from the not-actually-wanting-to-defuse-the-entire-ACAB-thing dept
What will surprise no one, the Arizona prosecutor decided that no police should be punished for cooperating with a different Arizona prosecutor to portray the violent anti-police protesters as gang members with the sole purpose of getting a sentence enhancement.
Like millions across the country, residents of Phoenix, Arizona took to the streets to protest police brutality and advocate for increased police accountability. Obviously, some of the police were sympathetic to the protest.
But Phoenix police officers (he is the subject of a recent DOJ investigation) decided it was not enough to throw some people behind bars in “insulting the police” charges that often accompany anti-police protests. They went one step further, colluding with the Maricopa County attorney’s office to treat legitimate protests as acts of gang violence. The evidence that the police and the prosecutor offered to the court was ludicrous. He insisted on using the word “ACAB” (All Police Bastards) as nothing more than a few gang tags. Using this and similar statements of doubt, Phoenix PD and prosecutors hope to end at least some people in prison with sentence enhancements – The sort of thing that turns misdemeanors into serious felonies and can add up to a decade to the sentence prison
This included lying to the jury members about the definition of ACAB for the sole purpose of producing (false) gang charges to disperse the arrested protesters.
Q: And do you find that the ACAB follows the same philosophy, like the Bloods and the Crips?
A: Yes.
Q: And could it even be the same philosophy as the Hell’s Angels?
A: Very similar, yes.
Q: And why the same?
A: I think because of the tattoos, the intimidation factor, how they direct violent behavior that is very similar to the Hells Angel organization where they actually organize violent behavior, and then do it in an organized way. It’s not random with the Hells Angels.
Q: And you find what this ACAB group is doing is organizing to create violence?
A: Yes.
This would be funny if it wasn’t actually scary. Cops lied to jurors, with the blessing of Maricopa County prosecutors, in hopes of taking away years of people’s freedom.
An investigation by a local news station (ABC15) revealed all of this, exposing the police and prosecutors involved in this allegation, including April Sponsel, who is married to a state trooper. More investigations should follow, but Arizona law enforcement agencies have universally refused to dig into this misconduct by Phoenix PD and Maricopa County officials. At only investigations conducted by the government are handled by people who no longer work any branch of government, as ABC15 reports.
A criminal investigation was launched against retired FBI agent James Egelston as several other Arizona law enforcement agencies refused to investigate the scandal. The investigation of Egelston was submitted to the Pinal County Prosecutor’s Office due to Maricopa County’s role in defrauding the protesters.
The end result is nothing. Everyone involved will face zero consequences for their actions because of Pinal County prosecutors parallel not interested in holding the police and prosecutors accountable.
[I]declination letter, Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer wrote the incident review board office which will not bring the case.
“It is the Board’s opinion that none of the (individuals) committed acts that warrant criminal prosecution,” according to the letter.
Tampering, perjury, filing false reports…nothing deserves even the slightest punishment. And even with the US DOJ coming to the same conclusion about false accusations and perjury. Maricopa County has tacitly agreed to be targeted by this nonsense and offered a $6 million settlement to the arrested protesters. The city of Phoenix, however, still thinks it’s a wise use of public funds to continue fighting the protesters’ lawsuits, signaling to crooked police that it will do whatever it takes to stop them. acknowledge guilt, let alone be punished.
Since no one in power wants to make it more difficult for officers and prosecutors to forget (recent) historical mistakes, the citizens of the city and district will surely repeat the performance of the alleged civil servant.
Filed under: 1st amendment, acab, arizona, black lives matter, gang database, pd phoenix, police brutality, police violence
