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Randbrick
Sep 28, 2002

Nonsense posted:

What are the laws surrounding the amount of time you can be held in jail?
Depends on the statute at issue. Sentencing under federal statutes is governed by a labrythine process that is so bizarre and inscrutable that few people can even pretend to understand it. Sentencing under state laws usually boils down first to whether you're talking about a misdemeanor or felony.

At ye olde common law, misdemeanor offenses are punishable by no more than 1 year of incarceration. Felonies at ye olde common law are punishable by anything up to X number of years, usually measured in multiples of five. For example, common law larceny is punishable by up to 20 years of incarceration.

The overwhelming majority of states have largely done away with common law through the implementation of statutory regimes, however, which supplant common law offenses. The only remnant of common law sentencing you'll find in most states is the misdemeanor/felony distinction, which is so ingrained into the American legal system that offenses which are punishable by more than a year are often considered as or treated as felonies for attenuated purposes. For example, if State X criminalizes doing Y with a maximum penalty of 2 years incarceration, and you are here on a green card, then a conviction for Y will be treated as a felony for immigration purposes.

Practically speaking, the laws surrounding what theoretical time you can spend in custody are driven by sentencing guidelines. Many states, in an effort to drive courts to harsher sentences, enacted these back in the 80's and 90's, and actually made them mandatory on state and federal judges. SCOTUS found this practice unconstitutional, however, so now the guidelines remain in "discretionary" form, meaning that a judge is "free" to ignore them.

The amount of time you can reasonably expect to serve on conviction has much more to do with whatever bureaucrats or state authorities decide is appropriate per points-based guidelines worksheets. So, you take someone's prior convictions, add points for that, take whatever features of an offense that particular worksheet page incorporates into the guidelines range, add those up, and so on, until you come to a point score which corresponds to a sentencing range of, say, 1 year and 1 month to 4 years. Then you get a sentence in that range. Departures from the prescribed ranges are exceedingly rare.

Every state and the federal government has a giant web of often overlapping statutes. In practice, what you are actually looking at serving on conviction has far less to do with statutes and laws and other substantive, comprehensible legal constructs, though. Because there is always some wiggle room in what prosecutors can choose to charge and not to charge, it is typically the prosecutor who is invested with the authority to decide a defendant's sentencing range by choosing how they will bring their case to hit whichever checkboxes they like on sentencing guidelines.

quote:

The former is effectively limited only by the length of your life, although jails are holding facilities for short sentences and for people awaiting trial, with sentences longer than a year typically being served in state prisons. For the latter, it depends how quickly the defendant is willing to go to trial. Defendants being held without bond can demand a speedy trial, the federal right to a speedy trial is functionally meaningless and vague but every state usually sets comparatively strict specific limits. For example, in Florida it's 90 days from arrest for a misdemeanor, 175 days for a felony. However, it's very common for defendants to waive their speedy trial rights to get more time to prepare. It's common for accused murderers to sit in jail for years (at their own attorney's request) as their defense is prepared.
I'd correct you. Particularly in the context of the misdemeanor cases, which comprise the overwhelming bulk of actual criminal dockets, the defendant's willingness to go to trial is irrelevant in how quickly a case goes to trial. A defendant, particularly a jailed defendant, is generally ready and willing to go trial ASAP. It is the availability of prosecutors, overburdened court dockets, and testifying officers that causes cases to drag out. I have never in my life seen a jailed defendant unwilling to go to trial on a misdemeanor immediately.

I'd also note that many states have a speedy trial right which only inheres to the defendant's right to plead guilty, especially at the district court/misdemeanant level. That is, you can wait 2-3 weeks for Ofc Soandso's next Friday court availability...or you can plead guilty tomorrow and go home. It's a pretty slick system.

Practically speaking, the enormity of things which act to waive speedy trial is so extensive, and trial and appellate courts so reluctant to recognize speedy trial violations, that the right is almost universally meaningless at the state and federal levels. This is particularly true where prosecutors can simply nolle prosse without implicating double jeopardy, regardless of how much time someone spends in custody before they elect to do so.

Randbrick fucked around with this message at 04:33 on Mar 4, 2015

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prussian advisor
Jan 15, 2007

The day you see a camera come into our courtroom, its going to roll over my dead body.
What kind of barbaric shithole state do you practice in man? I can't conceive of a state system that allows prosecutors to waive a defendant's right to speedy trial on their behalf, or prioritizes witness availability. In Florida, you demand speedy once it has run, and the state has a 15 day recapture period to try you. If it doesn't, regardless of whether it's the state's "fault" or not (witness availability or no free space on a judge's schedule) the case is dismissed with prejudice. Period, no exceptions.

Nolle prosses don't implicate double jeopardy in any American system I'm aware of (jeopardy attaches when the jury is sworn, not when the case is filed,) but if you nolle prosse after speedy has run, you're foreclosed from refilling forever. It's where cases dismissed for speedy trial violations are dismissed without prejudice that the real bullshit begins, but the only system I'm aware of where that happens is the federal one, although I'm sure there are others.

Spun Dog
Sep 21, 2004


Smellrose
http://www.wwltv.com/story/news/local/investigations/mike-perlstein/2015/02/26/charges-crumble-after-cell-phone-video-uncovered/24039559/

So maybe we shouldn't limit the body cameras to cops. Apparently anybody who works with them should also be required to have a camera rolling 24/7. Seems like "Us vs. Them" is a recurring theme in these cases.

Poor guy was delivering a summons to a cop which caused this cop plus several of his co-workers to throw a tantrum in public. He returned home and 20 minutes later the posse rolls up to his house and arrests him on two felonies and a misdemeanor. The alleged charges for the arrest were intimidating a witness, obstruction of justice and battery.

This was all proven false thanks to a family member with a call phone cam who caught the whole exchange, but at least seven people signed off on the false police report as witnesses including the chief and a couple of prosecutors.

Ytlaya
Nov 13, 2005

Rent-A-Cop posted:

I'm interested in why you feel this way. Do you feel like being intoxicated diminishes his responsibility for his actions? Should society at large (via the State) not seek punishment if the victim is uninterested in cooperating with police? Is there something to be said for removing the notably shooty members of our society, if just temporarily, to someplace where they can't get drunk and pop off a few rounds in a convenience store?

I can see why you got that impression from my post, but I'm not saying that he should have been found not guilty. It's more that I can't really feel good about sending him to prison, since it's only very slightly better than doing nothing at all (if that).

As for the intoxication, I only think that it means he shouldn't have been found guilty of attempted first degree murder, but instead should have been charged with a lesser offence, probably attempted second degree murder.

pathetic little tramp
Dec 12, 2005

by Hillary Clinton's assassins
Fallen Rib
Y'all best be reading this here Twitter today, he's posting a shitload of docs from DOJ investigation into Ferguson:

https://twitter.com/WesleyLowery





lol if you're still the kind of baby that thinks police officers are above being stupid, petty, and don't have deep-seated insecurity issues

edit: Dude is not even past page 40 yet and the stuff in there is ridiculous, the ticket-fixing they do for their white friends while fining a black homeless woman over 1000 dollars for improper parking is a good one

edit edit: This is like "black people interaction with police 101":

pathetic little tramp fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Mar 4, 2015

im gay
Jul 20, 2013

by Lowtax
Halfway through the Ferguson report and the information on the revenue generation is quite jarring. A woman had to pay over $1,000 for a minor parking infraction compounded by various fees and fines to help the city raise revenue. She was also denied the ability by the court to make incremental payments.

Randbrick
Sep 28, 2002

prussian advisor posted:

What kind of barbaric shithole state do you practice in man? I can't conceive of a state system that allows prosecutors to waive a defendant's right to speedy trial on their behalf, or prioritizes witness availability. In Florida, you demand speedy once it has run, and the state has a 15 day recapture period to try you. If it doesn't, regardless of whether it's the state's "fault" or not (witness availability or no free space on a judge's schedule) the case is dismissed with prejudice. Period, no exceptions.
Virginia, which is not the best, but also not the worst state in the Union in this regard. The horror stories about de facto due process speedy trial violations hit a definite peak in Mississippi and Alabama, unsurprisingly. Prosecutors, of course, cannot waive rights on behalf of opposing counsel. What they can do, however, is nolle prosse generally at a whim. This is not particular to any given state system.

Defense counsel are generally placed into a procedural posture where almost anything they do other than opposing continuance will in some respect waive speedy trial protections.

Practically speaking, you would need a fantastically inept prosecutor to actually endanger a case by speedy trial when it is so much easier to adopt a catch and release policy.

quote:

Nolle prosses don't implicate double jeopardy in any American system I'm aware of (jeopardy attaches when the jury is sworn, not when the case is filed,) but if you nolle prosse after speedy has run, you're foreclosed from refilling forever. It's where cases dismissed for speedy trial violations are dismissed without prejudice that the real bullshit begins, but the only system I'm aware of where that happens is the federal one, although I'm sure there are others.
A competent prosecutor doesn't wait until after speedy trial timeframes have elapsed to nolle prosse. When their case is unformed, unprepared, or unresearched, they generally offer a plea on the day of trial, with the threat of continuance or nolle prosse if that plea is rejected. The former will hold a client without bond over for at least 2 weeks, while the latter will result in re-arrest and is actually a tangible threat even to a client who has bond. Of course, this will also typically result in a client losing jail credit for time served prior to incarceration on the "new" charge.

I do not mean to say that the nolle prosse implicates double jeopardy on a de jure level. The problem is that courts do not recognize the de facto harm that defendants face in a system where the prosecution has a largely unfettered ability to skirt the actual protections which the 5th Amendment is supposed to guarantee by pressing a reset button on their litigation.

The Constitution may not comprehend that people lose their jobs and their homes by pre-trial incarceration, nor that even a $500 fee on a secured bond is often more than many can afford. But defendants understand pretty well that a prosecutor has the power to simply restart a case if they don't feel like preparing it in advance of trial, and that if they fight those cases they can find themselves arrested again at some point in the near future, with no advanced warning but what the daily warrant report may provide. That is an extremely compelling form of leverage, and the only actual protection against its compulsive force is a trial court level judiciary willing to stand up to the local District/Commonwealth Attorney's office.

ugh its Troika
May 2, 2009

by FactsAreUseless
Isn't Ferguson basically one of those speedbump towns that makes most of it's revenue by hassling people driving through it on their way to other places?

Farmer Crack-Ass
Jan 2, 2001

this is me posting irl

Randbrick posted:

A competent prosecutor doesn't wait until after speedy trial timeframes have elapsed to nolle prosse. When their case is unformed, unprepared, or unresearched, they generally offer a plea on the day of trial, with the threat of continuance or nolle prosse if that plea is rejected. The former will hold a client without bond over for at least 2 weeks, while the latter will result in re-arrest and is actually a tangible threat even to a client who has bond. Of course, this will also typically result in a client losing jail credit for time served prior to incarceration on the "new" charge.

I do not mean to say that the nolle prosse implicates double jeopardy on a de jure level. The problem is that courts do not recognize the de facto harm that defendants face in a system where the prosecution has a largely unfettered ability to skirt the actual protections which the 5th Amendment is supposed to guarantee by pressing a reset button on their litigation.

The Constitution may not comprehend that people lose their jobs and their homes by pre-trial incarceration, nor that even a $500 fee on a secured bond is often more than many can afford. But defendants understand pretty well that a prosecutor has the power to simply restart a case if they don't feel like preparing it in advance of trial, and that if they fight those cases they can find themselves arrested again at some point in the near future, with no advanced warning but what the daily warrant report may provide. That is an extremely compelling form of leverage, and the only actual protection against its compulsive force is a trial court level judiciary willing to stand up to the local District/Commonwealth Attorney's office.

How often can prosecutors hit that "reset button"? Could a malicious prosecutor feasibly re-file charges and drop them as many times as they wished without legal repercussion?

Randbrick
Sep 28, 2002

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

How often can prosecutors hit that "reset button"? Could a malicious prosecutor feasibly re-file charges and drop them as many times as they wished without legal repercussion?
At common law, there is no hard on the number of times a prosecutor can do so. By state statute, that may vary.

In practice, nolle prossequi must be supported by "good cause," which is defined almost entirely by judicial discretion, and is the same basis necessary to sustain a motion to continue.

In theory, a prosecutor could do this indefinitely. The only hard limits are judicial and political -- a judge would have to stand up and refuse to grant the motion(s) to nolle pross, or public pressure would have to bear on the CWA/DA office to stop the practice. Unless a given state's criminal procedure provides statutory protection beyond that, there is no other limit.

Schenck v. U.S.
Sep 8, 2010

-Troika- posted:

Isn't Ferguson basically one of those speedbump towns that makes most of it's revenue by hassling people driving through it on their way to other places?

I don't think so. It's in the St. Louis metro. At one time it was a small town in the vicinity of St. Louis, but the city expanded and eventually engulfed Ferguson. The real issue is that in the 1990 census the town was 75% white and 25% black, then in the 2000 census it had flipped to majority black, and finally by the 2010 census it was ~65:35% black:white. The population was fairly stable over this time, so whites fled as blacks moved in, and this process completely reversed the racial character of the city in the space of 20 years, but the municipal government and apparatus like the police have remained firmly in white hands. It's a black city that is ruled by a white minority due to quirks of its electoral system, and that minority hires out-of-town whites to police the majority black population. This strikes me as an interesting and uniquely American dystopia.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
Wisconsin cop kills a teen

Wisconsin cop kills teen; protests follow
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/07/us/wisconsin-protests/index.html

There are protests but info is still scarce.

emdash
Oct 19, 2003

and?

Vahakyla posted:

Wisconsin cop kills a teen

Wisconsin cop kills teen; protests follow
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/07/us/wisconsin-protests/index.html

There are protests but info is still scarce.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/07/us-usa-police-wisconsin-lawmaker-idUSKBN0M30MR20150307

quote:

A Wisconsin state representative observed incidents that led up to the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black man in Madison, where protesters later gathered at the site of the killing, the lawmaker said on her Facebook page.

Sharkie
Feb 4, 2013

by Fluffdaddy

The president showing up to a Selma memorial but only begrudgingly acknowledging police violence protests is the most American thing I can imagine. Anyone who attends the Selma memorial but doesn't attend protests about current racist violence should be ashamed of themselves.

Thesaurasaurus
Feb 15, 2010

"Send in Boxbot!"

Randbrick posted:

Practically speaking, you would need a fantastically inept prosecutor to actually endanger a case by speedy trial when it is so much easier to adopt a catch and release policy.

A competent prosecutor doesn't wait until after speedy trial timeframes have elapsed to nolle prosse. When their case is unformed, unprepared, or unresearched, they generally offer a plea on the day of trial, with the threat of continuance or nolle prosse if that plea is rejected. The former will hold a client without bond over for at least 2 weeks, while the latter will result in re-arrest and is actually a tangible threat even to a client who has bond. Of course, this will also typically result in a client losing jail credit for time served prior to incarceration on the "new" charge.

I do not mean to say that the nolle prosse implicates double jeopardy on a de jure level. The problem is that courts do not recognize the de facto harm that defendants face in a system where the prosecution has a largely unfettered ability to skirt the actual protections which the 5th Amendment is supposed to guarantee by pressing a reset button on their litigation.

Are you telling us that District Attorneys are getting around speedy trial protections by...dodge-canceling prosecutions? :stare:

Forums Terrorist
Dec 8, 2011

Sharkie posted:

The president showing up to a Selma memorial but only begrudgingly acknowledging police violence protests is the most American thing I can imagine. Anyone who attends the Selma memorial but doesn't attend protests about current racist violence should be ashamed of themselves.

I don't know, I mean when you think about it the police have done more for racial equality in America than any other white organisation

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
A cop stops another cop form being too rough on the suspect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bNfUDQkRPQ

Space Whale
Nov 6, 2014
Has there been any studies, or even attempts (and record of their success) regarding reforming police departments to minimize or eliminate unnecessary use of force, abuses, selective enforcement, open racism, or the like? It's clearly a problem but I've never seen much done about fixing it except "Fire everyone" and "Feds take over."

But what do the feds do? What do the new cops do? How do you pick new cops instead of just getting the same random ones you had before?

Also, has there been any new research on how to productively prevent and stop abuse, be it child abuse, spousal abuse, or any sort of Domestic Violence?

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013

Space Whale posted:

Has there been any studies, or even attempts (and record of their success) regarding reforming police departments to minimize or eliminate unnecessary use of force, abuses, selective enforcement, open racism, or the like? It's clearly a problem but I've never seen much done about fixing it except "Fire everyone" and "Feds take over."

But what do the feds do? What do the new cops do? How do you pick new cops instead of just getting the same random ones you had before?

Also, has there been any new research on how to productively prevent and stop abuse, be it child abuse, spousal abuse, or any sort of Domestic Violence?

Due to the nature of the United States, a lot of the police reform would have to come from the state level. Police training is state-level and most police academies are directly ran by states. Besides that, peace officers standards are also state-based.
Besides that, breaking the white privilege and old money political connections, like in many american institutions, helps. Especially on smaller level and smaller departments.




From the OP:

San Antonio trains officers to handle mental illness calls differently.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...ontent=20140819

quote:

It's almost 4 p.m., and police officers Ernest Stevens and Ned Bandoske have been driving around town in their unmarked black SUV since early this morning. The officers are part of San Antonio's mental health squad — a six-person unit that answers the frequent emergency calls where mental illness may be an issue.

The officers spot a call for help on their laptop from a group home across town.

We had absolutely no training 20 years ago in the police academy on how to deal with mental health disturbances.
- Ernest Stevens, San Antonio police officer
"A male individual put a blanket on fire this morning," Stevens reads from the blotter. "He's arguing ... and is a danger to himself and others. He's off his medications."

A few minutes later, the SUV pulls up in front of the group home. A thin 24-year-old sits on a wooden bench out back, wearing a black hoodie.


And in other news, Richmond CA has tried another approach to police reform, helping people prone to crime instead of punishing them, and it seems to be working.

http://richmondpulse.org/in-a-relationship-with-the-richmond-police-department/

quote:

In the past decade, the police department in Richmond, Calif. has undergone a dramatic transformation. Spearheaded by an openly-gay and white chief in charge of policing this largely African American and Latino city, the changes are now bearing fruit, with crime down and trust between officers and the residents they are meant to protect on the rise. As departments nationwide look for ways to improve community ties in the wake of police killings in Ferguson and New York, Richmond stands as a promising template.

Richmond’s police department is undergoing something of a renaissance these days, thanks in part to decades of reform that have moved the department from its longstanding enforcement-driven model to one that focuses more on building trust with the public.

That transformation was thrust into the spotlight in December when an image of Chris Magnus, Richmond’s white, openly gay police chief, went viral, stirring a national response. In the image, Magnus is seen holding a “#BlackLivesMatter” sign while in full uniform at a demonstration against police brutality. The demonstration followed the acquittal of a white police officer in the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Vahakyla fucked around with this message at 02:59 on Mar 8, 2015

Pohl
Jan 28, 2005




In the future, please post shit with the sole purpose of antagonizing the person running this site. Thank you.

Space Whale posted:

Has there been any studies, or even attempts (and record of their success) regarding reforming police departments to minimize or eliminate unnecessary use of force, abuses, selective enforcement, open racism, or the like? It's clearly a problem but I've never seen much done about fixing it except "Fire everyone" and "Feds take over."

But what do the feds do? What do the new cops do? How do you pick new cops instead of just getting the same random ones you had before?

Also, has there been any new research on how to productively prevent and stop abuse, be it child abuse, spousal abuse, or any sort of Domestic Violence?

There is a ton of research about good policing, theories and strategies to minimize abuse, and a poo poo ton of research on domestic violence. You can't just drop in here and ask if this stuff has been done and expect a few links; you are talking about an overwhelming body of work that has been exhaustively studied and supported again and again. People spend their entire lives studying this stuff.

Edit: I'm not being snarky read this article about homeless services: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free
Crime isn't about people being bad, it is a complicated issue that has a ton of variables.

Pohl fucked around with this message at 03:03 on Mar 8, 2015

Space Whale
Nov 6, 2014
I wasn't asking McGruff to materialize from doggy heaven and take a bite out of crime, dude. I was trying to look at one specific part of crime, that is, the police and the departments they work for, and their current problems, and how to fix them. If I was going to just do research and not talk about it why would I be on this forum?

:confused:

As far as helping the homeless by giving them homes, that's a fix for a problem, which is what I was getting at - and one I'd agree with. I'm glad it's being done and works.

Pohl
Jan 28, 2005




In the future, please post shit with the sole purpose of antagonizing the person running this site. Thank you.
That's the thing. Crime isn't about good and evil; nor is it about a good guy and bad guy. Crime is really complicated.

The things you were asking about are subsets of crime that have a lot of mitigating factors. Domestic violence is a really good example of a complicated issue that can't be explained in a post.

Policing is a very complicated issue, and people can't seem to agree that our modern police shouldn't be shooting people without adequate provocation. The police still treat people like poo poo, they are racist in how they view their communities and how they treat the people in their communities; and they don't seem to ever be penalized for their actions.

It doesn't have to be this way, but it isn't because we don't have enough studies or the knowledge to change it; this is happening because people like it this way. I'm not sure what you are asking for. Are you asking for a field of research and study that says better policing works? There are a ton of studies and field cases that show that to be true. We don't do better policing because our populace likes the current status quo. Well, since police have jailed all the black folk, they started to crack down on whitey. That is starting to piss whitey off.

These murders of unarmed black men are not new, they are just starting to be national news. This behavior by our police is not new... look up excited delirium.


To answer your question, yes, all of that research has been done and it all basically stated that cops suck. Now what do we do about it?

i am harry
Oct 14, 2003

The Guardian posted:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/06/ferguson-judge-owes-unpaid-taxes-ronald-brockmeyer

Ronald J Brockmeyer, whose court allegedly jailed impoverished defendants unable to pay fines of a few hundred dollars, has a string of outstanding debts to the US government dating back to 2007, according to tax filings obtained by the Guardian from authorities in Missouri.
That's what they do here...is this abnormal?..

Pohl
Jan 28, 2005




In the future, please post shit with the sole purpose of antagonizing the person running this site. Thank you.
n/m.

nm
Jan 28, 2008

"I saw Minos the Space Judge holding a golden sceptre and passing sentence upon the Martians. There he presided, and around him the noble Space Prosecutors sought the firm justice of space law."

Randbrick posted:

Virginia, which is not the best, but also not the worst state in the Union in this regard. The horror stories about de facto due process speedy trial violations hit a definite peak in Mississippi and Alabama, unsurprisingly. Prosecutors, of course, cannot waive rights on behalf of opposing counsel. What they can do, however, is nolle prosse generally at a whim. This is not particular to any given state system.

Defense counsel are generally placed into a procedural posture where almost anything they do other than opposing continuance will in some respect waive speedy trial protections.

Practically speaking, you would need a fantastically inept prosecutor to actually endanger a case by speedy trial when it is so much easier to adopt a catch and release policy.

A competent prosecutor doesn't wait until after speedy trial timeframes have elapsed to nolle prosse. When their case is unformed, unprepared, or unresearched, they generally offer a plea on the day of trial, with the threat of continuance or nolle prosse if that plea is rejected. The former will hold a client without bond over for at least 2 weeks, while the latter will result in re-arrest and is actually a tangible threat even to a client who has bond. Of course, this will also typically result in a client losing jail credit for time served prior to incarceration on the "new" charge.

I do not mean to say that the nolle prosse implicates double jeopardy on a de jure level. The problem is that courts do not recognize the de facto harm that defendants face in a system where the prosecution has a largely unfettered ability to skirt the actual protections which the 5th Amendment is supposed to guarantee by pressing a reset button on their litigation.

The Constitution may not comprehend that people lose their jobs and their homes by pre-trial incarceration, nor that even a $500 fee on a secured bond is often more than many can afford. But defendants understand pretty well that a prosecutor has the power to simply restart a case if they don't feel like preparing it in advance of trial, and that if they fight those cases they can find themselves arrested again at some point in the near future, with no advanced warning but what the daily warrant report may provide. That is an extremely compelling form of leverage, and the only actual protection against its compulsive force is a trial court level judiciary willing to stand up to the local District/Commonwealth Attorney's office.

This is one place where California has a great system.
Misdemeanor:
Arraigned in custody (even if you get out later): 30 actual days to a sworn jury panel
Arraigned out of custody: 45 days
Penalty is dismissal with prejudice. No refiles.
Time waivers can be given and withdrawn. If withdrawn, 30 day count down.

Felony:
Pre-lim within 10 days
Trial within 60d of arraignment on info
Penalty is dismissal. 1 refile.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/officer-involved-shooting-reported-in-dekalb-count/nkRZh/

quote:

The GBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, was called in to investigate whether a DeKalb police officer acted properly when he fatally shot an unarmed man, who appeared to be mentally ill Monday, said Cedric Alexander, director of the county public safety department.


Here's what interesting on what the Director of County Public Safety said:

quote:

He said the decision to call in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was in step with a national move toward having independent agencies investigate officer-involved shootings.

Zwabu
Aug 7, 2006

Is there any movement in the Tamir Rice shooting case in Cleveland? Is there any indictment or charge? Any discipline or dismissal of the shooter or just the usual circling of wagons by Cleveland PD?

Eggplant Squire
Aug 14, 2003


Zwabu posted:

Is there any movement in the Tamir Rice shooting case in Cleveland? Is there any indictment or charge? Any discipline or dismissal of the shooter or just the usual circling of wagons by Cleveland PD?

The city pissed off people since in their filing they claim that the kid's actions in the two seconds he had directly caused his death.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/us/cleveland-mayor-apologizes-for-language-used-to-blame-tamir-rice-for-his-death.html

It resulted in a few tone deaf lawyers saying they HAD to say that otherwise they wouldn't be doing their job, to which others said that they could have worded it in a less inflammatory fashion or covered their rear end in a different way since saying an unarmed kid of a race that has historically and presently faces oppression caused his own shooting by a person acting on authority of the state is absolutely ridiculous and acting like people should just suck it up because that's how the Civilized System works is offensive.

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2015/03/citys_disrespectful_response_t.html

Eggplant Squire fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Mar 10, 2015

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
So cops went full retard in Cleveland a while back.

http://www.wkyc.com/story/news/local/cleveland/2015/03/13/michael-brelo-cleveland-police-court/70260726/

quote:

Michael Brelo, the Cleveland police officer facing the most serious charges in connection to the deadly police chase of November 2012, was back in court Friday.

During the court hearing, both sides discussed upcoming dates and proceedings regarding the slated April 6 trial date.

Brelo's attorneys are asking the court to dismiss the charges because he thought his life was in danger when he jumped on the hood of the car and fired rounds into the windshield. Therefore, they argue the shots were fired lawfully.

Brelo, 30, is charged with aggravated manslaughter, accused of firing the last 15 rounds into the vehicle of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams after the vehicle had stopped following the chase.

Both victims died as a result of the 137 shots that police fired.

Five other officers have been indicted for their connection to the chase.




He must've been really scared so that he had to run towards the car and hop onto its windshield.


But then, for the lulz.

quote:

Former SEPTA Transit Police officer who was videotaped masturbating on a Broad Street Line train was convicted Thursday of open lewdness and indecent exposure.


Kevin Fant, 44, worked for SEPTA and was off duty, dressed in a gray hoodie sweatshirt, black biker shorts and black sneakers, when someone videotaped him jerking off.


http://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-pa-masturbating-septa-cop-convicted-20150313-story.html

Vahakyla fucked around with this message at 01:01 on Mar 14, 2015

Cichlid the Loach
Oct 22, 2006

Brave heart, Doctor.
Do not read if you have blood pressure issues. I'm serious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-seven-year-search-for-justice/2015/03/12/b1cccb30-abe9-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html
11-year-old girl reports being gang-raped twice in succession; gets positive rape kit (twice); cops convict her for filing a false report because her interview answers were "inconsistent" and she was "promiscuous." Case closed.

Cichlid the Loach fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Mar 14, 2015

Dr Pepper
Feb 4, 2012

Don't like it? well...

Ok there's no way that some cop wasn't covering for their rapist friend.

Florida Betty
Sep 24, 2004

Cichlid the Loach posted:

Do not read if you have blood pressure issues. I'm serious.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-seven-year-search-for-justice/2015/03/12/b1cccb30-abe9-11e4-abe8-e1ef60ca26de_story.html
11-year-old girl reports being gang-raped twice in succession; gets positive rape kit (twice); cops convict her for filing a false report because her interview answers were "inconsistent" and she was "promiscuous." Case closed.

Ugh, that's so disgusting. I'm reminded of the case in Texas a few years ago where an 11 year old girl was gang raped on camera by 20 guys and everyone in town was angry at her for ruining the lives of so many nice young men. But at least in that case, they were charged and convicted. No girl is too young to be called a slut, apparently.

Harik
Sep 9, 2001

From the hard streets of Moscow
First dog to touch the stars


Plaster Town Cop

Florida Betty posted:

Ugh, that's so disgusting. I'm reminded of the case in Texas a few years ago where an 11 year old girl was gang raped on camera by 20 guys and everyone in town was angry at her for ruining the lives of so many nice young men. But at least in that case, they were charged and convicted. No girl is too young to be called a slut, apparently.

It's unbelievable - in this hyper-tough-on-crime environment, why the gently caress would a DA walk away from multiple slam-dunk felonies with max terms up to life? Who gives a poo poo if she was raped, take the multiple free statutory cases and get the promotion. How awful of a person do you have to be to poo poo on your own career just to spite a victim of a crime?

How integrated are the DC police? I know the residents of DC are majority black, but departments in minority-majority districts seem to love recruiting from the suburbs instead.

Vahakyla
May 3, 2013
DC police are pretty diverse.

Eggplant Squire
Aug 14, 2003


I live in D.C and this is anecdotal but I see a pretty diverse mix of race.

woke wedding drone
Jun 1, 2003

by exmarx
Fun Shoe

Dr Pepper posted:

Ok there's no way that some cop wasn't covering for their rapist friend.

Oh ha ha, there's no need for police to have a personal stake in order to denigrate exploited girls!

Dead Reckoning
Sep 13, 2011

Vahakyla posted:

DC police are pretty diverse.

They're also diverse in the sense that there's the DC Metro Police, and then a passel of Federal police forces and agencies with overlapping jurisdictions.

WhiskeyJuvenile
Feb 15, 2002

by Nyc_Tattoo

Harik posted:

It's unbelievable - in this hyper-tough-on-crime environment, why the gently caress would a DA walk away from multiple slam-dunk felonies with max terms up to life? Who gives a poo poo if she was raped, take the multiple free statutory cases and get the promotion. How awful of a person do you have to be to poo poo on your own career just to spite a victim of a crime?

How integrated are the DC police? I know the residents of DC are majority black, but departments in minority-majority districts seem to love recruiting from the suburbs instead.

MPD officers do not have to reside in DC; however, there is a residency preference that adds points to the rating and ranking score of qualified candidates who live in the District of Columbia.

How are u
May 19, 2005

by Azathoth
This video get posted yet? Cops straight up murder a completely non-violent non-threatening mentally ill man in front of his god drat mother. 10 seconds from the door knock to loving murder.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOfJcYUlqjo

I hate the police so loving much holy poo poo I'm seething.

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Zeitgueist
Aug 8, 2003

by Ralp

Well that looks bad at first, but if you notice how black that guy was and realize that many police are racist cowards, it makes more sense.

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