We continue our discussion on police ethics with a recent case in Baltimore Police Department. The Baltimore Sun Reporter Justin Fenton followed the trial of several indictments of a group of Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF) officers of the BPD. He wrote a series of articles related to this case. Take a look at this video first :
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/95691978-132.html
And then read this:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-gttf-verdict-20180208-story.html
Recently, a group of Chicago attorneys took up the case of one of the victims from the GTTF scandal to help clear his name. See update reporting:
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/crime/bs-md-ci-gttf-paylor-hollander-20190307-story.html
After you’ve watched the video and read the two articles, please answer the following (reply to at least two of your classmates to receive maximum credits):
1. What are the GTTF officers’ behaviors in question reported in the coverage?
2. As we covered rotten apples and rotten barrels analogy in the chapter, looking at this GTTF case, how would you characterize the corruption here? Are the indicted officers (two convicted by a federal jury trial but six more pled guilty) a few bad apples or do you believe the department is problematic in some way? Explain your reasoning.
3. After reading the most recent update regarding Keyon Paylor, what are the lasting repercussions of the officers’ behaviors? Answer this question thinking about two aspects: 1. concerning the welfare of the public; 2. concerning the efficiency of the justice system.
