A San Diego police department is facing a lawsuit after jailing a man for a month based on a Flock camera alert that cops allegedly should have known, based on the timestamp, did not depict the car that they were looking for.
Last November, Hugo Parra was arrested on felony charges after San Diego police relied on Flock data and a witness statement to wrongly connect him to an attempted carjacking at gunpoint, the Times of San Diego reported. Cops were looking for a red Alfa Romeo car with tinted windows and a man wearing a gray hoodie, and Parra happened to be wearing a white hoodie while riding in a friend’s car that roughly matched the vehicle description.
Although Flock cameras can capture license plate data, cops did not have even a partial plate to help them verify if the car was involved in a violent crime. But the Flock data cops used to justify the arrest actually showed that Parra was five miles away at the time of the crime, Parra’s attorney, Alex Coolman, told the Times of San Diego. Rather than arrest him, cops could have used that data, as well as Parra’s cellphone location data, to corroborate Parra’s statement that he was innocent, Coolman said.
- BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.todayEnglish2 hours
We just had a case in our area of a hot and run accident on the highway with a couple of fatalities. They grabbed up a young woman, and held for 2 weeks, based on a very superficial description of her vehicle, despite the fact that her car had no damage. Eventually other witnesses identified another vehicle, that had been taken in for major body work the day after accident.
The owner of the damaged car was arrested and the wrongly accused young woman was released, and she’s putting together a lawsuit, as she should. They never had any real reason to believe she was the suspect.
2 hoursHere’s a legal tip you likely don’t hear everyday.
Wear clothing worn by a smaller percent. This could reduce the chance of false accusations if you truly are innocent. I mean in this specific case it probally could.
- RabbitBBQ@lemmy.worldEnglish2 hours
In many places, there is no legal obligation for police to collect evidence in your favor, even if they know it exists.
Also, and this is very difficult to accept for a lot of people, but the truth doesn’t really matter in many cases like this. It’s always malicious prosecution because like all of our politicians, the justice system is made up of people who are backed by various financial and political interests. The system makes up its mind for what it is going to determine the truth to be as well as the legal process necessary to get the pre-determined end result. The police, DA, Judges, etc, all work together every day.
You basically have no rights and if you ever call the powers that be out for violating them, they will just throw various forms of immunity back at you… From qualified immunity to sovereign immunity, 11th amendment protections and so on.
The shit you see on TV is just copaganda.
- bitjunkie@lemmy.worldEnglish8 hours
It will be used to “prove” you did something when they want to fuck you over, and it will be ignored when they want to fuck you over.
However, the witness only identified Parra based on superficial features, including “the jacket and the beard” and “the skin color,” the police report said, according to the Times of San Diego.
- 3 hours
That’s approved by scotus, arresting people for skin color is just fully legal now.
- 16 hours
When I lived in San Diego, I got a ticket for not paying the toll on an LA freeway I wasn’t within 100 miles of.
This shit is a fucking trend, everyone. Lucky for me, the person driving that car didn’t murder anyone.
Edit: the car wasn’t the same as mine, and the plate was visibly wrong. Just full on fucking bullshit.
- GarboDog@lemmy.worldEnglish14 hours
Got 2k bill and over due fees over due from the Texas, we’ve never went though a toll in Texas before and at the time we haven’t driven in 2 years while living in nyc
- SupraMario@lemmy.worldEnglish22 hours
“For the law holds, that it is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer"
-Sir William Blackstone
- hirihit640@sh.itjust.worksEnglish17 hours
monkey paw curls
due to the injustice stated in the post, 10 random prisoners will be released
- LastYearsIrritant@sopuli.xyzEnglish10 hours
Odds are that will be a net positive for society regardless of if they were guilty or not. Rehabilitation should be the goal, not retribution.
- Equinox1289@sh.itjust.worksEnglish4 hours
“I support rehabilitation, except for my issue that I personally want retribution for” - average voter.
- felbane@lemmy.worldEnglish12 hours
rabbit’s foot thumps
The ex-prisoners solve world hunger and find a general cure for cancer
- hirihit640@sh.itjust.worksEnglish12 hours
I guess I should have specified “guilty” prisoners to be more in line with the quote
- chiliedogg@lemmy.worldEnglish1 day
These systems are meant to be used against you. Police will never volunteer information that helps you.
- Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish23 hours
Look no further than your Miranda rights: “anything you say can and will be used against you.”
- EvergreenGuru@lemmy.worldEnglish18 hours
In theory the police want to investigate crime and eliminate suspects, but in practice they give up after making an arrest. The access to new technology or information change nothing about this practice.
This is why it’s important to curb these kinds of dystopian surveillance systems in the first place. They change nothing and give reach for further unwarranted intrusions into the lives of citizens. This has been seen as cops using these systems to stalk people.
- halcyoncmdr@piefed.socialEnglish20 hours
Sort of. They are required to provide exculpatory evidence… but they only have to provide that information for the trial so you can prepare your defense, not during the active investigation.
Remember that they’re only “required” if there’s someone there to punish them for not doing it; if nobody who knows about the footage would ever let slip that it exists, then there’s no repercussions at all for not using it. The justice system works on the expectation that someone will find out, but it’s been corrupted to the point where that rarely happens, and those within it understand and exploit that fact. We were lucky to hear about this case. I’d be surprised if it isn’t among many others we’ll never hear about.
- rossman@lemmy.zipEnglish16 hours
i can’t think of any meaningful reform passed that has benefited a citizen. if it did, it’s not enforced enough to be significant. cops have too much power and influence on the courts to ever face accountability. i watch civil rights lawyer and most of the time cops commit crime when it comes to money or avoiding accountability.
- Zron@lemmy.worldEnglish21 hours
Make em get practice insurance just like doctors and nurses, and I think lawyers are also insured for their jobs.
Most professions where you hold the future of another human in your hands require some kind of insurance, except for police. Yet a cop can mistakenly arrest you, drag your name through the newspapers and the mud, hell even shoot you for no good reason, and then walk away like that didn’t just ruin your life just as badly as a surgeon cutting off the wrong leg, or a nurse overdosing you cause they fucked up the math.
Make cops carry insurance. If they can’t afford the premiums or get dropped for being to risky, well then they can go pound sand.
- 1 day
This is an interesting corollary to the “anything you say can only be used against you in court” adage.
- 1 day
The police exist to protect capital and the capital class. They’re not incompetent, they’re doing their job just fine.
- r0ertel@lemmy.worldEnglish23 hours
…and then sue the camera company and then sue the city or property owner that allowed the cameras to be in use and then use the money to buy a politician to write and pass a law to disallow warrantless surveillance.
