Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves

[Contrary1]

"ARAPAHO — Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned today upon being charged with 35 felony counts involving an alleged sex-slave operation at his jail.

Among the allegations are that Burgess had sex with a female drug court participant in his custody.

Burgess faces these counts:

Engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses (one count);

Sexual battery (two);

Bribery by a public official (five);

Forcible oral sodomy (seven);

Indecent exposure (one);

Kidnapping (one);

Second-degree rape (14);

Rape by instrumentation (two);

Subornation of perjury (two).

Special prosecutor James Boring said Burgess could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all 35 counts..."

http://newsok.com/article/3231017

[lonestarnot]

1. WTF is up wit the sheriffs? Are they all NAZI's or just a few?

[RedCappedBandit]

3. Think about the type of person

that would typically be attracted to the job.

[ruiner4u]

6. wrong answer bucko...

the vast majority of sheriff's and police force do a job that lets you live in the lifestyle you are accustomed to. They do their job, so you can be safe.

would you prefer a society where someone stronger then you could use physical might to take advantage of you? Boil it down and you will find thats what our modern sheriff's and cops protect us from.




Lets drop the "all police are evil" meme.. Cause you would cry and piss yourself silly if they all decided not to go into work next week.

[RaleighNCDUer]

13. "...a society where someone stronger then you could use physical might to take advantage of you"

YOU JUST DESCRIBED THAT FUCKING SHERIFF.

Police abuse their power ALL the time. And the problem is only getting worse, as police who are in the Guard are being sent to Iraq, leaving departments hiring replacements who would normally never make the cut.

Hardly a week goes by without such a thing showing up in the news - police, sheriffs, state troopers being arrested for taking advantage of female prisoners, for pocketing drug dealers' money after arrests. There IS a mindset that is drawn to the power and authority of having a badge and gun.

Ten percent of all cops are authoritarians who will abuse their power, given the opportunity. In some areas, that can go to well over 50%. And anyone who is not a middle/upper class white will confirm that.

[cynatnite]

16. 10-50% of cops?

Do you have sources to back up your claims?

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. Nope - just pulled it out of my ass -

but think about it. It's a safe bet that 10% of the population as a whole are authoritarian - look at the prevelance of authoritarian religious organizations, and think of the bad teachers and bosses you've known. If 10% of the population as a whole are authoritarian, it stands to reason that a minimum of 10% of police personnel - working in a naturally authoritarian environment - would be authoritarian. And that is in normal departments - get into notoriously corrupt departments (such as you read about every day) and the percentage skyrockets - remember Serpico? 50% of his division would be a significant clean up - something like 80% of it went to jail, were fired, or demoted for running prostitutes, protecting drug dealers, stealing from drug dealers, you name it.

The fish rots from the head - if the Sheriff was doing this, it is a guarantee that his department is rotten from top to bottom. Or maybe you could explain to me how he could be doing this without the knowledge, and likely the willing cooperation, of his department. There may be some who are clean, but they would be powerless in the face of that corruption.

Most cops I've met, say 90%, have been honest, professional public servants. 10% have been power-hungry, racist, mean, angry authoritarians who are more than happy to wield their power without restraint. And even the 90%, you don't dare talk back to them, or challenge their authority. Because they ARE representing an authoritarian organization.

[cynatnite]

26. Well, no surprise that was where it came from...

Some people do have a tendency to pull shit out of their ass to back up their opinions rather than rely on actual data.

I spent a lot of years working in emergency care. I was an EMT and an ER Tech not to mention a medic in the Army as well. My experience with police officers has been considerably different.

As with any group you do have your few who are complete assholes that probably should just go back to their mother's basement and stay there.

For the most part, they're decent men and women who're trying to earn a living just like anyone else.

I've also known three officers who were killed in the line of duty. I can't express enough on how dangerous this work is.

What's sad in our society is that we, you included, have a tendency to brush broad strokes across an entire group because of a few bad apples. This sheriff, if he's guilty, will be punished. The law has a tendency to be harsher towards bad cops than most folks mainly because of the fact they violated the public trust. It in no way should reflect badly on the rest who serve the public with honor.

You pulled 10-50% out of your ass. That's a hell of a lot of cops considering the hundreds of thousands that work all across the country. I challenge that statistic because it's bullshit, IMO. Easy to do since even you know where it came from.

[RaleighNCDUer]

30. As I said - 10%.

That means that 90% are good. That is a vast majority.

But in case you hadn't noticed, the 90% will cover for that 10% until they get so bad that they can't be covered for anymore - call it solidarity in the ranks, esprit de corp, bunker mentality, whatever. They are on one side, the bad guys on the other, and the civilians are caught in the middle. And, as I noted, where the corrupt have risen to the top, they poison the entire department, as with the infamous Ramparts division in LA, the NYPD in the 60s & 70s, and this sheriff that kicked off the discussion. Do you really believe that no one else in the department was aware of what he was doing? He created a culture that not only tolerated but encouraged that behavior. RAPE IS RAPE. I don't care if the perp is a cop and the victim is a whore.

You do know, don't you, that for every incident like this where a cop is arrested, there are ten where the cop is quietly asked to resign. They take care of their own. You know, there are virtually no statistics kept on rates of crimes committed by police - though we all know it happens, for the sake of society we have to pretend it doesn't - that way these things can always be seen as aberrations rather than the natural result of the combination of authoritarian systems attracting authoritarian personalities, and wholly inadequate screening for psychopathic personalities.

Ever hear the phrase, "power corrupts"?

[ruiner4u]

18. Actually I was referring to law enforcement as a whole...

But you can distort that and anything else any way you want in that neat little reality of yours...

I do standby my last statement however. You would cry and piss yourself silly if they all decided to call in sick next week..

[RaleighNCDUer]

19. But but but

I thought the RW meme was that the police CAN'T protect us. That's why we all have to have guns - cuz the cops will show up 20 minutes late.

So they can't protect us, but we're helpless without them?

:eyes:

[cherokeeprogressive]

23. Do ALL police abuse their power ALL the time? Or is it 10% some of the time, or is it

50% most of the time, or is it 10% ALL the time, when given the opportunity?

[RaleighNCDUer]

24. I'd guess 10% all the time, more when the conditions are right -

like the infamous Ramparts division in LA - that was what, 75% corrupt?

[Richard Steele]

25. Still calling yourself "ruiner", although you've never amounted to more than "mild annoyer".

You keep TRYING, little buckaroo! :thumbsup:

[RedCappedBandit]

27. Your response has absolutely nothing to do with what you are replying to. nt.

Besides which, the majority of people that these sheriffs control are non violent criminals. Boil it down, and I stand by what I said.

[Ian David]

4. Just a few, I think

[lonestarnot]

9. I knew a sheriff once.

He was my Poppee. So I know they are not all bad.

[Ghost in the Machine]

22. He fits right in...

[MannyGoldstein]

2. 467 Years!

It's possible that The Clintons will have dropped out of the presidential race by then.

Oy!

[Cerridwen]

5. Has he claimed "religion" as his justification yet?

It works very well...even with "liberals".

[Matariki]

7. That or he'll be 'finding religion' real soon.

[Canuckistanian]

8. What is "oral sodomy"?

You're either doing one or the other.

[orleans]

12. ...think about it....n/t

[Canuckistanian]

15. OK, I got it

I think.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. He forced her to give him a blow job.

Sodomy is not just ass fucking.

[Cerridwen]

17. Kissing ass...literally. n/t

[tom_paine]

10. Loyal Bushie Love.

n/t

[usaftmo]

11. Compassionate Conservatism at it's best! n/t

[Contrary1]

21. Methinks this low-life is a Dem...

We have our share too.

[gratuitous]

28. I tried to check the Custer County Sheriff's Office website

Their bandwidth has been exceeded, so no information is available. Do you have some information that a Democrat has been a Sheriff in a rural Oklahoma County for the last 14 years? Because I think my default setting for an elected law enforcement official in a rural area of a very Red state would be "Republican."

[usaftmo]

29. It's a very safe bet

the sheriff is a rethuglican. In 2004 chimpy got 74% of the vote in that county; here's the link:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/OK/P/00/county.000.html

In 2000 shrub got 67% of the vote. Here's that link:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/

Overall I think it's a lock that sheriff is a right-winger...because a large majority of the voters in that county are.
:crazy:

[Contrary1]

31. Nope, he's a Democrat

On page #30: http://www.ok.gov/~elections/roster06.pdf

[usaftmo]

32. I saw that in the link you supplied;

although it strikes me as odd. A large majority of the county level officials are Democrats. In a way this reminds me that a very Democratic city (New York) regularly elects a republican as Mayor; perhaps that person is put there to be the unified target of criticism???

Although I know nothing of the Custer County Oklahoma officials, it would seem plausible that any Democrat is a moderate...otherwise I don't see how they could get/stay elected.

You are right though, the Sheriff is listed as a Democrat. How liberal he is remains unanswered.