Pubdate: Sat, 16 Dec 2000
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2000, The Tribune Co.
Contact:  http://www.tampatrib.com/
Forum: http://tampabayonline.net/interact/welcome.htm
Author: David Ryan, Tampa

VIEW OF LAW ENFORCEMENT

So Hillsborough detective Linda Burton, who was responsible for getting
permission to bug the Eisenbergs' home, "could not explain the discrepancies
between what detectives wrote in the applications and what was written in
other documents" (Nation World,Dec. 15).

Please allow me to explain what she could not, or, more accurately, would
not, explain.

From federal prosecutors lying to judges about the identity of witnesses, to
Florida Highway Patrolmen lying to judges about why they stopped cars, to
numerous other cases of prosecutorial misconduct outlined in The Tampa
Tribune, it is abundantly clear why these abuses occur. Once a person has
been targeted by prosecutors, that person becomes "the enemy" as surely as
enemies are declared in a war.

As in any war, the first priority becomes dehumanizing the enemy in order to
justify the war. The citizen becomes "a suspected child murderer" or "a
suspected drug dealer" or, in the words of law enforcement personnel, simply
"the perp" (perpetrator). At this point justice, truth, legality and
fairness become far less important than winning.

Prosecutors are not interested in justice, they are concerned with their
conviction/acquittal ratio, with getting their backs slapped when they come
into the office and with getting promotions. The goal is crushing, defeating
and destroying "the enemy" by any means possible. If those means include
suppressing evidence, "forgetting" inconvenient details, leaking details to
the press or pressuring witnesses, then so be it.

Just once, I'd like to see a prosecutor prosecuted for trying to convict
someone by illegal means. The most they ever get, however, is the loss of a
promotion or counseling, or a letter in their file. We give prosecutors and
police extraordinary powers, and they should at least be judged by the same
inflexible standards by which they judge others. They should go to prison.
They are simply criminals of the worst kind. I would much rather have my
house burglarized and lose my possessions than to be wrongly prosecuted and
lose years of my life because someone wanted to gain the admiration of his
or her colleagues. To attempt to fraudulently convict someone of a capital
crime is, in essence, attempted murder.
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