Uhhh, HUH???
Let me be the first to say that as a lifetime member of the SC Community, I've been racially profiled SOOOOOOOO many times it's impossible to count all the instances. People of color, the homeless or people who look homeless and youth in this community are espeically vunerable. Too many times I've been on my bike, riding day or night, and a cop pulls me over because supposedly "There's been a robbery in the area..." YEAH FREAKING RIGHT. I'm sick of being targeted for nothing more than my skin color or who I chose to associate with. I've had one SCPD sargent lie and mis-state the facts in a police report he filed after arresting me for some BS reasons. Of course, in the courts eyes it's my word against his, and who do you think the court will believe??? There were numerous witnesses to my arrest and detention but the police report said none could be found. This was BS as a woman stopped in her car and gave a statement to the police as I was handcuffed and detained while waiting for the arresting officer to ID me. Her name never appeared in any of the documents I recieved.

Look, I'm not against every police officer and I maintain a friendship or two with some of SC's finest boys in blue. I know there are a lot of honest hardworking people who really want to just serve their community and I'm fine with them. What I do have a problem with is predatory and racist police officers who think they are above the law or any other form of accountability. Don't forget SC lost its citizens police review committee due to the city's bad financial shape. Yet the actual police budget remains one of the largest city budget items still today. Seen the new SCPD SUV's??? Heard about the massive retirement packages and pensions??? While the rest of the city and its schools suffer, the police budget seems especially off limits and untouchable. There's a scary parralell to the nation budget as well as military spending seems to only go up and remains the federal governments number one expenditure as well.

Shows like Bad Cop No Donut are essential to maintain accountability among police. If police are allowed to act with impunity and cultures of secrecy to protect their own are allowed to exist, then police will have no incentive to behave properly. Too often police behave in an abusive or illegal fashion thinking that it won't come out in court or that the defendent won't recieve adequate legal representation to challenge the violations of ones rights in court. This is especially true if one gets a Public Defender. These over worked civil servants hardly have time to properly address each case and its circumstances. When my case came up over the previously mentioned arrest and false statements by the Sargent, I was bounced from one overworked attorney to the next, with 4 seperate Public Defenders eventually handling my case. 4 lawyers on my case you say, isn't that good??? No, what I mean is that I explained my case and how I felt we could challenge it to 4 different attorneys 4 different times. The best I could get out of them was a misleading plea bargain in which I recieved way more punishment than was told to me that I would recieve. So, after having these lies told in the report, my attorney essentially lied to me as to what the consequences of this plea bargain would be. The attorney said it would be community service and thats it, but the judge added several more stipulations and fines. Again, I don't neccessarily blame the attorney as the judges actions were beyond his control, but it definately sucked to think one thing was going to happen, and then have another happen.

This is just one brief and incomplete example of how the criminal INjustice system works and how we can all fall victims to its corruption and excesses.

Finally, I'd invite Huh to check out the show this week or any other week on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM. The show is also available for download from radio.indymedia.org
Listen to the show and then respond. It's honestly rather disturbing to hear, but important information to put out there at the same time.

Keep watching the cops people, cause you know they're watching you!!!