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Criminal Justice

Did This Louisiana Deputy Try To Plant Drugs During an Arrest?

Social media users seem to think so. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office says it's "false information."

Zuri Davis | 3.19.2020 3:30 PM

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Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office Drug Evidence | @PrettyJasBadAss/Twitter
(@PrettyJasBadAss/Twitter)

A short video that appears to show a Louisiana deputy planting evidence in the middle of an arrest has blown up on social media after being shared by people who see it as a demonstration of outrageous police misconduct. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office (JPSO) says that narrative is misleading.

A video shows JPSO deputies arresting a black man. While the man is handcuffed and being held down by a deputy, another takes a small bag and gently tosses it to the ground. The crowd witnessing the arrest makes it known that the interaction is being recorded. The deputy picks the bag up, faces the camera, and the person recording is encouraged to run away.

https://twitter.com/PrettyJasBadAss/status/1239702910881144833

Based on the replies to the video, viewers concluded that the deputy was attempting to plant fake evidence.

JPSO confirmed in a statement that it received a call about a man selling drugs in the area. The man in the video fit the description provided to law enforcement. After acknowledging the evidence-planting claim, the sheriff's office said the deputy "gave reasonable explanations to the actions depicted in the video." The suspected evidence initially tested negative for narcotics and the man was not booked on narcotics charges. He was, however, charged with battery and resisting arrest after reportedly biting a deputy.

In a follow-up statement in light of "false information," JPSO said the on-scene deputies maintained that the bag placed on the ground was initially removed from the man's pants pocket. A search warrant uncovered messages related to drug sales. The updated statement also added that further testing by the crime laboratory positively identified the substance in the video as methamphetamine.

Reason reached out to the JPSO to clarify and was referred back to the statements, which are also available on Facebook.

One reason Twitter and Facebook users may have been quick to accuse law enforcement of malfeasance is that there is a clear and well-documented pattern of such misbehavior around the nation; officers have been caught engaging in shady behavior more than once. Baltimore prosecutors dropped 34 cases after an officer recorded himself planting drugs at a crime scene. A Los Angeles officer also recorded himself placing a bag of cocaine in a wallet during an arrest. Just this week, The Intercept reported on a New York police officer recording himself planting marijuana during a traffic stop. It was his second offense.

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NEXT: Trump Suggests Anti-Malarial Drug Chloroquine Is an Effective Treatment Against COVID-19

Zuri Davis was an assistant editor at Reason.

Criminal JusticeLouisianaPolice
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  1. Unicorn Abattoir   5 years ago

    If you have to ask, the answer is yes.

    1. SQRLSY One   5 years ago

      Yes, Government Almighty loves YOU!!!!

    2. Kazinski   5 years ago

      "gave reasonable explanations to the actions depicted in the video."

      I'd like to hear what that reasonable explanation would be. If he had already secured the evidence then why would he need to throw it back on the ground?

      If he wasn't doing anything wrong why would he immediately need to pick it up when they said they were recording it, and then immediately pursue the people doing the filming?

      1. MoreFreedom   5 years ago

        Exactly my thoughts. If the police go after people filming their activity, it suggests that film has evidence the police don't want seen because it implicates them. Cops have no reason to pursue people filming them in public, except to cover up their own crimes.

        And you're right, why after picking up the "evidence" he throws it on the ground, only to pick it up a few seconds later. Sounds like the most likely excuse they could think of.

      2. Jerry B.   5 years ago

        "I’d like to hear what that reasonable explanation would be."

        "Well, he was black, so we knew he'd already have drugs on him somewhere, and just didn't feel like searching all those icky places, so we dropped the bag."

  2. Cynical Asshole   5 years ago

    Baltimore prosecutors dropped 34 cases after an officer recorded himself planting drugs at a crime scene. A Los Angeles officer also recorded himself placing a bag of cocaine in a wallet during an arrest. Just this week, The Intercept reported on a New York police officer recording himself planting marijuana during a traffic stop. It was his second offense.

    I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess that all of those officers are still employed.

    1. Necron 99   5 years ago

      They got paid vacations - what kind of monster are you wanting to punish them further?

      1. Earth Skeptic   5 years ago

        Yep. Getting caught, especially on camera, means a reprimand from the boss and ceaseless ribbing from fellow cops (not for breaking rules, but for getting caught). They have suffered enough.

  3. Duke of url   5 years ago

    "...New York police officer recording himself planting marijuana during a traffic stop. It was his second offense."

    With that kind of hard work, he'll make lieutenant in no time!

  4. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf   5 years ago

    Gee, who'd'a thunk that planting evidence so many times would eventually imprint itself in the public's mind so much. Gosh, interesting times.

    As for this video, it's inconclusive since it doesn't show the arrest from the beginning. But I wouldn't give any cop benefit of the doubt after all the shenanigans they've pulled and all the lies we've heard, especially when the so-called good cops won't out the bad cops for even the most outrageous stunts.

    1. $parcasmic, a love connection   5 years ago

      Right but you told us you want to eat shit and murder babies SQRLSY

      1. SQRLSY One   5 years ago

        Most everyone else around here is smart enough to talk politics, and benevolent (not EVIL) enough to discuss ethics. Not Tulpa! ALL that Tulpa knows about, is to literally talk shit!

      2. SQRLSY One   5 years ago

        “Dear Abby” is a personal friend of mine. She gets some VERY strange letters! For my amusement, she forwards some of them to me from time to time. Here is a relevant one:

        Dear Abby, Dear Abby,
        My life is a mess,
        Even Bill Clinton won’t stain my dress,
        I whinny seductively for the horses,
        They tell me my picnic is short a few courses,
        My real name is Mary Stack,
        NO ONE wants my hairy crack!
        On disability, I live all alone,
        Spend desperate nights by the phone,
        I found a man named Richard Decker,
        But he won’t give me his hairy pecker!
        Decker’s pecker is reserved for farm beasts,
        I am beastly, yes! But my crack’s full of yeasts!

        So Dear Abby, that’s just a poetic summary… You can read about the Love of my Life, Richard Decker, here:
        https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/10/11/farmers-kept-refusing-let-him-have-sex-with-their-animals-so-he-sought-revenge-authorities-say/#comments-wrapper
        Farmers kept refusing to let him have sex with their animals. So he sought revenge, authorities say.
        Decker the hairy pecker told me a summary of his story as below:
        Decker: “Can I have sex with your horse?”
        Farmer: “Lemme go ask the horse.”
        Pause…
        Farmer: “My horse says ‘neigh’!”
        And THAT was straight from the horse’s mouth! I’m not horsin’ around, here, no mare!

        So Decker the hairy pecker told me that, apparently never even realizing just HOW DEEPLY it hurt me, that he was all interested in farm beasts, while totally ignoring MEEE!!

        So I thought maybe I could at least liven up my lonely-heart social life, by refining my common interests that I share with Richard Decker… I, too, like to have sex with horses!

        But Dear Abby, the horses ALL keep on saying “neigh” to my whinnying sexual advances!
        Some tell me that my whinnying is too whiny… Abby, I don’t know how to fix it!

        Dear Abby, please don’t tell me “get therapy”… I can’t afford it on my disability check!

        Now, along with my crack full of yeasts… I am developing anorexia! Some are calling me a “quarter pounder with cheese”, but they are NOT interested at ALL, in eating me!!! They will NOT snack on my crack!

        What will I DO, Dear Abby?!?!?

        -Desperately Seeking Horses, Men, or ANYTHING, in Fort Worth,
        Yours Truly,
        Mary Stack / Tulpa / Mary’s Period / “.” / Satan

        1. Unicorn Abattoir   5 years ago

          Now do Jesus Was a Capricorn.

          1. SQRLSY One   5 years ago

            Wow, never heard of it, thanks for edumacating me!

            https://www.metrolyrics.com/jesus-was-a-capricorn-lyrics-kris-kristofferson.html

            Jesus was a Capricorn
            He ate organic food
            He believed in love and peace
            And never wore no shoes, Long hair, beard and sandals
            And a funky bunch of friends
            Reckon may just nail Him up
            If He come down again, 'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
            Prove they can be better than at any time they please
            Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on
            You can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me

            Related?!?!

            Get back, John Eggheads cursin', rednecks cussin'
            Hippies for their hair
            Others laugh at straights who laugh at
            Freaks who laugh at square, Some folks hate the Whites
            Who hate the Blacks who hate the Klan
            Most of us hate anything that
            We don't understand
            'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
            Prove they can be better than at any time they please
            Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on
            But you can't find nobody else, then help yourself to me, Help yourself brother
            Help yourself [Incomprehensible]
            Help yourself brother

  5. Duke of url   5 years ago

    If these sadistic bastards happily do this to make a minor arrest, imagine what they do after officer involved shootings /rapes!

  6. Duke of url   5 years ago

    IIRC, the notorious Florida drug planting cop Zachary Wester, still carries a gun at his security job, but the attorney that blew the whistle on him got fired for her troubles.

  7. IceTrey   5 years ago

    Simple way to solve this, end drug prohibition.

  8. Duke of url   5 years ago

    "The suspected evidence initially tested negative for narcotics "
    Then,
    ".. Further testing by the crime laboratory positively identified the substance in the video as methamphetamine."
    Police protocol when caught planting evidence, is to re-plant it again when no cameras are around?

    1. BYODB   5 years ago

      It begins to make sense when you realize that forensic science is basically made up garbage, and the people that work for forensic departments have no idea what they're doing even within the framework of their own made up garbage.

    2. HackJackerson   5 years ago

      Shockingly, amphetamines aren't narcotics. They are in fact the exact opposite thing as narcotics.

  9. Dillinger   5 years ago

    >>"gave reasonable explanations to the actions depicted in the video."

    following orders, sir.

  10. Duke of url   5 years ago

    But the heroes made it home safely after their shift of planting drugs, right?

    1. Fat Mike's Drug Habit   5 years ago

      Well of course, but I don't think they got to murder any dogs during this whole fiasco so it's not really a success either. They'll have to strive to do better tomorrow.

  11. LoisGDoane   5 years ago

    I am making a good MONEY (500$ to 700$ / hr )online on my Ipad .Do not go to office.I do not claim to be others,I yoy will call yourself after doing this JOB,It’s a REAL job.Will be very lucky to refer to this...... Read more  

  12. darkflame   5 years ago

    You know, you'd think that cops would be smart enough to realize that stuff like this makes it more likely for people to fight back when the cops come looking for trouble. Why would anyone let themselves be arrested if they know there's a good chance the cops are gonna fabricate evidence to put them in jail? Especially if they're innocent (or a crook, but they know the cops don't have anything on them).

  13. Hank Phillips   5 years ago

    In Texas we call it throwdown dope.

  14. Crazy mick   5 years ago

    When cops plant evidence, the cops are the real victims. They have to feel kinda bad about it, and if it becomes public they'll have to answer an awkward interview question before they get their next promotion.

  15. WilmaMMeyers   5 years ago

    I am creating an honest wage from home 3000 Dollars/week , that is wonderful, below a year agone i used to be unemployed during a atrocious economy. I convey God on a daily basis i used to be endowed these directions and currently it’s my duty to pay it forward and share it with everybody, Here is I started… Read more  

  16. patriciammoreno9   5 years ago

    I just got paid 6500 Buck working off my laptop this month. And if you think that's cool, my divorced friend has twin toddlers and made over 9k Buck her first month. It feels so good making so much money when other people have to work for so much less. This is what I do,
    More Read Here

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