Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist
New York, NY — To all those who make the bogus claim of “if you don’t do anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about,” consider the following case as even more evidence of how ridiculous that assertion is. Two innocent brothers were framed by NYPD cops who were caught on video destroying video evidence of their egregious act. Luckily for the brothers, the hard drive in the video recorder survived and it caught these badged criminals in the act.
Earlier this year, apparent criminals with the NYPD’s gang unit executed a search warrant on a store owned by two brothers. The entrepreneurs had committed no crime, were conducting 100% legal business, yet they were kidnapped by officers and caged for over a month on false charges.
The cops accused the brothers of having a large amount of cocaine and when they were booked into jail, the DA’s office provided no documentation and asked for the two brothers to be held without bail.
“It was the worst day of my life,” said one of the brothers, who asked not to be identified by name, according to NBC 4. “We never had drugs in the store,” he added.
Highlighting the level of criminality associated with this raid is the fact that the cops used the notoriously faulty field test kits to test the “cocaine.” As TFTP has reported on numerous occasions, tens of thousands have been convicted and served time for crimes they didn’t commit because the cases against them relied on horribly unreliable field drug test kits. So prone to errors are the tests, courts won’t allow their submission as evidence. However, they are continued to be used by law enforcement, needlessly ruining thousands of lives.
This time, however, the test kits showed that the substance tested was not drugs. Yes, you read that correctly. The cheap faulty kit actually returned a negative result for cocaine, but the cops arrested the innocent brothers anyway and had them locked up without bail.
The brothers would spend over a month in jail before lab tests for cocaine came back negative. All the charges were then dropped, but their lives and business had been ruined by their absence. When the brothers finally went back to their store, they found that cops had left behind the field test kits — which all showed negative results. That wasn’t the only thing cops left behind either. As NBC New York reports:
What cops also left: that destroyed recorder. The brothers took it to a friend who is a computer engineer and he recovered footage from two cameras. The video shows two different angles, one from an external camera and the other an internal camera. Officers are seen handcuffing the two owners. A few minutes later, a captain gestures to the location where the camera is located. He gets a step ladder and pulls the cords. Eventually, the camera goes blank.
Attorney Marvyn Kornberg, a criminal attorney who represents the brothers, said, “It’s a unit gone wild, that’s what it says to me. They think they’re above the law. They’re ripping out cameras. What are they afraid of the public seeing?”
Naturally, the NYPD, who claims this incident is “under investigation,” said they destroyed the cameras for “tactical” reasons.
“That’s ridiculous,” said Richard Rivera, a former police officer in West New York, New Jersey, who is now a police tactics expert, according to NBC 4.
“They could have covered the cameras. The way they come in doesn’t indicate that any of them is concerned about a remote feed. They’re not worried about security. It’s like a walk in the park to them,” he said, noting that there is no legitimate reason to destroy evidence in that manner.
“This whole incident is a huge mess for them,” he said. “If this is an ongoing drug case, they would want to preserve the evidence, not destroy it, and that’s exactly what they did.”
When asked why they would recommend no bail for the brothers, the DA’s officer pointed the finger back at the NYPD, saying they relied on their word that the claims were true. Unfortunately for the brothers, this blind trust in badged criminals would land them in a cage for over a month.
To date, the brothers still have no idea why these criminals from the NYPD showed up at their store that day. As part of their lawsuit against the city, they have demanded prosecutors turn over the underlying basis for the search warrant. They have also filed a notice of claim to sue the city and the taxpayers will undoubtedly be held liable for these criminal cops.
” Ah, yes your honor, it wasn’t just the cocaine, it was eh, it was… Terrorism! Yea that what it was… (voice of John Lovitz)
Firing squad for the pigs and the judge who had a hand in this.
You couldn’t pay me $ for the time you cost me because lifetime is precious and priceless, but I would accept a pound of flesh per second at my hand and exactly HOW at my own discretion.