What I am reading…
News
Leaked Documents Reveal Dothan Police Department Planted Drugs on Young Black Men For Years, District Attorney Doug Valeska Complicit
What I am thinking…
Take a deep breath. Click the link. Read first for information only.
What I am reading…
HUNDREDS OF CASES PROSECUTED WITH PLANTED EVIDENCE, MANY WRONGLY CONVICTED STILL IN PRISON
What I am thinking…
Check the date — December 1? This just was released?
What I am reading…
The Alabama Justice Project has obtained documents that reveal a Dothan Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigation was covered up by the district attorney. A group of up to a dozen police officers on a specialized narcotics team were found to have planted drugs and weapons on young black men for years. They were supervised at the time by Lt. Steve Parrish, current Dothan Police Chief, and Sgt. Andy Hughes, current Director of Homeland Security for the State of Alabama. All of the officers reportedly were members of a Neoconfederate organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center labels “racial extremists.” The group has advocated for blacks to return to Africa, published that the civil rights movement is really a Jewish conspiracy, and that blacks have lower IQ’s . Both Parrish and Hughes held leadership positions in the group and are pictured above holding a confederate battle flag at one of the club’s secret meetings.
[ Pictured in the image above, Carlton Ott, Clark Rice, Steve Hamm, Steve Parrish, David Jay, Michael Magrino, Dewayne Herring, Andy Hughes, Gary Coleman, and Scott Smith ]
What I am thinking…
How many years back does this go? Exactly what level of crazy are we talking about here? Then...
If I had been born even twenty years earlier, the people who now work for me would be making sure I scrubbed their bathroom floors better.
What I am reading…
Beginning in early 1996, the Dothan Police Department received complaints from black victims that drugs and weapons were being planted. Specifically young black men who had clean records were targeted. Police Chief, John White, allegedly instructed senior officers to ignore the complaints and they willingly complied...
In early 1998, a group of concerned white officers from within the Police Department complained in writing about what they witnessed. This is reflected in the document below where it refers to a series of allegations that took place over 11 months before the department acted. The initial written complaint from the department’s own officers is dated June, 1998. The internal memo documents the last allegation as occurring in April of 1999. Almost a year of internal complaints by the department’s own police officers passed before Chief White turned it over to the Internal Affairs Division…
All of these cases involving planted drugs and weapons were subsequently prosecuted by District Attorney, Doug Valeska, despite the written allegations by police officers that the evidence was planted. Never was any such information shared in the discovery process with the defendant’s attorneys...
What I am thinking…
How do I help? Do we set up a crowdfunding campaign? How do you raise 20 years of a young man’s life? Who are these horrible human beings? How soon will Americans start raising funds to help the perpetrators? How do you rob someone of their life? How do you watch someone do that?
What I am reading…
On November 9th an unsigned letter by the officers was put on Dothan City Commissioner Don Clement’s desk. In the letter, officers detail how the investigation was covered up and they used officer Magrino as an example, referencing stolen guns and drugs in his patrol car…
What I am thinking…
Read all of the scans of the correspondence, be sure to note the highlighted portions, look at the dates again, is that a polygraph exam, what were the current titles of the white separatists overseeing this, were they part of the Anonymous dump, checked Snopes, why am I seeing this on Facebook but it’s not in my news timeline yet?
What I am reading…
The group of police officers who chose to notify federal authorities and the US Attorney in a series of constructed letters to protect their own safety documented is below as many had their lives threatened by fellow officers.
What I am thinking…
They did this because of the Obama Administration. One last shot, one more year in office. Maybe justice this time?, they’re thinking. Should this story really be about the white police officers who lost their jobs, have gotten death threats, etc.? Will that make people read and care? The country is so inured to young Black men losing time, rights, lives… Will these honorable officers make people fight this? Will anything?
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There is so much in the report it is staggering: http://henrycountyreport.com/blog/2015/12/01/leaked-documents-reveal-dothan-police-department-planted-drugs-on-young-black-men-for-years-district-attorney-doug-valeska-complicit/
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I have to go speak. I have to go S-P-E-A-K. What I am thinking...call your father. Ask for some of the stories again. Remember where you are and what you are and all that has changed and all that will change. Remember all YOU ARE CHANGING.
And Good Lord, have mercy on our souls.
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2015 · 6:20:36 AM +00:00 · dmitcha
I was not expecting the Rec List when I wrote this, just to release the pressure on my chest as I read. Thank you to all who read, commented and engaged. I will go into comments shortly, but I wanted first to share the vetting I was able to do prior to posting and leaving for my event.
Henry County Report — I checked their online reputation and saw that while they had been excoriated for posting names from the Ashley Madison dump, they did not fabricate the posts. This also appears to be a document dump. The site has crashed multiple times since the post got picked up, so it may be hard to access.
Confirming Officials Names and Titles are Real — Police Chief Steve Parrish, former narcotics officer Michael Magrino, and Sheriff-turned-Homeland Security Assistant Directory Andy Hughes (the state’s site is down, so I couldn't determine if he now is director).
Documents — If it can be accessed again, the original story had numerous documents embedded, including this purported 1999 complaint posted to HashDocs. Linked to that doc is an attorney’s 2012 complaint against Valeska for “a pattern and practice of racial misconduct,” which was copied to the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Alabama Bar, and which this 2012 newspaper article corroborates.
Because the report hit social media at the end of day East Coast time, I will await the deeper research and vetting news outlets will be able to do when offices open tomorrow. The article has since been picked up by Raw Story, Occupy Democrats and other outlets, so it certainly will be further investigated and discussed tomorrow.
Wednesday, Dec 2, 2015 · 11:36:36 PM +00:00 · dmitcha
Police Chief Parrish apparently released a statement today saying the blogger has an agenda and that the documents, while appearing to be official, were redacted by the blogger to promote that agenda.
He also confirmed he had started the Confederate non-profit in which he was pictured, stating:
“I am a history enthusiast,” Parrish said. “My ancestors fought for the South during the Civil War, and I’m proud of it.”
Parrish said in 1999 and 2000 he started a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
He then asks the blogger to name names of the wrongfully convicted.
More at the link, but it didn’t address any of my questions.