www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1256239/posts?page=1An arresting offer: guns for freedom
The Baltimore Sun ^ | October 25, 2004 | Ryan Davis
Posted on 10/25/2004 10:40:14 AM CDT by neverdem
Two police officers dropped the handcuffed man on the brick steps before Sheila Harding's front door, she says.
From his knees, 23-year-old Richard William Rogers Jr. pleaded to the woman who helped raise him. "They're locking me up," he
remembers saying. "But if you give them a gun, they'll let me go."
It was a startling proposition, Harding says: Trade a gun to avoid a criminal charge.
Interviews and court documents reveal this is a common deal offered by Baltimore police to the suspects they arrest, usually in minor
drug cases. It's so typical that one lieutenant recently declared it a regular procedure within the Police Department's Southern District.
And some officers developed forms to complete when conducting such exchanges.
"That's kidnapping and holding for ransom," says Harding, a 59-year-old South Baltimore resident. "And because they have a badge and
a gun, they're allowed to get away with it."
Guns-for-freedom trades have persisted in Baltimore for years, largely unchecked by police department leaders and entirely
unsanctioned by the rest of the criminal justice system. Prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges and residents say it raises serious
concerns about the authority being exerted by the Baltimore Police Department.
The deals aren't legal or enforceable, experts say.
Residents such as Harding say the practice promotes unwarranted arrests. Criminal defense attorneys say the deals are frequently
broken, prompting distrust of police. Prosecutors say police are usurping the power of prosecutors and judges.
"How is that justice?" asks Cheryl Jacobs, the chief prosecutor of the city state's attorney's narcotic division. "That's not the way our
system of justice is set up to work. ... It's laudable to get guns off the street, but this is not the way we go about it."
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