Police Abuses in Philadelphia
A summary

• On re-trial, Neil Ferber's 1981 conviction and death sentence were overturned when the jury found he had been framed by Philadelphia police officers. The presiding judge called it a "Kafkaeque nightmare of the sort which we normally would characterize as being representative of the so called justice system of a totalitarian state. Unfortunately, and shamefully, as the trial evidence showed, it happened here in Philadelphia."
   
• A raid on the 25th District headquarters found hundreds of bags of heroin, crack, marijuana stowed in an airduct. The stash had been used to plant drugs on suspects, framing the innocent or for turning misdeamenor possession into a felony. One officer, Bruce DeNoble, was fired after 27 vials of crack were found in his locker. He was later reinstated after arguing that his failure to properly dispose of the drugs was an oversight.
   
• Officers admitted to framing Betty Patterson - a 54 year old grandmother from north Philadelphia - by planting evidence in her house. Wrongly convicted Ms Patterson had served three years in prison.
   
• 21-year-veteran Thomas V. Collins was fired after being caught having oral sex with a juvenile in a parked van. When Eileen and Bob Donnelly caught him in the act, he threatened them with his gun.
   
• Police raided Mount Zion, the largest black church in the city, interrupting a wedding and arresting the groom for missing a court appearance. Rev. Joseph Paterson, President of Black Clergy of Philadelphia, commented: "In Philadelphia, when you're confronted with the criminal at one end of the block and the police at the other, you don't know which way to run."
   
• Police held Francisco Rivera, a 10-year-old mentally disturbed boy in a jail cell for almost 19 hours, denying him access to his family.
   
• Captain Thomas Thompson - head of the a police unit concerned with racial and religious sensitivity - was overheard making a racial slur at an August 12, 1995 rally in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Addressing a black officer, Thompson was heard to say, "you are sweating like a nigger." Thompson insisted he was only joking. The Captain has since been demoted.

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