Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Monday 19 February 2018

In Baltimore, public trust erodes amid police scandal

By DAVID McFADDEN how reinstated in 2012, he
BALTIMORE (AP) — Confi- was bumped up to the
dence in Baltimore's sworn plainclothes gun unit.
protectors has badly dete- Another ex-detective, Mo-
riorated in recent years, but modu Gondo, was shot
it may be hitting rock bot- multiple times outside his
tom after admissions that home in 2006, just two
corrupt police detectives months out of the police
on an out-of-control unit academy. At the time, a
resold looted narcotics, commander told TV cam-
conducted home invasions eras that the 23-year-old
and falsified evidence. was a "very well-respected
With the city under a fed- rookie," but Rayam told ju-
eral consent decree re- rors Gondo was actually
quiring expansive police shot by fellow drug deal-
reforms, recent courtroom ers. The two ex-detectives
revelations outlining an as- admitted to running inter-
tounding range of abuses ference for a heroin-traf-
by rogue officers stretch- ficking ring that included
ing back to 2008 is making Gondo's childhood buddy.
it far tougher to convince From the stand in U.S. Dis-
people in this starkly divid- trict Court, Gondo testified
ed city that a shiny badge that he robbed money for
promises integrity. This photo combo from images provided by the Baltimore Police Department show from left, De- years, never sweating inter-
tective Marcus Taylor and Detective Daniel Hersl. Taylor and Hersl were convicted of robbery,
The Gun Trace Task Force, racketeering, and conspiracy on Feb. 12, 2018, in a trial that's part of an ongoing federal investi- nal affairs. “It was just part
described by federal pros- gation into corruption among rogue members of the city's beleaguered police force. of the culture,” he said.
ecutors as a "perfect storm" (Baltimore Police Department via AP) Words and phrases that dis-
of corruption, was a more graced detectives used in
chilling reality for some Authorities say they're de- said David Harris, who re- the elite gun unit. federal court to describe il-
residents than any street termined to mend fences searches police behavior DeSousa introduced plans legal police tactics appear
gang. Earlier this week, a in a city struggling with a as a professor at the Univer- for random integrity and to have swiftly made their
jury found two Baltimore corrosive mix of narcotics, sity of Pittsburgh School of polygraph testing and cre- way into the local lexicon.
detectives guilty of rob- illegal guns and despair Law. ated a new anti-corruption Ex-detective Maurice Ward
bery and racketeering in rooted in generational Many locals snort in deri- unit, not only to probe the testified that the rogue unit
an explosive federal in- poverty. But the attitudes sion when asked if they trust activities of the disbanded carried out as many as 50
vestigation that's seen six of the many Baltimoreans city police officers. A state- unit, but also that of a num- “door pops” a night — ac-
disgraced law enforcers who mistrust their law en- house lawmaker this week ber of current officers and celerating their unmarked
plead guilty. forcers has only been rein- even proposed dismantling supervisors whose names vehicles at people hanging
"A lot of people were seri- forced by the scandal. the 165-year-old force and came up in the corruption out on corners, slamming
ously traumatized by these "It's only going to make it rebuilding it from scratch. trial. on the brakes, and chasing
cops," said Akai Alston, harder to build the kinds of Acting Police Commission- While rogue detectives ad- whoever fled.
a 26-year-old youth out- coalitions for public safety er Darryl DeSousa says that mitted to lying for years to They entered homes with
reach coordinator who has that everybody knows Bal- weeding out corrupt offi- cover their tracks, it's an no court approval in illegal
turned his life around after timore needs. It's going to cers will be one of his top open question as to wheth- “sneak and peeks.” Motor-
a grim adolescence deal- make people suspicious of priorities, telling reporters "it er the force's command ists driving what the unit’s
ing drugs and a conviction all officers — not just the sickens me to my stomach" structure had enough in- leader, Sgt. Wayne Jenkins,
for accessory to murder. bad ones — all of them," to see what occurred with tegrity to expose them. In termed as “dope boy cars”
a city obsessed with crime — mostly new model Hon-
Woman killed husband, 2 kids before killing herself statistics, they were praised das — were sought-after
for taking guns off the targets, often pulled over
streets. on false or flimsy pretexts.
KEEGO HARBOR, Mich. (AP) along with 27-year-old Ste- about 20 miles (32 kilome- Yet there was no shortage “I wish somebody told me
— Autopsies show a subur- ven Stuart and 24-year-old ters) northwest of Detroit. of red flags that members I was buying a ‘dope boy
ban Detroit woman fatally Bethany Stuart. A neighbor, Jacquelyn were crooked. car,’” construction worker
shot her husband, son and Investigator Keith Batchelor Tristani, says the family was One task force officer, Je- Russell Anderson quipped
daughter before killing her- tells the Detroit Free Press quiet and that Lauren Stu- mell Rayam, was suspend- as he hopped in a 2017
self. that 45-year-old Lauren Stu- art would occasionally bor- ed for two years after ad- Honda Accord TLX out-
The Oakland County medi- art killed herself with a gun. row tools. She says some- mitting to receiving money side a convenience store.
cal examiner's office says The bodies were discov- times "you don't know your from an $11,000 theft by The illegal tactics were no
47-year-old Daniel Stuart ered Friday at their home neighbors like you maybe another officer. When his laughing matter for Andre
was a victim of a homicide, in Keego Harbor, which is should." q police powers were some- Crowder.q