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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWitnesses said a bank robber didn't have facial tattoos. So police digitally altered
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/19/portland-bank-robber-facial-tattoos-photoshop-mug-shot/
It would be hard to miss Tyrone Lamont Allens facial tattoos.
The 50-year-olds forehead is covered in delicate script, reaching from his eyebrows to his hairline. A single teardrop appears under his left eye, while his right cheek is unmistakably inked with a looping design.
So when authorities got a tip that Allen was behind a string of bank and credit union robberies in Portland, Ore., in April 2017, there was one major problem: None of the tellers had mentioned seeing any tattoos on the robbers face. Surveillance footage, too, showed a man with no visible tattoos.
Yet, Allen was charged with the crime after police took an unusual step. As the Oregonian first reported Friday, investigators used Photoshop to digitally alter his mug shot, covering up his distinctive tattoos. Two of the tellers, who werent told that the image had been edited, subsequently picked him out of a photo array of five similar-looking men and identified him as the robber.
Now, a federal judge in Oregon is tasked with determining whether that crucial evidence should be thrown out of court, and whether Allens rights were violated. His attorney, Mark Ahlemeyer, argued that the question has weighty implications, given that todays technology makes it easier than ever to manipulate a photograph.
If covering up a suspects prominent facial tattoos is considered fair game, the federal public defender wrote in a recent motion, there would presumably be nothing wrong with adjusting various pixels to make someones face appear slimmer, so long as the governments theory was that the suspect had gained weight since the crime.
When laziness is combined with racism, any black person will do. Especially if he can't afford a good lawyer.
Further down the article the police claim to do this all the time and don't have to report it. There should be laws about this sort of thing.
dalton99a
(81,485 posts)If a witness reports that a perpetrator did not have any front teeth, can the government simply black out a suspects teeth on the theory that it could be done with cosmetics? he wrote. Or if a suspects skin color is too dark or too light as compared to objective video evidence, can the government simply press a few strokes on a computer keyboard and adjust the color to match that objective evidence?
Those questions largely havent been tested in court before, but Allen apparently isnt the only one whose mug shot was digitally altered by the Portland Police Bureau. According to the Oregonian, Mark Weber, the forensic criminalist who painted over the tattoos, testified he had edited other suspects photos for lineups before and didnt write up a report because the police department doesnt require it.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)I am beginning to understand more and more why people literally hate and fear the police, esp. POC.
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)... let people free.
this is so stupid of them
brush
(53,776 posts)How the hell did they think they could get away with that? Eventually the guy's going to show up in court with tattoos on his face.
What was their plan then?
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)I have no words.
Takket
(21,564 posts)Wounded Bear
(58,649 posts)or at least it should be.
IronLionZion
(45,435 posts)it's selectively enforced, so they take a chance on the folks who are represented by an overworked public defender instead of the well paid lawyers.
Sanity Claws
(21,847 posts)The crime was two years ago. If he had the tatoos before then, then the Portland police is trying to frame this guy.
Voltaire2
(13,027 posts)If doctored evidence is allowed, the police are empowered to make the evidence fit their theory. That is ass backwards. Not that the police dont do this all the time, but generally when exposed the evidence is thrown out.
IronLionZion
(45,435 posts)and it sounds like they don't have enough other evidence and depend on the fact that he looks like the perp but with tattoos.
littlemissmartypants
(22,655 posts)It definitely makes it a more complicated situation. Altering the photo is as deceitful as is covering tattoos with make up. One expects more integrity from law enforcement than from a crime suspect. An explanation of the possible inconsistencies in his appearance should be included in the announcement. Or perhaps two photos, one with and one without the tats, with an explanation.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)then we have a pretty big problem on our hands, amirite?!
Fake pictures
Fake DNA
Fake Drugs
How many people exactly are going to prison, losing kids, being MURDERED because of the police?! WTF IS GOING ON?!
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,342 posts)Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)real Cannabis calm
(1,124 posts)If they were new tattoos, these racist cops would have emphasized them.
spanone
(135,831 posts)avebury
(10,952 posts)of a mugshot not constitute the falsification of a public record, and thus be an illegal act?
Caliman73
(11,736 posts)I suppose this is just the next step in the process?
How are we supposed to have any trust in the police when they are allowed to lie to us during questioning, to plant evidence without repercussions, and now to falsify evidence?
I know that the court has already ruled that police are not under any obligation to protect individual citizens. They are tasked with enforcing the law, but how is falsifying evidence enforcing the law?
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,412 posts)but this just paves the way for police to start producing "deepfake" videos too, doesn't this?
uponit7771
(90,335 posts)Progressive Law
(617 posts)Courts have ruled that lying can be a legitimate police investigation technique.
bucolic_frolic
(43,149 posts)you can't convict someone because someone thinks they look like someone, especially since it's an adulterated photo.
Now if other more tangible evidence emerges - fingerprint, money bags of cash, footprint - maybe you have the beginnings of a case.
Did any witnesses think the robber looked like he was wearing makeup? I don't think there are too many guys good with covering up their own tattoos.
TexasBushwhacker
(20,185 posts)Auggie
(31,169 posts)Ilsa
(61,695 posts)witness identification is very unreliable. They just don't remember those details of a face, especially under traumatic circumstances.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)Better to let one hundred guilty people go rather than to jail an innocent one.
cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)then he needs to be freed and I hope he sues the hell out of the police department in civil court.
IronLionZion
(45,435 posts)cstanleytech
(26,291 posts)something else to back up their claims like a fingerprint at the scene or some dna that he left there.
displacedtexan
(15,696 posts)A father & son in DC were robbed by a black man wearing a red sweatshirt & black pants. I thought it curious that the father was not called as a witness, but the son was. During deliberations, we saw that the mugshot array (9 photos on a page used for the victims to ID a suspect ) all looked small & they were wearing white T-shirts, but the photo of the man on trial was larger (like it was enlarged & cropped), & he was wearing a red Redskins sweatshirt.
We did not convict him, and when the prosecutor & defense attorney interviewed us after the judge dismissed us, we learned that the father didn't testify because he couldn't identify a suspect, and the police had given the suspect the red sweatshirt to wear for the photo.
There's so much of this crap going on that it's absolutely overwhelming.
Skittles
(153,160 posts)say what???
Generic Brad
(14,275 posts)Or am I the only one who thinks like that? Lucky for you all I'm not a bank robber.