In what can only be described as something out of HBO’s The Wire, local police show that whether it’s Baltimore, Holyoke or Springfield the cops are corrupt to the core.
It’s not the first time that Holyoke drug cop Paul Barkyoumb has had judges throw out his evidence, but it may be the most important. Barkyoumb and a state cop Daniel Soto have been called out for flat-out fabricating evidence against a suspected Springfield drug dealer. They invented some evidence, disappeared other evidence, and made-up reports about surveillance and informants.
In The Wire, When McNulty and Freamon concocted false evidence in order to catch a suspected drug kingpin, the plan backfired on them, ruining careers, lives, and ultimately seeing the their target back on the streets. In Hampden County, two cops wove a web of deceit so tangled that two million dollars in cocaine and a gun were thrown out by a judge because the stories the cops told him were so unbelievable.
We should expect that if it happens on the scale that it did here, cops are doctoring reports and tampering with evidence every day, everywhere – and with impunity. Most people are not lucky enough to have their cases thrown out because cops lied.
The Republican story can be found here.