plead guilty to charges ranging from planting evidence to assaulting defendants and embezzlement.
Tuesday, they made their pleas and were released on signature bonds. They will be sentenced in January and could still face a Department of Audit investigation.
What the officers admitted to doing cannot be dismissed as just a few apples gone bad. Through their misconduct, they contaminate the work of all the other law enforcement officers who put their lives on the line every day trying to make Jones County a safer community.
As a result of their behavior, nearly three dozen drug cases involving at least 34 people had to be dismissed because deputies either planted evidence on suspects or tampered with evidence that had been gathered.
The people the deputies are accused of setting up, for lack of a better phrase, are not angels, to say the least. They were suspected in drug trafficking, and they could be implicated in subsequent cases. Jones County Sheriff Larry Dykes believes some of them could be back in court before the end of the year.
That's some consolation but it doesn't begin to address the larger issue. Law enforcement officers, especially those who have been given a special assignment involving illicit drug dealings, hold a high place in the public spotlight. They are seen as the buffer, indeed the last line of defense, between the good and the bad, the law-abiding and the lawless, and right and wrong.
When law enforcement officers cross that line, they not only violate the oath of office they were sworn to uphold but they betray the very trust of the public that depends on their integrity, honesty and their own sense of duty.
J. Ronald Parrish, Jones County assistant district attorney, summed it up best when he explained the damage the officers' misconduct had caused.
"We could not go forward with the cases because there were problems with evidence-tampering and planting evidence on some defendants," Parrish said.
If the officers still don't get it after that, they should try to absorb this. The notion of "innocent until proven guilty" still matters. We are still a nation of laws. What they did was unlawful, and rather frightening.
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