Stop Snitching

“Do you want to cooperate or go to jail?” is how it was put to me. Not one to cooperate with people after they kick my door in and hog tie me, I went to jail (freezing my ass off in my underwear with no shoes).

Call it cooperating, snitching, ratting, information bartering or witnessing for pay… It all amounts to the same thing: criminals being rewarded with money or judicial leniency in exchange for information (real or otherwise) that can be used to convict someone else. Who hasn’t heard the catch phrase, “give three, go free”?

What’s so gross about selling others out because you can’t man up to your own crimes? It’s blatantly self serving and commodifies trust and loyalty, values without which there is no community.

I’m not talking about civilian witnesses who feel it is their civic duty to report a crime. I’m talking about sloppy criminals who adhere to the mantra ,”Can’t do the time? Drop a dime.”

The conflict of interests inherent with every use of a CI ought to render any evidence they provide dubious at best. Yet the criminal justice system and law enforcement rely more on snitches today than ever before. Statistics released by the Bureau of Justice show that a third of those doing federal time on drug trafficking charges are there because of a snitch who assisted prosecutors in exchange for a reduction on their own sentence.

This increasing reliance on snitches compromises police integrity. It’s easy to see how a rogue cop (ya know, someone like, say, Scotty Bach) could routinely abuse the snitch system, exaggerating the reliability of an informant to establish probable cause in obtaining a search warrant for any location he fancied.

Frame your questions correctly and the right in custody informant will tell you anything you want to hear. As Scotty Bach said to me when I declined to tell him what he wanted to hear, “Guess we’ll have to keep kicking in doors, then”. He knew someone would take the bait, just had to find them.

Law enforcement themselves appear to value loyalty, trust and prudence. I mean, how often do you see a cop step up to rat on his corrupt compatriots? It’s pretty rare. They just figure most suspects are desperate and scandalous enough that they’re unlikely to have any qualms about it. Why work when you can get some lowlife to do it for you, for free even?

Break the cycle. Don’t give up your right to remain silent. Don’t do the cops work for them. Don’t incriminate yourself and others by fraternizing with Major Crimes Task Force detectives… they’re not your friends. Don’t kick it with someone who put your friend in prison like they wouldn’t do the same thing to you. Not ready for the consequences? Then stop fucking jaywalking, already!

“Some come in the form of co-dependence
Lotta times only end up being co-defendants
Ten bucks say they tell for a lower sentence
And leave you up in jail, begging for a penance
It don’t make no sense, what happened to the loyalty?
Honor amongst crooks, trust amongst royalty”

-MF Doom

As of Tuesday the guy that snitched on the guy that snitched on my apartment is in jail under investigation for a bunch of stuff. Guess that “deal” he made with the detectives wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Anyway, figured I’d commemorate the event with a quick synopsis of things everyone should remember during police encounters.

Guilty or innocent you should never talk to detectives without your lawyer present.

Aside from providing your name you should limit dialog with the police to the following three phrases:

Am I free to go?

I will not talk to you without my lawyer present

I do not consent to any searches

Never consent to any searches of your body, car or house.

The 4th Amendment protects you against unreasonable searches and seizures. When you consent to a police search you waive your 4th amendment rights and rule out the suppression of evidence the police turn up during their search.

Never Physically Resist being arrested, detained or searched.

Even if the police beat you up, hold your tongue about it  until you are released from custody or they’ll probably tack on an additional charge for assaulting an officer to protect themselves against any potential legal action. Do document the injuries and contact a lawyer as soon as you are released.

You have the right to remain silent

so exercise it (at the very least until you speak with your lawyer)! The 5th amendment protects against self incrimination, “No person… shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself or be deprived of life liberty or property without due process of law…”

Nothing you tell the police will help you

The police are not on your side and they will say anything they think might help close their case. They will lie and say your friend already told on you. They’ll lie to your friends, family and neighbors to try and get them to offer condemning statements about you.

It’s not like they don’t warn you, “anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law”.  So why would you say anything?

Just because you make a deal doesn’t mean the cops have to honor it

They’ll pretend they’re your friends, work you as much as they can and then throw you in jail as soon as they get what they want. I mean, why would they have your back, you’ve already demonstrated that you’re a turncoat.

The prosecutor decides which cases to prosecute, not the police.

SWAT team called in to combat underage drinking

To say that the effects of a  Special Weapons And Tactics (SWAT) team raid are devastating is putting it lightly. Just ask members of the WSU chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. After witnesses reported seeing a group of underage students consuming what appeared to be alcoholic beverages outside the fraternity, Pullman police summoned a regional team of soldiers in full combat gear to  attack the problem. Like, literally, attack it, with, like, stun grenades and AK-47s, ya know?

WSU’s Phi Kappa Sigs have since been suspended and are under investigation by the international fraternity. Never mind the fact that the raid turned up nothing beyond a nominal amount of marijuana and some paraphernalia.

So what does that have to do with you? Lots… who’s to say your door won’t be next?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the use of SWAT when it comes time to respond to the occasional bout of urban guerrilla warfare or domestic terrorism. However, the use of these teams against nonviolent civilians signifies to me that the Police are taking the War on Drugs way too literally. Relying on SWAT to serve search warrants on suspected drug houses and other alleged dens of depravity is now routine.

The secrecy with which these raids are conducted makes it difficult to estimate how many occur in the US each year. Cato Institute policy analyst Radley Balko places the figure at around 40,000, up from 3,000 per year in 1980. That’s over 100 raids a day and puts the odds of the average  US household being subject to a raid over the course of a year at 3,160 to one, similar to the odds that you’ll injure yourself while mowing the lawn. You’re way more likely to get you door kicked in by a bunch of guys in riot gear than you are to be struck by lightning  (odds 576,000 to one).

As with the Phi Kappa Sig’s raid, deploying SWAT to execute a search warrant on my old apartment seems somewhat excessive. Even if I had been sitting in an apartment stacked floor to ceiling with the stolen computers Bach intended to look for it (and failed to locate), entering unannounced and heavily armed through both doors and three windows would not have been necessary. Like, what’d they expect me to do, sneak out the back door with a bunch of desktop computer systems and displays (that did not in fact exist)?

Bach would no doubt counter something to the effect of, “intelligence indicated several suspects were occupying the premises at the time of entry”. There were no names listed on the search warrant, which implies to me there were no suspects at the time of entry. The fact that the entry team thought there were 5 people inside indicates that they went purely off information provided by their CI, not even bothering to survey the location prior to entering with stun grenades and tear gas.

After totally trashing the place and inflicting permanent structural damage (to the tune of $2,700, just got the bill) on the building, Bach and his posse left it unlocked with broken doors and windows so that by the time I got out of jail it was virtually impossible to tell what had been seized and what had been looted.

To keep public opinion friendly, Bach chatted up the neighbors. Wish I knew what exactly he said to them, but they wouldn’t even acknowledge my existence after I was released from jail.

I remember the first time I saw a SWAT raid with vivid detail. I was walking to QFC past this dilapidated house just after midnight on a random Sunday night when men carrying assault rifles popped out of the bushes, followed by an explosion coupled with a blinding flash of light. Greeted with the barrage of chaos that is a SWAT raid it’s hard not to think, “wow, what did these people do to cause this?” In the case of the raid I witnessed the victim turned out to be an aged black man “known on the streets as Cowboy” who was suspected  of selling crack. I remember wondering to myself who paid for the staging of such a raid and why they couldn’t just knock on the guy’s door.

Just because these raids happen to have become routine doesn’t mean that they aren’t a serious violation of the civil liberties America once held so dear. Using SWAT teams to enforce laws governing nonviolent activities is a ridiculous abuse of police power. It’s freedom and justice for the status quo… which might be nice for them but is not he stuff  a democracy  is made of.  As my boy Benjamin Franklin put it, “they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety”.

U District Muggings

Apparently I’m not the only one person who’s gotten mugged in the University District lately. For those of you not in the know, Lael was mugged while entering her U District safe spot December 1 2008. The attacker grunted ominously, threw her on the ground and kicked her in the face repeatedly until she let him have her Roos gym bag.

Then a few weeks ago my friend Preston* comes by to tell me that he was walking down the Ave. and overheard two students discussing a recent spate of U District muggings. According to the students 12 people had been mugged in the general vicinity of campus within the last two weeks. I told Preston that I wasn’t exactly sure anyone but Scotty Bach (everyone’s favorite local detectivbot) would consider some random people walking down the street a reliable source of information.

Today, the Seattle PI reported, an e-mail warning was sent out by SPD and UW Police to students and residents of the neighborhood. Apparently a rash of  armed robberies has come to plague the University District. Afraid that the University of Washington Police might not possess the might to tackle this deluge of violence, SPD has shifted Seattle’s resources to the U District, dubbing the “upsurge in  violence….unacceptable”. Like, they aren’t going to tolerate it, ya know?

So far two young men have fallen victim to violent muggings this week. While walking home Jan 24 victim one was interrupted by a pair of angry 20 something men wearing dark hoodies. The desperate duo demanded money, punched him in the face and took his wallet. Total loss? $40. Must be nice.

The second victim was approached last night just north of Greek row by two men who asked to use his cell phone. Victim refused, aggravating the communication deprived attackers who proceeded to sock him in the face and take his backpack (rumored to contain “various items”).  The attackers jetted made their escape in a burgundy PT cruiser.

You’ll be relieved to hear that SPD is investigating both incidents. I was up on the Ave. earlier and witnessed the beefed up police presence (albeit mostly focused on harassing some kids suspected of loitering in front of Rite Aid)

Getting mugged not your idea of fun? Here’s some tips to make sure it doesn’t happen to you…

Lael’s Logical Risk Lowering List:

-stay indoors

-avoid crossing paths with any males in their mid 20s wearing black hoodies (yes, I know, that’s like half the kids in the UD)
-be immediately suspicious of any burgundy PT cruiser
- if someone requests use of your cell phone, let them use it (at your own risk)
- roll with a posse (my mugging occurred during the first 24 hours of solitude I had spent in eons)
- always roll strapped (only if you have a valid state issued concealed carry permit, of course)
-carry Sabre Red Pepper Spray… more effective than bear mace

- walk with determination and be aware (i.e. don’t talk on your cell phone, fumble for your keys)

SPD’s list of prevention tips for incidents such as this:

- Avoid confrontations whenever possible.
- Remove yourself from potentially dangerous situations as soon as possible.
- Call 911 when you believe a confrontation is escalating.
- Walk with friends if possible.

Hope that helps you feel safe and secure. Check out this map if you’re curious where pedestrians were robbed in January!

*name has been changed to protect the innocent

“You could either ignore this advice, or take it from me
Be too nice and people take you for a dummy
So nowadays he ain’t so friendly
Actually they wouldn’t even made a worthy enemy
Read the signs: no feeding the baboons
Seeing how they got your back bleeding from the stab wounds
Ya’ll know the dance, they smile in your face, ya’ll know the glance
Try to put them on, they blow the chance
Never let your so-called mans know your plans”

-MF Doom

So I know I said my career as an activist was over but I have this insuppressible tic to crusade against injustice and violations of the 4th amendment. Not to mention that I have long harbored the delusion that the press is the unbiased moderator of government rather than some cheap propaganda machine.

Upon first reading the Seattle PI online articles Jan 13 ( Stolen Goods Cops are Trying to Return & Millions in swag recovered, cops looking for owners ) I assured myself that reporter Casey McNerthney must not have realized while he reworded the SPD press release that the property in question had not been proven stolen in a court of law. So I wrote him a letter thinking that he surely wanted to present a balanced view of the issue but had not been provided with the necessary information to do so.

Letter One to Casey McNerthney of the PI, sent via e-mail January 15, 2009:

Dear Casey,

About a third of this stuff was mine until the SWAT team broke my door down at 4am Dec 11th looking for some stolen desktop computers (they didn’t find those, I never had them) and took it. I would be happy to prove to any PI reporter who wants to listen that a large amount of this stuff is mine, acquired through legitimate means. I have not been charged with any crime resulting from this seizure. They just keep harassing my family saying they’ve returned half a million dollars worth of stolen property from my house and if I don’t give up as many names as possible I’m going to prison for 10 years.

I’m 26, have no criminal record and will die before I make up some bogus information implicating someone else to get these shady, manipulative cops off my back. The major crimes task force is totally corrupt as far as I’m concerned. It’s easy to look the other way until some low level property criminal gives them your name and address and a bunch of guys in riot gear are kicking in your door, tear gassing you and stealing everything you own. I am shocked that the PI would deem it appropriate to post this list without crosschecking their information or looking into how the SPD acquired this alleged contraband.

If you must leave these pictures up I would suggest you change the title to “allegedly stolen goods, etc…” No charges were filed in my case (don’t know about the others) and your assertion that the property is stolen is pretty clearly defamatory. About a 3rd of the property pictured is mine and I would love to call the number listed and get it back. Already tried that, though, and they’re not very receptive. Here is a list of some of the stuff I can prove is legitimately mine (I used the same bizarre numbering system as SPD does in the images)

42)the black Motorola is mine, it was sent to me from Verizon just over a year ago and I have all documentation

49) my Lumix digital camera

50)Security camera purchased from Scott Richie Summer 2008,

50) my iPhone

57) If those binoculars are Milspec, they’re mine

59) My Sony Handycam, purchased new Winter 2008. The box and documentation were with it… they took them too

11) Jewelry etc.  on page 11… All stolen from my storage unit while I was in jail. The police did not even leave a search warrant.

41) Rokit KRK studio monitor, one of  many speakers I had purchased off craigslist.org to start my record label (Label Whore Records, & yes I do have a business license) a couple months earlier. Also had a pair of Mackie Studio monitors (16&17) and  a  Yamaha monitor (4)

20/21) my ex-boyfriends broken musical instruments from my storage

11) keg taps I got free from behind a bar on the North end of Broadway that shut down about 2 years ago

9) A UPS mailing  tube with about 30 vintage movie posters for the movie Narcotic Story. I can prove that I legitimately had over 500 of these at one time, I purchased them at an estate sale and have sold them since to a ton of people. Taken from my storage.

13) a cigar box that I’ve had for at least 5 years. Was in storage

7) my Epson printer, had box and all original documentation, too.

13) vintage mink fur wrap I purchased off craigslist.org. Can provide contact information for person purchased from who will back this up

26) antique art book purchased from a thrift store at 85th and greenwood for $30 Summer 2008. Workers there would probably be able to remember this.

26) bullet belt purchased by me about 3 months ago for $109 from the surplus store  at
85 S Lander St
Seattle, WA 98134

22) same bullet belt, my Bose surround sound speakers (have had for some time) and an old farm tool I got at Goodwill on Dearborn

26) antique bible purchased at an estate sale

26) cheap apothecary scale purchased on eBay 4 years ago for 9.99 plus 19.99 shipping and handling

26)my wireless keyboard for my imac (what they did with the computer that went with it I don’t know, they took it too but it’s not pictured.)

82)old family  jewelry of mine(mostly religious) taken out of my glass display case

72) Russian military that was purchased at the Surplus store at
85 S Lander St
Seattle, WA 98134
at the same time as the bullet belt. They’re rare & I’m pretty sure the employees would remember.

That’s just a small sample of the property that I could easily prove is mine out of this list.

Lael Henterly
mannequin987@mac.com
[contact info omitted]

Five days later I checked the PI story on line. It looked exactly the same as before. Checked my e-mail, but there was no response from McNerthney. So I write him a second time.

Letter Two to Casey McNerthney of the PI, sent via e-mail January 20, 2009:

Dear Mr. McNerthney

I wrote you nearly a week ago requesting that you either take down some of the images you claim are of stolen property or at least amend the headline to include the word alleged. As of this writing I have received no response and continue to get calls from friends and family who have recognized various objects of mine under the headline Stolen Property. This is taking a definite toll on my quality of life, not to mention predisposing potential jurors to think of me as the leader of a theft mob that never in fact existed.

I had just about everything I owned seized by the SPD during the issuance of a search warrant obtained with bogus information provided by one in custody informant with a lengthy rap sheet. Since I was released from jail I have been basically gangstalked by the Major Crimes Task Force Detectives who have also blatantly lied to my neighbors, family, etc. telling them that I am the ringleader of a  criminal organization and that they should not even take my calls. Throw in the fact that I have multiple major metropolitan dailies  proclaiming items that anyone who knows me can recognize from my house to be “Stolen Goods” and it’s pretty miserable.

I have always been the first to pipe up in the defense of the press who I thought were the watchdog of the government. It has been a rude awakening to see both the Times and the PI reciting the SPD press release almost verbatim and totally ignoring my requests that they offer a slightly more balanced view. Last time I checked qualified privilege applied only to defamatory statements made in judicial proceedings. I would have no trouble proving the damage that these libelous statements have done to my reputation. The addition of the word alleged (as is normal when no charges have been filed in a police investigation) would make this article far less defamatory.  If you must leave the article up as is I would at least appreciate a response detailing why this is not possible.

Regards,
Lael Henterly
[contact info omitted]

As of today I am yet to receive any response from McNerthney, who I am beginning to suspect may be on SPD’s payroll (kind of joking). Jan 14 he follows up the first article with a sequel What happens to items found in theft and burglary cases? in which he blatantly promotes the web site PropertyRoom.com where the police sell all the seized goods they steal from people during paramilitary police raids like mine. Looked at the online evidence room clearinghouse and noticed that the Seattle Police Department is listed as their second affiliate, so looks like they must be making lots of money together. Cool.

Wish I could run up in Scottie Bach’s house 12 deep, armed with AK-47s, take everything he owns and throw him  in a cage. Yeah, that’s right, Bach (cuz I kno you’re prolly reading this & thinking how sneaky you are), I wish that. Not going to do it, though, because I’m not the leader of a huge organized crime ring like you are. What do you guys call yourselves again, the Major Crimes Task Force? Must be cool to be a Mob Boss like that, Bach. By the way, is this McNerthney dude on your payroll by chance?

Anyway, just got off the phone with the reporter who wrote the article that appeared in the hard copy of the PI, Christine Clarridge. Surprised to hear that the stuff was dubiously stolen, Clarridge said she was under the impression it had been seized after a pawn shop bust. She listened to my side of the issue and told me she was going to confer with others and gave me a time to follow up with her. That is exactly how I would expect a diligent journalist to handle such a situation. So I am holding out hope for the press (still think McNerthney’s a tool, though).

So over being an activist

Lay there, stare at this one spot on the wall so long my eyes start to get kind of blurry and I fall asleep.

Wake back up, look at my phone and there are 2 new texts from Rodrick* marked “URGENT” in all caps. One reads, “It’s not about right or wrong,” and the next, “ it’s about your freedom” and for whatever reason that’s making a lot of sense to me today.

Start to feel a little bit too jaded, so I pull on my cowboy boots, light a cigarette, get in my car and drive to Starbucks. Some delivery truck is taking up like 10 parking spots so I put my hazards on, park in the alley, go inside, order a triple grande soy with whip mocha.

Stand there waiting for my drink next to two vaguely pretentious 40something women as they discuss Obama’s inauguration and the hope he promises our nation. The lady on the left is curious just how much of a reduction is required to qualify the coffee cake as “reduced fat”. Lady on the right doesn’t know, but it must be less than normal, she imagines.

The people sitting at the table behind me are discussing an arrest they witnessed earlier on the Ave, apparently 3 teenagers were standing in one spot for too long which attracted the attention of some officers who proceeded to detain and ultimately arrest them. The vote is still out as to why they were arrested, one dude says it may have been warrants the other thinks it was for violating loitering laws. Finally the chubby Indian girl behind the bar finishes making my mocha and I grab it and head for the door, pause to read the newspaper headlines on my way out.

Jobless rate is up, felons want the right to vote, Bush has commuted the sentence of two Border Patrol Agents from Texas and on top of it all UW researchers have verified that Antarctica is indeed melting. I wonder to myself if the penguins are dying…

Call Tom* who says, “Whoa man, things are crazy today…” sounds like he’s in a hurry, says he’ll call me in 10 minutes, which really means he’ll call me way, way, way later or tomorrow or something. I picture those penguins again, waddling around on a shrinking island, garbling to one another about how crazy things are today.

Keep thinking about Rodrick’s text trying to interpret it different ways cuz I know exactly what he means and it makes me feel kinda purposeless and defeated which I don’t like at all.

Sitting in my apartment trying not think about it, wishing the kitchen faucet wasn’t dripping. There’s no such thing as silence. I love feeling like I’m fighting injustice at least as much if not more than I love making money. But I don’t do well in cages (except in certain circumstances that are way too fucking rare matter) so I go online and delete my blog and put up a new blog about why I took down my old blog.

So much for my career as an activist… wasn’t particularly lucrative anyways.

*Name has been changed to protect the innocent

“Bad News travels fast and if it’s about you, you’ll probably hear about it last

but when they press up and check up and they ask

you gotta keep perspective on the future and the past….

I’m bettin’ ya think ya nice cuz you give free advice, right?
but unless you got a tight alternative it’s best to let it just live!”

-Latyrx

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