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| NEWS > 14 April 2008 |
Other related articles:
Botswana: How Can We Be Surpis
We had it coming. The meagre wages received by the Police make them discontent and prone to corruption. Listening to a radio call-in programme yesterday, caller after caller berated the police for corruption. The callers accuse the Police of being involved in a cattle theft scam.
We don't condone any form of corruption but we can write until our finger tips ache and talk until our voices become hoarse but as long as the cops are paid low wages, the issue of their corruption will only get worse rather than better.
Walk into any Police station and watch criminal file after ... Read more
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 Article sourced from
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TBO.com
14 April 2008
This article appeared in the above title/site.
To view it in its entirity click this link.
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Police Sabotage War On Gangs
t's upsetting that a judge threw out nearly two dozen major gang cases, but the Tampa Police Department and FBI have no one but themselves to blame.
They allowed a confidential informant with a lengthy record to run amok.
The informant, paid $2,400 a month and promised $100,000 upon the conviction of Latin King gang members, threatened individuals into attending the meeting where they were arrested. He even pledged to beat the family members of those who did not attend.
Police knew he was breaking the law and continued to work with him.
So Hillsborough Circuit Judge Daniel Sleet had little choice but to dismiss charges against 23 defendants. They were among more than 50 people arrested in August 2006. Law enforcement officials had labeled the arrests a major victory in the war on gangs.
The dismissals are deserved but don't diminish the need for local officers to keep a lid on gangs, which left unchecked will quickly terrorize a neighborhood.
But the judge's claim that the Latin Kings, a sophisticated national organization, had been dormant locally until the informant stirred things up is unpersuasive. The judge should have talked to the street cops who have had to deal with the gun trading, dope dealing and other crimes associated with gangs in recent years or with residents of affected neighborhoods.
Consider this: At least five of the defendants were arrested on gang-related charges between August 2005 and January 2006, well before the confidential informant was recruited. Two young men were shot to death earlier in 2006 in what police say was a gang-related conflict.
Moreover, some 25 of those nabbed in the August 2006 bust already have been convicted or pleaded guilty. Some are cooperating with authorities. Five charges related to the savage beating of a Latin King member months before the August arrests were unaffected by the judge's ruling and still are being prosecuted.
So the judge's statement is naïve.
But it was equally naïve, if not devious, for police to wave 100 grand in front of a thug and not expect the law to be trampled. Tampa police and the FBI have embarrassed themselves and other agencies - including the state attorney and the sheriff's office - that were brought into the investigation without knowing about the informant's misconduct.
Law enforcement agencies need to aggressively fight gangs. But they need to do it with more far more intelligence than was demonstrated here.
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