Richard Keech Newsletter #24 2-20-2000
©Copyright 2000
Editors note: With the current high profile Los Angeles Police
Dept.
scandal which includes phony arrests and the planting of
evidence (usually
drugs), it is interesting to see the human side of those who
lost their
freedom. Over two dozen police have lost their jobs and Mayor
Riordin
anticipates that more than 300 million dollars will be required
to handle
all of the lawsuits for false imprisonment. While Richard
certainly
doesn't condone the drug trade, he feels the Marine sense of
fairness when
it comes to such legal matters.
August 24, 1999 Tuesday
Dear Joan
It's Tuesday morning and it's letter writing time. I'm
sitting on a
lower bench in one of the bleachers behind our baseball diamond.
It's about
10:30 AM.
The morning cloud cover has burned off. The sun is warm.
The sky is
clear without a cloud in it. It's just a darn nice day.
Hey! I've got a good story for you! Yesterday I lost a
friend. This
happens in prison. Sentences come to an end. You watch a dear
friend leave
and pray for the best. You're happy for them, and yet you'll
miss them.
This was one of my Costa Rica dreamers. I've told you
about them. They
are avid readers of my Costa Rica paper, the Tico Times.
I think of them as dreamers, because they dream of escaping
California's
parole system. They won't! They can't, but it's a nice dream.
(Under
California's parole system they assign a parole officer to make
sure all
paroled men come back to prison.)
My good friend's name was Norm. He was tall with a nice
friendly look
to him. He was intelligent. He was also dying slowly of a
variety of the
disease Lupus. He couldn't get around without crutches.
Norm was a product of the Vietnam lost generation. He
served in the
Navy during the Vietnam war on a submarine. He did well but
came home to a
culture that said "everyone is in to drugs".
He accepted this premise, with some interesting
reservations. An easy wa
y to make a living, a poor way to live. He applied his skills
to the
business of providing drugs for his friends.
This proved to be a profitable career and one that he never
strayed from
until forced to quit by the law. During his years as a
successful, if minor,
drug entrepreneur he married three times and reared three
families of kids.
His career as a successful purveyor of drugs came to an end
one day in a
rather interesting way. It's interesting because it is exactly
what usually
happens.
Over the years his service to his community of drug users
had become
known to law endorsement. He continued to operate in spite of
that knowledge
by carefully refraining from doing anything illegal himself. He
had
convinced himself he would have no problem with the law as long
as there was
no way they could legally catch him in the act. He assumed it
was OK for him
to operate outside the law, while he could depend on them always
having to do
their jobs within the law.
This is not a valid assumption as any police detective will
tell you.
If you believe this you are a fool.
In time the authorities became annoyed with his continued
existence in
defiance of their authority. The solution of was simple. In
every police
department there are cops who are known to be "remarkably lucky"
in finding
evidence when arresting a possible law breaker.
So - the Chief wants this petty drug dealer shut down?
Just send Joe
"very lucky" cop to bring him in. Surprise, Mr. "very lucky"
finds drugs in
the defendant's possession.
A major mistake by my friend, assuming the cops had to
operate within
the law.
Later he makes one more mistake that is even worse. During
the
interrogation in which the cops were hoping to discover some
real evidence
against my friend, they accidentally break his back.
Now we get to his final and what may prove to have been his
fatal
mistake. He sues the deputies and the county in civil court for
some 15
million in damages. He naively assumes these deputies still
have to operate
within the law.
Not so, of course. In fact, in their world of service to
the courts and
the district attorneys, they are virtually untouchable. They're
invulnerable.
He suddenly finds that witnesses have been pried out of the
jail system
who can swear to his having been involved in several previous
crimes.
There's no way he can pursue his civil case because he is now in
prison for
these other crimes which he didn't do.
My friend is stubborn though. He continues to press his
civil suit and
makes some progress. It's still pending somewhere in the
courts.
Time passes. We are now up to the present. My friend has
served the
specified time and is due to go out on parole in a couple of
weeks. Is it
over now? No! Two days before he's to be released by CMC he
receives word
that he is being remanded to the San Bernardino County jail.
Very unusual the CMC staff say, but, they have paperwork
from the San
Bernardino people. The paper tells them a San Bernardino deputy
will come up
to CMC to get my friend.
My friend is not surprised and he realizes it's over now.
He's lost.
He is never going to make it to the county jail.
He spends his remaining days with us sharing all of his
personal
possessions. He comes to each of us and thanks us for our
friendship. He
does not expect to arrive at San Bernardino alive.
Having seen just such a situation in more than one Perry
Mason film I
sit with him and insist that he sit down and write a letter to
his lawyer, to
be opened on his death. At first he laughs, but before he
leaves he does
just this.
We tell him, "When that deputy asks you to step out of the
car and start
walking down the road, you can laugh at him and say "this is
exactly what I
predicted in my letter to my lawyer". "These may just be the
words that save
you life", we say.
So, ours is an interesting world is it not? Enough for
now. Thanks for
your interest in our world.
As ever - All my best to you and your family.
Love
Dick Keech
Semper Fidelis <A
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