At one point during the interrogation, the investigators even threatened to have his pet Labrador Retriever, Margosha, euthanized as a stray, and brought the dog into the room so he could say goodbye. “OK? Your dog’s now gone, forget about it,” said an investigator.

Finally, after curling up with the dog on the floor, Perez broke down and confessed. He said he had stabbed his father multiple times with a pair of scissors during an altercation in which his father hit Perez over the head with a beer bottle.

Perez’s father wasn’t dead — or even missing. Thomas Sr. was at Los Angeles International Airport waiting for a flight to see his daughter in Northern California. But police didn’t immediately tell Perez.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    976 months ago

    Sadism. The pigs enjoyed watching him suffer. It’s the simplest and most obvious explanation, and all that bullshit about smelling blood is a lie designed to cover their tracks.

    In a slightly more just society, that $900,000 would have come out of the bastards’ malpractice insurance, their careers would be destroyed, and they would face investigation by an independent civilian oversight committee & face harassment / abuse charges.

    A society that was slightly better still would see them afraid to show their fucking faces in that town ever again.

    Perez was not released until after the end of the three-day psychological observation period. He then retrieved his dog from Riverside County Animal Services, tracking her down through an implanted chip, Steering said.

    They didn’t even give his fucking dog back!!!

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      43
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      As a responsible pet owner, that makes me unbelievably angry. Bad decisions would follow. I would likely go to jail for my actions and argue that I can’t be held fully responsible on account of my reasonable and extreme rage.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        446 months ago

        To be honest, were I in that guy’s position and they threatened to euthanize my dog and brought him to me to say goodbye, that likely would have been the ultimate end of my stint in free society right there. Zero chance I don’t try to kill them with my bare hands when my sanity is already hanging by a thread. In my opinion this fully qualifies as psychological torture, and no person has any duty to suffer it quietly or otherwise.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        56 months ago

        The insurance company doesn’t get to make that call, the courts do. The insurance company gets to dictate the premiums each cop has to pay.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            36 months ago

            The point is that the cost of lawsuits would come out of the police officer’s pockets due to higher premiums, instead of out of tax payer’s pockets which means the officers don’t care.

            institute proper punishments for offending officers

            That is a fantastic idea I whole heartedly agree with. Who is in charge of assigning the punishments? Police unions refuse to have civilian oversight.

              • @[email protected]
                link
                fedilink
                English
                16 months ago

                man, it’s a good thing police forces are private institutions funded by their own dollar.

                That’s the entire point. Police stations are tax funded. They torture someone into a false confession and the station gets fined $900 000, which comes from taxes, so they don’t fucking care.

                What I said was: the cost of lawsuits would come out of the police officer’s pockets, not the police precinct’s. The Officers would be paying the insurance costs out of their paychecks. Each lawsuit means the officer ends up with less money. If a specific precinct keeps having lawsuits against it that will result in higher rates for working in a “high risk precinct”. Lawsuits should result in financial consequences for the people involved, not for tax payers.

                legally, it should be the court, and a jury.

                There should absolutely be legal consequences for the officers involved here. How much do you want to bet there won’t be?