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Unethical Police

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Unethical Police

Lauren Siebert

CJA/214

April 16, 2013

Richard Banahan

Police corruption and misconduct is an issue that is very close to home for me. I am experiencing the outcome as I sit here today. Whether people want to hear it or not, police corruption does exist, it has for a long time and probably will for another long time. During the course of this paper I will talk about police corruption, misconduct, and brutality, present two cases in which these acts took place, describe the details of the case and their outcomes and address my feelings on that outcome.

As of right now, I am living one of the worst nightmares that anyone could imagine. My family is personally going through a case of police misconduct and corruption. My brother- in- law was 18 years old when he passed away on November 22, 2011. His mother sold him three fentanyl patches in which he chewed all at once and overdosed. Our family knew right away that she was responsible for his death but know we just had to prove it. We gathered every bit of evidence that we could, text messages between the two of them blatantly discussing the sale and purchase of the drugs, eye witness testimony from his friends that witnessed the sale, a video of him stating that he had bought drugs from his mother and her sister, the wrappers from the patches that have a DEA number on them that can be traced through the pharmacy right back to her, and a death certificate stating cause of death as fentanyl intoxication. The Granite City, IL police department has all of this information and yet has not done anything with it. They do not even call anymore and pretend that they are still working on the case. We have even tried to contact the States Attorney office and a prosecutor to get the case rolling but the Granite City police department refuses to hand over the evidence. My husband and my

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