I have expressed this before, that in several posts.
Today I just had to throw something back into the faces of each and every person that has asked me about that in the last few years.
Police arrested man on Most Wanted list—who wasn’t actually wanted
| The Lookout –
According to the Oakland Tribune, 37-year-old Van was named one of Oakland's four most-wanted criminals allegedly for "nearly beating a man to death with a baseball bat in December 2011."
Gawker explains that Van, an accountant, wasn't aware that he was wanted for any crime until a friend told him he had seen Van's name and picture on local news station KTVU in February 2012. Justifiably alarmed, Van went into hiding for a week. He then turned himself in to the police.
According to the Tribune, the police "arrested him and sent him to Santa Rita Jail where he was released three days later" after prosecutors threw out the charge.
While Van was in jail, however, the Oakland Police Department released a statement saying, "One of Oakland's four most wanted suspects has been taken off the streets." It added that Van "is safely behind bars after turning himself in due to media pressure."
Even more bizarrely, after being released, he was kept on the Most Wanted list for six months. Van's attorney, DeWitt Lacy, told the Tribune that "they didn't correct the error and they didn't apologize for it." Lacy described his client as "an upstanding member of the community" who "has always lived a respectable life."
Van is suing for defamation, false arrest and imprisonment, violations of his civil rights and emotional distress. The lawsuit also contends that Van "lives in a state of embarrassment, depression and shame."
In an interview with Courthouse News, John L. Burris, one of Van's attorneys, said, "This is pretty outrageous. We don't know how this mistake was made. We don't know how this happened."
Ok, mistakes can happen, but can they really happen like this
This is not a mistake, but an attitude that is invading law enforcement in the United States. With all the police shows, media, many people are already convicted before they face the jury.
Combine that with police officers wanting recognition for more arrests, bigger paychecks with more arrests and more overtime, more recognition of what a good job they are doing by arresting more people, a good example is the Idaho Highway Patrol officer that arrested hundreds of people for DUI's (even people that don't drink) who got a commendation for officer of the year for the amount of DUI's she got, but is now being sued after they found out that they were all mostly bogus, they look at the attitudes that police and government can't make mistakes and you can see the real concern people have for allowing drones to fly around the US.......
The real sad thing is that Oakland will wind up paying millions of dollars for this mistake, not out of the cops pocket, but the taxpayers.
Just doesn't seem right.
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