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Title: Cop Caught in Weed Growing Operation Awarded $200,000 by Department
Source:
The Anti-Media
URL Source: http://theantimedia.org/cop-caught- ... -awarded-200000-by-department/
Published: May 11, 2015
Author: Carey Wedler
Post Date: 2015-05-12 05:40:02 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 2491
Comments: 3
Last week, a former Buffalo police officer was awarded nearly $200,000 after being fired for running a cannabis grow operation. You read that correctly. Jorge L. Melendez was terminated in 2012 after a year long investigation found that he was supervising a grow operation with over 100 plants. Last August, he plead guilty in a U.S. district court and is currently serving four years in prison for his violations (the minimum sentence is 5-40 years). It is worth noting that before Melendez worked for the Buffalo Police, he was a drug informant for the FBI. He was caught selling drugs but the FBI did not have enough evidence to convict him. Instead, they allowed him to work as an informant. The Buffalo Police department was unaware of his history when they hired him. In spite of his admission of guilt over the marijuana plants, Melendez was awarded $195,507.24 in back pay because of a technicality in the way he was fired. The Buffalo branch of the powerful police union, the Police Benevolent Association, came to his aid because he was terminated without a disciplinary hearing. As such, an arbitrator ordered the City of Buffalo to pay the incarcerated man for time he never worked. The city plans to appeal the decision. On its face, this story seems commonplace. Police officers are caught selling drugs all the time. They are often prosecuted and sentenced to prison (this seems to happen more often than convictions for killing innocent people). Rather, what is unique about this case is twofold: First, in spite of the fact that Melendez was imprisoned for participating in the drug trade, his sentence was less than the federal minimum and far more lenient than others who have sold less. Because of mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, individuals — often non-violent — have been sentenced to life in prison for selling an infinitesimal fraction of what Melendez was accused of cultivating. This case highlights the persistent reality that there is one set of laws for the people and another for those who rule over them. This, however, is still relatively old news. Cops are routinely let off the hook for egregious crimes while individuals lives’ are destroyed for non-violent offenses. What is more impressive about Melendez’s story is the dedication the police union showed to his case. The Police Benevolent Association is known for defending officers—no matter what they do. The union has stood by officers accused of murder and preaches blind subservience to police at the national level. The union’s willingness to defend Melendez exposes a clear lack of moral foundation. For all of the union’s grandstanding about law and order, the PBA proved itself more concerned with keeping tabs on department policy and “contracts” than with upholding the nation’s laws—which is supposedly the entire point of having police and why people support them. The Buffalo PBA did acknowledge Melendez’s “wrong-doing,” saying: We don’t want this kind of person on the job; neither does the mayor nor the commissioner. Criminals and drug dealers cast a stain upon all the good police officers. The Buffalo PBA argued that they were defending Melendez to protect his contract and avoid a costly lawsuit later. Nevertheless, the PBA’s apparent respect for accountability is difficult to take seriously when its various branches consistently demonstrate a lack of regard for keeping officers accountable. Meanwhile, though non-violent individuals rot in jail for decades, Melendez will be out in 2018—and he will have a stack of money waiting for him upon release. This article is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author and TheAntiMedia.org. Tune in to the Anti-Media radio show Monday through Friday @ 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Help us fix our typos: edits@theantimedia.org.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
The cop was fired without a disciplinary hearing in violation of his union contract with the city. Because of that violation, he was awarded $195,507.24 in back pay. That's it. That's the story. Yawn.
Attaboy paulsen. Anyone but a cop did this and they wouldn't get one red cent. In a Cop Culture, the Bill of Rights Doesn’t Amount to Much Most Americans, oblivious about their own rights, aren’t even aware that police officers have their own Bill of Rights. Yet at the same time that our own protections against government abuses have been reduced to little more than historic window dressing, 14 states have already adopted LEOBoRs—written by police unions and being considered by many more states and Congress—which provides police officers accused of a crime with special due process rights and privileges not afforded to the average citizen. In other words, the LEOBoR protects police officers from being treated as we are treated during criminal investigations: questioned unmercifully for hours on end, harassed, harangued, browbeaten, denied food, water and bathroom breaks, subjected to hostile interrogations, and left in the dark about our accusers and any charges and evidence against us. Not only are officers given a 10-day “cooling-off period” during which they cannot be forced to make any statements about the incident, but when they are questioned, it must be “for a reasonable length of time, at a reasonable hour, by only one or two investigators (who must be fellow policemen), and with plenty of breaks for food and water.” According to investigative journalist Eli Hager, the most common rights afforded police officers accused of wrongdoing are as follows: It’s a pretty sweet deal if you can get it, I suppose: protection from the courts, immunity from wrongdoing, paid leave while you’re under investigation, and the assurance that you won’t have to spend a dime of your own money in your defense. And yet these LEOBoR epitomize everything that is wrong with America today.
You are so full of shit ... "Fired Fall River teacher Colleen Murray-Hackett awarded 3 years back pay, rehired" Andrew Harris was a seventh-grade teacher in the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District who was fired in 2010 for looking at pornography at school. Now he has his job back along with nearly $200,000 in back pay." "Under the ruling, the district must give former Lafayette Street Elementary School teacher Neil Thomas his job and any back pay he missed during his suspension." "Akron firefighter Timothy Semelsberg was fired for living outside the city in 2006. He won a unanimous verdict in Ohio's Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that could lead him to over $250,000 in paychecks the city denied him" "Arbitrator Michael Rappaport ordered Clark County to rehire firefighter Donald Munn in his arbitration order ...He also ordered that Munn be reinstated to his former position and repaid any losses in earnings or benefits that he would have received had he not been terminated." "The Berwyn City Council agreed to pay former city civilian radio operator Cynthia Hurckes $104,000 for lost wages after she was fired from her job while working under the city's previous administration. Hurckes also was awarded her old job back and started work last week. "A state Office of Administrative Law judge has ruled that a Hudson County employee should receive back pay from July 2012 to March of this year after she was terminated from her position after taking two additional weeks of medical leave following a previous absence, officials said."
#2. To: misterwhite (#1)
(Edited)
The cop was fired without a disciplinary hearing in violation of his union contract with the city. Because of that violation, he was awarded $195,507.24 in back pay.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Paul Craig Roberts
#3. To: Deckard (#2)
"Anyone but a cop did this and they wouldn't get one red cent."
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