[Politics] Another reason why Eye Witnesses are meaningless; Police Use Photoshop.

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

The Police Photoshopped His Mug Shot for a Lineup. He?s Not the Only One. [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/us/police-photoshop-tattoos.html]

When the police arrested a suspect in a series of bank holdups in Portland, Ore., they took his mug shot and prepared to show it to witnesses in a photo array alongside images of five similar-looking men.

But there was a problem: The suspect had at least a half-dozen facial tattoos, but according to surveillance video and bank tellers, the robber had none.

This was nothing a little Photoshop could not fix.

The police used editing software to remove the tattoos from the picture of the suspect, Tyrone Allen, and presented his revised face to four tellers, at least two of whom identified him as the bank robber. Prosecutors in Portland said Mr. Allen may have applied makeup before the robberies and that investigators simply mimicked the possible disguise.

Mr. Allen's lawyer is asking a judge to throw the identifications out, The Oregonian reported this month, publicizing a practice that has drawn outrage from activists who say the police unfairly changed Mr. Allen's appearance to match witness accounts.

Court records and interviews with police departments across the country show this was not an isolated episode of officers airbrushing aside a discrepancy. Some of the nation's largest police departments regularly use Photoshop and other editing tools in cases where suspects have a distinguishing tattoo, scar, bruise or other mark.

Criminal justice experts say there can be good reasons for touching up photos. For instance, adding a suspect's birthmark to pictures of the other people in the array - known as fillers - can make lineups fairer by ensuring that the perpetrator does not stand out.

Modifying the features of the suspect, however, is less common and has concerned lawyers who say investigators are encouraging positive identifications and changing the appearance of the person they are asking witnesses to identify.

"Law enforcement took these photos of a defendant who did not match the description of eyewitnesses, and then altered the photo to more closely match the witness description," said Mat dos Santos, the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon. "If you can't do a good photo lineup, the answer is not to change the photos; the answer is a photo lineup just shouldn?t be done."

Margaret Bull Kovera, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies witness identification and evidence, said though it could be nearly impossible to find five filler photos that look similar to a suspect with an obvious scar or face tattoo, changing a suspect?s mug shot was unacceptable. And she said she worried that the police could alter photos in other ways, like making a suspect look thinner if they believed that the person gained weight after committing a crime.

I'm sure we will get people who will find a way to defend this.

But this cuts to the core about why I don't trust cops. It's not even that I think all cops are racist. I really don't. I wouldn't have tried to be one if I thought that.

It's the complete imbalance of power that Cops have over people's lives. Where making quota is more important than being fair to people and validating the trust we place in them by giving them all this power. I, you, or anyone here doesn't have the authority or the creditability or the freaking leeway to just ask for the tapes, see that it matches our description... and then just digitally edit the footage and say "Hey, that clearly doesn't look like me".

But the problem also lies with how these police actions will permanently taint these witnesses.

One of the bank tellers who identified Mr. Allen as the robber in the photo array told the police she was "100 percent" sure it was him, prosecutors said.

"The face is really clear," she said. "I'll never forget that face."

(Source [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/us/police-photoshop-tattoos.html])

This next part is conjecture, but has been based on studies [https://www.ncsc.org/sitecore/content/microsites/trends/home/Monthly-Trends-Articles/2017/The-Trouble-with-Eyewitness-Identification-Testimony-in-Criminal-Cases.aspx]. The problem with human memory is how malleable it is. Retroactively, because this person is so assured this man is guilty because he reasonably fits the description on the video tape, they will believe the actual robber had facial tattoos. She'll come up with reasons why she never said in the description that he had facial tattoos, that she was in shock or she swore she did. But in the end, the robber will now always have facial tattoos and he's the right man.

Some people have a good memory, but human survival doesn't work like that. Our fight or flight isn't designed to be hyperaware of Reggie just in case he comes around to steal our lunch money. It becomes aware of Reggie's type. Is Reggie taller than you? You'll start to wonder if taller people can do the same as Reggie. Does Reggie have more bulk than you? Taller, Bulkier people all of a sudden start to fill you with dread. Is Reggie speak with a Southern drawl? You'll wonder why Taller, Bulkier people with a Southern Drawl always puts you on edge.

Of course we're still afraid of the Reggie who is Reggie. But to keep it from happening again, we start to fear everyone who can fit Reggie's type.

I have now made the name Reggie shorthand for villain in the forums. I am pleased.

Here's the thing. When it comes to us individually, we don't trust cops either. We know to keep at the speed limit at the end of the month because cops and sheriffs will write meaningless tickets because they have to make a quota. If we know that they abuse their power and they will fine you for nothing just because their department needs money, why do we pretend that they are too moral to do injustices?

Because it's a huge leap from a fine to pinning a crime on innocent person? Some Chiefs actually demand it of their deputies. [https://nypost.com/2018/07/13/police-chief-told-cops-to-randomly-arrest-black-people-to-boost-crime-stats-probe/] The people in that Florida city were lucky they had Deputies with Morals.

But hell, some Officers take it upon themselves to ruin lives [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UANRvFNc0hw], regardless of race.

I do not trust groups of people with unmeasured power over me as a general rule. But the more that this stuff comes out, I just can't understand why there are some people who bend over backwards to pretend this imbalance of power is ok.

 

[Satinavian]

How is this fabrication of false evidence for court not a criminal act ?

 

[Saelune]

How is this fabrication of false evidence for court not a criminal act ?

It is. But cops are above the law.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

Oh man. That's fucked up.

For some reason this made me think of that Run The Jewels video where the guy gets put in a lineup next to an innocent looking little girl and a nun lol.

 

[CheetoDust_v1legacy]

I knew it! A kindhearted, innocent friendly man took his own life for nothing. Jeffrey Epstein was innocent, it was a black guy in white face all along! Jokes aside that is fucked. And I agree that not all cops are racist but can people please accept that within a (not that old) lifetime rampant, destructive and violent racism was very much the norm across the US. Those attitudes do not just disappear over night. The cops might not be out and out racist and hate black people but they're are clearly prejudices there that need to be addressed.

 

[Palindromemordnilap_v1legacy]

Well that is some major bullshit right there

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Excuse me. I left out one of the most important parts. I'll add it to the OP as well.

One of the bank tellers who identified Mr. Allen as the robber in the photo array told the police she was "100 percent" sure it was him, prosecutors said.

"The face is really clear," she said. "I'll never forget that face."

(Source [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/24/us/police-photoshop-tattoos.html])

This next part is conjecture, but has been based on studies [https://www.ncsc.org/sitecore/content/microsites/trends/home/Monthly-Trends-Articles/2017/The-Trouble-with-Eyewitness-Identification-Testimony-in-Criminal-Cases.aspx]. The problem with human memory is how malleable it is. Retroactively, because this person is so assured this man is guilty because he reasonably fits the description on the video tape, they will believe the actual robber had facial tattoos. She'll come up with reasons why she never said in the description that he had facial tattoos, that she was in shock or she swore she did. But in the end, the robber will now always have facial tattoos and he's the right man.

Some people have a good memory, but human survival doesn't work like that. Our fight or flight isn't designed to be hyperaware of Reggie just in case he comes around to steal our lunch money. It becomes aware of Reggie's type. Is Reggie taller than you? You'll start to wonder if taller people can do the same as Reggie. Does Reggie have more bulk than you? Taller, Bulkier people all of a sudden start to fill you with dread. Is Reggie speak with a Southern drawl? You'll wonder why Taller, Bulkier people with a Southern Drawl always puts you on edge.

Of course we're still afraid of the Reggie who is Reggie. But to keep it from happening again, we start to fear everyone who can fit Reggie's type.

I have now made the name Reggie shorthand for villain in the forums. I am pleased.

 

[Silvanus]

I can't see any reason this shouldn't be considered perversion of the course of justice.

It won't be, of course, and legislators will wring their hands about why the populace has such a distrust for law enforcement.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

But there was a problem: The suspect had at least a half-dozen facial tattoos, but according to surveillance video and bank tellers, the robber had none.

Rational people: Well shit. I guess he's not our suspect, then. It's obvious that the evidence and the suspect don't match.

Cops: ...Maaaannn, we already got THIS guy, can't we just edit the evidence to match the guy we already caught?
The one Good Apple Cop: ...That's...Falsifying evidence. You're going to lock up an innocent guy and let the actual robber escape to keep robbing ban-
Cops: OH EM GEE LARRY, why do you have to make everything political and hard?!

Seriously, shit like this is why a lot of us have trust issues with police.

In a society that made any sense at all, the feds would kick down their doors, spend 2 months breathing down the entire precinct's neck, arrest-charge-prosecute-imprison the people directly responsible, fire the supervisors who allowed this to happen (and by fire I mean across ALL police precincts not just that one), and fine other people who knew it was happening but said nothing.

The cops need to be held to account and feel like "If I falsify evidence, especially in such an obvious way, I should shit my pants because it will destroy my entire life".

 

[Dalisclock]

Not that any of this is right but from my understanding, if evidence were falsified, it wouldn't be too difficult for any decent lawyer to get the defendent off the hook. Even if there was a conviction, if it turned out the evidence used to convict was falsified by the police, that would be more then enough to challenge in court and get the conviction overturned.

I'm not naive enough to believe this always means justice will be served but there's plenty of precedent for cases getting tossed on such things.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Not that any of this is right but from my understanding, if evidence were falsified, it wouldn't be too difficult for any decent lawyer to get the defendent off the hook. Even if there was a conviction, if it turned out the evidence used to convict was falsified by the police, that would be more then enough to challenge in court and get the conviction overturned.

I'm not naive enough to believe this always means justice will be served but there's plenty of precedent for cases getting tossed on such things.

While you're right, the problem isn't that it can be overturned.

It's that in this day and age, with recordings everywhere, Police Officers still have the mentality of "... Fuck it, let's just pin it on this guy. Either it will stick or not, we probably won't get in that much trouble."

And they are usually right [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/18/nyregion/testilying-police-perjury-new-york.html]

Many police officials and experts express optimism that the prevalence of cameras will reduce police lying. As officers begin to accept that digital evidence of an encounter will emerge, lying will be perceived as too risky ? or so the thinking goes.

"Basically it's harder for a cop to lie today," the Police Department's top legal official, Lawrence Byrne, said last year at a New York City Bar Association event, noting that there were millions of cellphones on the streets of New York, each with a camera. "There is virtually no enforcement encounter where there isn't immediate video of what the officers are doing."

As more police encounters are recorded - whether on the cellphones of bystanders or the body-worn cameras of officers - false police testimony is being exposed in cases where the officer?s word might once have carried the day. That is true for run-of-the-mill drug cases as well as for police shootings so notorious that they are seared into the national consciousness.

Yet interviews with officers suggest the prevalence of cameras alone won?t end police lying. That's because even with cameras present, some officers still figure ? with good reason ? that a lie is unlikely to be exposed. Because plea deals are a typical outcome, it?s rare for a case to develop to the point where the defendant can question an officer?s version of events at a hearing.

"There's no fear of being caught," said one Brooklyn officer who has been on the force for roughly a decade. "You're not going to go to trial and nobody is going to be cross-examined."

The percentage of cases that progress to the point where an officer is cross-examined is tiny. In 2016, for instance, there were slightly more than 185 guilty pleas, dismissals or other non-trial outcomes for each criminal case in New York City that went to trial and reached a verdict. There were 1,460 trial verdicts in criminal cases that year, while 270,304 criminal cases were resolved without a trial.

To be sure, officers are sometimes called to testify before trial at so-called suppression hearings in which the legality of police conduct is evaluated. But those are rare. In Manhattan, about 2.4 percent of felony criminal cases have a suppression hearing, according to data from the Manhattan district attorney?s office. The rate for non-felony cases is slightly more than one-tenth of 1 percent.

Some police do face justice, like the Detective Foder they mention in the article. But the rest lose vacation days.

This situation was caught. This one might be overturned. Hell, for all we know, they could even be right and he did use make up.

The question stays... how many Police weren't caught fabricating the situation? How many people got away with the lying under oath? They have the power and still the trust to make the narrative whatever they want. And their "I can not recall" is so much stronger than ours. It actually keeps them out of jail, while ours rockets us to it quicker.

 

[Specter Von Baren]

Did he get the tattoos after those crimes were committed?

 

[Seanchaidh]

Did he get the tattoos after those crimes were committed?

Since the police theory was that he may have been wearing makeup, that seems exceedingly unlikely.

 

[CaitSeith]

What else can be said but WTF!?

 

[CaitSeith]

Did he get the tattoos after those crimes were committed?

The prosecutors said Mr. Allen may have applied makeup before the alleged robberies (how could they tell? It doesn't say)

 

[Agema]

I say fair enough.

Let them photoshop the images, but the judge/jury must be informed that they were doctored. Then let's see how that evidence stands up in court.

 

[Seanchaidh]

I say fair enough.

Let them photoshop the images, but the judge/jury must be informed that they were doctored. Then let's see how that evidence stands up in court.

You'd think any competent defense attorney would get all that laid bare while cross examining. And you might be right some of the time.

 

[Baffle]

I say fair enough.

Let them photoshop the images, but the judge/jury must be informed that they were doctored. Then let's see how that evidence stands up in court.

I think it's only fair that the suspect should be allowed to alter his/her features, name, date of birth and location at the time of the crime if we're going to do that.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

Witnesses only described the culprit as wearing a baseball-style hat and sunglasses. None of the bank tellers reported seeing facial tattoos on the man who robbed them at gunpoint, according to a report from The Oregonian.

(Source [https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/police-digitally-remove-african-american-suspect-tyrone-lamont-allen-tattoos-for-photo-lineup/])

So... why didn't they photoshop a cap and sunglasses on him? Or made them all wear sunglasses and caps? Showing eyewitnesses plain faces of the line-up seems fruitless at best.

Hell, let's just play a game:

Spoiler: Celebrity Who's This!

Spoiler

Kate Bosworth [https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/trends/g5881/celebrity-baseball-caps/?slide=6]

Spoiler: Without Cap and Sunglasses

Spoiler

Ryan Phillippe [https://www.popsugar.com/celebrity/Pictures-Ryan-Phillippe-Wearing-Hat-Sunglasses-LA-8345737]

Spoiler: Without Cap and Sunglasses

Spoiler

Hayden Christensen [https://www.hatnl.top/new-york-yankees-cap-celebrities-01_p4]

Spoiler: Without Cap and Sunglasses

Full Disclosure, there were a lot of Celebs with Caps and Sunglasses that I didn't recognize them without them on... but I also didn't know who they are. So, yeah.

Anyway, Let's be real. Mr. Allen could be actually the guilty party. We don't know that yet. But as the articles I've posted previously and given the track record of the police, any questionable measure can do nothing more than erode the trust placed on these authority figures. I want to be able to trust in the police, but they give me little reason to. And more over, I've already seen these things go wrong before.

Tactics like this will always bring about doubt. Something the police can ill afford now.