A California city has agreed to pay $900,000 to a man who was subjected to a 17-hour police interrogation in which officers pressured him to falsely confess to murdering his father, who was alive.
During the 2018 interrogation of Thomas Perez Jr by police in Fontana, a city east of Los Angeles, officers suggested they would have Perez’s dog euthanized as a result of his actions, according to a complaint and footage of the encounter. A judge said the questioning appeared to be “unconstitutional psychological torture”, and the city agreed to settle Perez’s lawsuit for $898,000, his lawyer announced this week.
The extraordinary case of a coerced false confession has sparked widespread outrage, with footage showing Perez in extreme emotional and physical distress, including as officers brought his dog in and said the animal would need to be put down due to “depression” from witnessing a murder that had not actually occurred.
ACAB every damn day and yet again sadly the bad cops get no punishment and we literally pay for their ACAB behavior.
Remember- never talk to cops.
They are not your friends. They are not there to help, protect or otherwise serve you.
They are there solely to build a case against you, and if they can, they will charge you with anything they find.
They will lie about the law- if they even know what it actually says- lie about what they know. They will twist you up and get you to say anything.
Demand a lawyer and shut the fuck up. Do not consent to a search, do not let them inside. Do not fall for the “if you’re innocent”. demand a lawyer and shut the fuck up. You have no obligation to talk to them. you have no obligation to answer their questions.
The biggest thing to remember is that cops are allowed to lie to you! Yes, they are allowed to lie to you and trick you into confessing.
Lying about witnesses accusing you is bad enough. But they’re well known to blatantly lie about things like what the law actually is, or sentencing or how good a deal you can get for confessing.
The worst part is the final deal is up to the judge, usually following the recommendations of the prosecution- not cops.
Most of their games are curtailed significantly even having an incredibly shitty public defender. (Don’t mean to rag on them. They’re fighting the good fight. But they’re over worked and spread too thin. A public defender is never going to compare to a private attorney- never mind an entire legal team. Just saying even the absolute worst legal aid you can think of is going to stop most of it.)
There was a Breaking Bad ( or maybe Better Call Saul?) Episode where a character was hauled in for questioning and the only reply he would give was “Lawyer.” That’s exactly what someone should do in that situation.
Don’t be rude or annoying, but yeah. Pretty much.
Probably won’t get into trouble if you tell a cop at a traffic stop that you’re going home from work, unless you’re drunk off your socks, but generally it’s best to politely not answer.
You lost me at the end
Sorry, weird typo. Shoulda been “It’s best to politely not answer”
You need to actively and clearly say you are invoking your fifth amendment privileges to not answer questions and that you want a lawyer.
Do not use slang, there are dirty judges out there that will rule against you if you say “I want my lawyer dog”
Me know what it means, but the legal system will deliberately trip you, that dog thing is an actual example
No. Be explicit. “I invoke my right to remain silent, and I invoke my right to an attorney.” The Supreme Court has held that you must “unambiguously request counsel”. If you say “give me a lawyer, dog”, the state of Louisiana will decline to give you a “lawyer dog”.
Every day is “Shut the Fuck Up Friday.”
I absolutely agree. And I absolutely hate the “protect and serve” shit on militarized police forces where their success metric is number of tickets, arrests, and convictions. The system is working as intended, the police exist to protect and serve capital interests.
I like how each subsequent time the dollar amount is mentioned, you learn that the previous number had been rounded up.
Man awarded $1m is glad to receive $900,000. That $898,000 will make him feel better but is $897,600 really adequate compensation? However, it’s kind of unfair that the tax payers end up footing this $897,550 bill.
It fits right in with this bad cop story.
Not to mention the taxes hell pay on the award, right back to the govt that detailed him. That’d burn my britches
Wait, that doesn’t count as income and get taxed does it? I always assumed a court order payment wouldn’t be taxed because it’s only being awarded to make you “whole”. You don’t pay taxes on the money you get from your insurance when your car gets totaled, why would court ordered restitution be any different?
I agree it shouldn’t. At the end of the day that money has already been taxed once. It should go to the person as if it was already theirs, because it’s making up for something that should have been theirs.
I always assumed a court order payment wouldn’t be taxed
Unfortunately that is not true. The only tax-free court imposed restitution is that of physical pain and suffering not mental anguish. There may be other small caveats like hospitalization for mental but yeah, if you get a settlement expect the govt to come looking for its cut after the lawyer takes theirs.
God we suck as a nation.
I didn’t have to pay tax on the small claims court case I won. Other cities/states might be different.
Is the man named GOB? in his 897 thousand, five hundred forty five dollar [law]suit! Come on!
You should see what hospitals do.
Read the books Psychiatric Slavery and Cruel Compassion by psychiatrist Thomas Szasz.
In case anyone forgot, ACAB
Does anyone think the officers who did this are going to face legal consequences? Does anyone think they feel a shred of remorse for what they did? Does anyone think that after they come back from their paid leave that any of their fellow officers are going to speak out against their return?
No?
ACAB. Fuck them all.
Didn’t know what that stood for, I had to look it up.
I’m going to hope that’s wrong, and that it’s just a certain percentage in any professional caste that has bad apples.
I am willing to believe that the percentage of bad apples is larger in law enforcement, only because of the type of people who would gravitate to that type of position that would give them control over others, and how much money is spent on monitoring law enforcement personnel by the government for legal and ethics compliance, as well as mental suitability to do the job.
And no need to reply to me with every bad thing that’s ever been done by police officers. I read them all, here, as well as elsewhere. I just can’t subscribe to the 100% pop that ACAB stands for.
Didn’t know what that stood for, I had to look it up.
Constantly as wrong as possible about their own stupid links
Starting to feel willful, honestly
Didn’t know what that stood for, I had to look it up.
Constantly as wrong as possible about their own stupid links
Starting to feel willful, honestly
I don’t recognize that second quote, as it wasn’t stated by me. Could you elaborate?
And as always always always happens in cases like this, there’s no indication that the officers involved were disciplined in any way.
Fun fact: The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that cops do have the right to lie to you.
The police in the UK lied to me when I was 18 after a group fight on a night out.
Next thing I know we are up in Magistrates Court (max sentence 6 months in jail), they say nah fam this is too serious for us let’s send it up to Crown Court (no max sentence). In the end we end up with 300 hours of community service and a fine.
I’ll never trust the police again. Like sure if there is a serial killer about I’m gonna tell em what I know. If I’m under suspicion they get no comment all day long. They ain’t here to help us.
Fun side story. Which I preface by saying I’m a good boy now.
Me and my brother worked a call center and a scam going where we would get orders diverted to stores and go collect them and sell them. Like MacBooks and high end cameras etc.
Get fired without a word being said. Literally taken of the phone and walked out without a word.
6+ months later my Nana calls as she is house sitting at my mums whilst she on holiday, saying the police are here for me.
I speak on the phone and like yeah bro I don’t live there and I’m finna go to work right now, but I’ll hand myself into the station in a couple of days.
I arrange a solicitor and tell my brother to do the same. He’s a bit of a neek and just goes in alone and tells them everything and has a panic attack in the interview room.
But you see my brother has a couple mental issues on that he should have had an appropriate adult in the room so anything he said was inadmissible in court.
I rock up and hand myself in. Get shoved in a cell for 10 hours waiting for my solicitor. He comes asked how I did the scam and was like damn bro that’s sick. Anyway he’s like just say no comment to an everything. So I did and honestly it’s harder than it seems to do that when you like being polite.
So they knew for a fact we did this thing but had to go NFA (No further action) as they couldn’t prove it.
More fun. My brother is now a police officer himself which is wild.
my brother has a couple mental issues on that he should have had an appropriate adult in the room
My brother is now a police officer himself which is wild.
Yah, that tracks.
I’m not sure if you’re doubting me or saying all the police have mental health issues.
Oh, I don’t doubt you.
Easy cash right here, where do I apply?
I could really use an extra million for 17 hour job of me acting abused and tortured (not that this guy was acting). It’s my dream job
It is not. If it was consensual it might be. If it’s real it’s not.
Surpressing your empathy in face of dire news is your right. We all have to in order to psychologically survive these times.
I think you shouldn’t act out that surpression as a funny joke in public. This adds to the brutalization of the public, wich we can’t really afford in these times, if we want them to become more human, more bearable
Cmon I have ASPD let me have some fun on the internet from time to time without all the pretending how goody two shoes fucking saint I am
no.
Yess
