Accused Drug Dealer Acquitted, Entrapment Says the Judge

Last week, Judge Bortner found Kevin Clark not guilty of possessing drugs with the intent to sell them, saying that he was entrapped by the police and a police informant.  Defense attorney Fran Miller argued successfully that the informant enticed and encouraged Kevin Clark to commit an act that he otherwise would not have committed.  Entrapment is a rare defense, one I've not seen used successfully in more than 10 years in Law Enforcement. 

The Story is HERE at The DAILY LOCAL NEWS website.  The "Entrapment"section of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code is reprinted below for reference

18 PA CS 313 - Entrapment - A public law enforcement official, or a person action in cooperation with such an official, perpetrates an entrapment if for the purposes of obtaining evidence of the commission of an offense, he induces or encourages another person to engage in conduct constituting such offense by either:


1) by making knowingly false representations designed to induce the belief that such conduct is not prohibited, or;
2) employing methods of persuasion or inducement which create a substantial risk that such an offense will be committed by persons other than those who are ready to commit it.

One less drug dealer off the street, I guess. 

Upper Darby Police Officer Shot

Story here at The Daily Local News:  Local Police Officer Shot

My best wishes go to Officer Raymond Blohm of the Upper Darby Police Department and his family.  According to the news reports and the press release from UDPD, Ray Blohm was shot by a coward after Officer Blohm stopped him for smoking pot and drinking in public.  Rather than face the consequences, this guy chooses to pull out a gun and shoot the police officer 4 times.  The heroics of the officer can't be over-emphasized.  After being shot multiple times and after his police radio was destroyed by an errant bullet, he shot the bad guy back, chased him down, and called for assistance via his own cell phone.  My thanks and admiration go to Raymond Blohm.

My utter disgust goes out to the as of now nameless waste of space and air that chose to assault the officer.  Unfortunately, instances like these are a reminder to me, my family, and the law enforcement family at large of this simple fact: There are evil people in this world.  These people play by different rules, and they put good people in danger. The pessimist in me wonders how many thousands of dollars the government will waste paying for medical treatment, rehabilitation, etc. for this ne'er-do-well, who will undoubtedly spend months in treatment at a first rate hospital followed by years at a prison that is far too comfortable, and far less punitive.

Oh, and before we have to hear the stories of how bad this person's childhood was, and what emotional syndrome, disease, condition or whatever that he suffers from, I ask this of my readers:  Does any of it matter?  If the facts reported in the paper are accurate, there is nothing that you can say to me that will minimize the shooter's culpability or responsibility.   He shot a police officer who was confronting him about smoking weed and drinking in public.  End of story.

The citizens of Upper Darby should be proud of Officer Raymond Blohm.  I know I am.

Who pays for dubfest ?

Joe Norley, West Chester Community Activist, posted an article recently regarding the costs of last weeks "Dubfest"  link to that article here : http://www.knowjoe.tumblr.com/
Joe Norley brings up a good point. Who will pay for the extra police expenses from Dubfest last weekend? In the end, we all know that like anything else, John Q Taxpayer picks up the bill. But is that fair?
Since he's a resident, I assume Joe's answer is no.

All across the state and the nation, local, state and federal agencies are tightening budgets. One need look no further than the cities of Philadelphia and Coatesville to see municipalities struggling to operate within budget constraints while maintaining certain levels of service.  To my knowledge, the largest single piece of most municipalities' budgets is the police department. For a municipality to have to shell out extra money to
cover an event that is not supported by most taxpayers would certainly leave a bad taste in my mouth as a tax payer too. Joe, in this respect, I feel your pain.

Some will blame the police department for over-reacting. These same people would blame the police department if something bad did happen and the police were had not prepared for it.

Maybe Dubfest is not the best example. How do we hold specific people responsible for an "event" is not clearly "organized" by any one person or group of persons.In a perfect world, it would be the users that a are charged user fees for services. In other words, if you plan an event that requires police service, you are responsible to pay for that service. If you committ a crime that requires police response, you pay for that service. It would be just like paying a water bill, or paying for trash pick-up. Unfortunately, we already know that this is not a perfect world, and the system is not a perfect system. Joe, I fear that you (and your fellow tax paying residents) will be stuck holding the bill.  I'm sure not many people will say this, so let me be the first...Thank You.

I have a dream too

I have a dream. A police officer's dream. More than 200 years ago, our forefathers carved out a country of our own. With it, they penned a constitution, a document envied by the rest of the world ever since. Eventually, every state adopted its own constitution and criminal statutes. Every state's laws are very similar. Every state has laws against Murder, Theft, Robbery, Burglary, Assault, etc. Every state has certain punishments for crimes designed to be commensurate with the severity of the crime. Every state has jails and prisons to hold criminals. The system seems to be designed quite well. The police catch the bad guys. Juries decide whether they are guilty or not. Judges decide how long they are imprisoned, and at the end of their sentences, they are released.

But our system doesn't ever seem to work this seamlessly.

I have a dream that there is no such thing as "loopholes", that a persons guilt or innocence does not depend on his wealth or quality or his lawyer.

I have a dream that there is no such thing as a "technicality", that if the police, courts, defense attorney, or prosecutors make an honest mistake, it if just a mistake and does not entitle the bad guy to a free pass

I have a dream that there are no "pleas bargains", that if you "do the crime, you do the time."

I have a dream that prisons don't ever have to "make room" for new prisoners by releasing other prisoners before the end of their sentences.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that prisons weren't country clubs and bad guys were actually inconvenienced by going to prison.

I have a dream that no matter what craziness the day brings, each and every police officer goes home safely at the end of every shift. A dream that no wife, husband, father or mother has to find out that their loved one has become a "line of duty death."


Ah, but moreover, I have a dream that there was no such thing as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or Shift Work Sleep Disorder.

I have a dream that there is no difference between the life expectancy of a police officer and that of a librarian.

I have a dream that anybody is actually reading this blog!

Anyway, enough dreaming. Stop back later in the week for some comic relief...

Happy Mother's Day

This Mother's Day, I'd like to thank all of the good moms out there. As a police officer, good moms make my job easier. We all know that the effects of absent or otherwise bad parenting tends to manifest itself in the next generation.

I'm certainly not perfect, but I thank my mother for helping me become what I've become. I'm as proud of her as I hope she is of me.

A Note about Police Corruption

This post's title sounds more interesting that it really is, trust me. In the Police Academy, I learned that the smallest form of police corruption is the free coffee. The scenario goes like this: Officer walks into ABC coffee hut. Officer grabs a coffee and the newspaper. Clerk rings order and only charges officer for the newspaper. The coffee was free. Is this fair? Does everyone get a free coffee? The officer tries to pay for the coffee, but the clerk won't let him, saying "Cops get free coffee, company policy" loud enough for everyone in the store to hear it.

The next day, the officer returns to ABC coffee hut. Again, a free coffee. Again, the officer tries to pay but is told by the loudspeaker of a clerk that "COFFEE IS FREE FOR COPS". A few people in line mumble and grumble something about lazy cops and free coffee and donuts. The officer slumps out of the coffee shop, leaving a two dollar tip in the tip jar so that it doesn't seem like he's taking advantage.

The next day, the officer stops a car for speeding. Guess who's driving? Its the clerk from ABC coffee hut. The officer explains to the driver that he's receiving a citation for speeding, doing 75 in a 35. The clerk scoffs at him in disbelief. "What do you mean I'm getting a ticket?" he shouts. "I give you free coffee every day!" The officer kindly explains that the driver was doing 40 mph over the speed limit, and that it was extremely dangerous. The officer wonders to himself, "does this guy think a few free coffees add up to carte blanche to do whatever you want?"

To solve the problem in the future, the officer stops going to ABC coffee hut for his coffee and newspaper. Its a shame too, because he really liked the coffee there.

The next time you see a cop get a free coffee at the local coffee hut, remember that one way or the other, he'd paid for that coffee three times over.

The Fuzz Buzz, Day One

This is it - my first blog post. So what do I blog about? Crime? Gun Control? The Death Penalty? DubFest? Jimmy Johns? Since I'm new to this, I'll start slowly and keep it simple.

I'm a police officer, and I have been for ten years. That's most of my adult life. People treat cops differently. Cops know this. For example, when I meet people in a social setting for the first time and they find out I'm a police officer they change immediately. Some get very uncomfortable, as if at any moment I might throw them against the wall and frisk them. Some immediately turn into 12 year old kids and want to know what type of gun I carry and when was the last time I shot someone. Some insist that I tell them some great story about work and then are disappointed when I can't think of one. Some seem confused and say stuff like "you're a cop, really?" as though cops aren't allowed to go to Christmas parties or happy hours. Fact is, for the most part, police are as run of the mill as the people at any other workplace. My point - if you meet a police officer at a party or at the next PTA meeting at school, don't ask him if he prefers a .40 to the .45 or if he's allowed to have a beer off duty. There's gotta be other stuff to talk about, right?

So anyway -

• Crime? The lower the better.
• Gun Control? Definitely a blog for another day.
  
• The Death Penalty? See Gun Control.
  
• DubFest? See http://knowjoe.tumblr.com, I don't think he's done talking about it yet.
• Jimmy Johns? Best hot dogs ever. I hope they do what ever they have to do to re-open.
  

Hope to see some readers back here soon. Let's be careful out there...