As reported in this week's DC City Toilet Paper
There is an article on a pending class action lawsuit against the DC Police for the manner in which they hauled and "hog tied" protesters at a World Bank/IMF protest some years back. The police are being sued apparently for getting aggressive and violating people's civil rights of one kind or another. Peaceful protesters with a permit have a right to do just that. They don't get to be "hog tied" by aggressive riot control DC police for loving peace and earth shoes and wearing goofy hats and sandals.
Here is the scandal- in the lawsuit apparently the police records and/or other documentation has been properly subpoenaed and this has uncovered a bag of worms of document mismanagement and lack of proper retention policies routinely practiced by the DC Police. More the rule than the exception it suggests.
This rather sucks (please excuse the vernacular) because if the police can just destroy their records of misconduct then you can never get to the root of the problem and correct it.
This had me thinking along these lines-Gee, if we were a State could they get away with this?
Ms. Cheh, City councilwoman with a prosecutorial background is rightly outraged. But does she have authority to compel a massive Attorney General investigation of the way that the DC Police routinely might destroy suspect records of their misconduct? Note to Holder; special investigation warranted here.
I have had an outstanding FOIA request for police records for about five months and am going to have to take it to Court to get anything at some cost if we decide to go there. This just shouldn't be. FOIAs by the Police should be methodically responded to in a timely fashion within the law or people should get pay docked or something. Destroying documents by the DC police should meet with a higher authority - like the ArchAngel Michael perhaps. Protect us in Battle.
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