Dash cam video appears to show officer planting evidence

[Burgman]

An officer in Utica, New York is being accused of planting evidence — and he was busted by the dash cam in his own police cruiser.

The Utica Phoenix recently obtained dash cam video of a February 11, 2011 traffic stop, where officers Palladino and Padulla search an African-American couple.

At about one minute into the video, one of the officers is seen taking a plastic bag out of his back pocket and seems to place it inside the vehicle. Several moments later, he emerges from the vehicle with a larger plastic bag, presumably evidence.

Utica Police Chief Mark Williams was reportedly contacted by Venice Ervin, chairman of the Legal Redress Committee of the NAACP, about the video.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/03/dash-cam-video-appears-to-show-officer-planting-evidence/

[Laelth]

1. Happens quite often, actually. k&r n/t

-Laelth

[Burgman]

2. But not on camera.

They're getting bolder.

[RC]

3. And dumber.

On their own camera?

[Burgman]

4. really. The stupid ran deep in that one.

[indepat]

5. Enough to make one wonder just how much the planting of evidence by corrupt officers

takes place.

[arely staircase]

6. this guy is too dumb to even be a cop - a profession that

purposefully weeds out smart people during their screening process.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/01/too-smart-to-be-a-good-cop/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DiscoverMag+%28Discover+Magazine%29

[teach1st]

7. To be fair...

To be fair, the full video (the Youtube clip shows just a small portion of actual video) of the bust appears to show the cops pulling a bag of white stuff from the jacket pocket of one of the car's occupants at about 4:35.

http://www.wktv.com/news/local/FULL-DASHCAM-VIDEO-OF-21111-Utica-traffic-stop-136602198.html

It could be that the "plant" shown on the Youtube video is an attempt to put more weight into the bust, who knows? But the full vid shows something being confiscated well before the Youtube portion.

[lindysalsagal]

8. I grew up about an hour west of there, and I can totally

imagine the upstate good old boys doing this.

When Fort Drum opened back up in the early 80's, there was an instant influx of southern blacks into an area that was previously lilly white. Fort Drum's about an hour and a half away, but there's not much up there, so soldiers come down to the center of the state for shopping and whatnot.

I've got relatives who would slap each other on the back and buy those cops a beer for setting someone up just for racial reasons.