Ethnic slurs and tire dumping alleged

tire dumpingrev

 
By Charles Sercombe
Several months ago there were media reports of a police informant claiming he was forced by a Hamtramck detective to illegally dump used tires.
That informant, whose name has not been made public and uses the alias “John Doe,” has now filed a lawsuit against the Hamtramck and Highland Park police departments on April 8 in Wayne County Circuit Court.
The accusations in the lawsuit are lurid and a public relations nightmare for the city.
In a nutshell, the informant claims he was not paid money he was promised in exchange for providing information and carrying out assignments.
In the course of dealing with a detective from Highland Park and Hamtramck, he claims officers regularly used ethnic and racial slurs.
The Review is not identifying the detectives’ names because they conduct undercover work.
Hamtramck Police Chief Anne Moise declined to respond to the lawsuit claims, saying: “It is not the city’s policy to discuss any pending or current litigation, this would include comments from our employees.”
Here is a breakdown of the informant’s claims:
He was promised 5 percent of all money seized as a result of his information.
In 2015, the informant’s work lead to a raid of an auto dealership on 8 Mile in which 63 vehicles were seized along with $6,000 to $8,000 in cash. The cars were eventually redeemed for $1,000 each.
The informant said he was compensated for that raid.
Last August the informant participated in an investigation into a Conant tire store. He was told by the detectives that they wanted to broom out “these f—ing A-rabs” from the community.
The informant’s job was to get the owner of the tire business to sell him marijuana and guns. But to gain the trust of the owner, he first offered to take used tires and dump them for $1 each.
The informant did this with the assistance of the detectives, who acted as lookouts and escorts. The Highland Park detective paid for a U-Haul to transport the tires.
An unmarked police van was also used in performing this job.
The informant at first thought the tires would be dumped in Hamtramck, but the Hamtramck detective said: “You must be out of your n—– mind if you think we are dumping those tires in Hamtramck.”
Instead, the tires were dumped in Detroit.
During the course of the informant’s contact with the detectives the following slurs were used: “sand n——“; “towel heads”; “f—ing A-rabs”; “camel jockeys.”
At one point the informant complained about the language and was told by the Highland Park detective: “A little n—– never hurt anybody.”
Eventually the police raided the tire store and confiscated $30,000 but the informant was not given his 5 percent of the take.
In a raid of an insurance agent in Dearborn in which $7,000 to $8,000 was seized, the informant said he was also not compensated.
He reported this to Chief Moise, who told him she would “take care of it.”
That didn’t happen and the informant then told the FBI about the use of racial and ethnic slurs by the detectives. After that the detectives came to the informant’s house in an unmarked car with their guns drawn, saying: “We don’t give a f— if you call our bosses, we aren’t scared of any FBI, and now you are really going to wait for your money.”
Other accusations include an officer putting thousands of dollars into his pocket from the raid of the 8 Mile auto dealership.
Officers converted seized televisions for personal use and offered seized property to people not with the police departments for their own use.
The informant’s attorney, Marco Bisbikis, said he hopes the lawsuit will encourage others “to step forward and speak up if they have been victimized similar to what is stated in our suit, so together we can stop this oppression, discrimination and abuse.”
“In doing so we must hold these officials accountable for their actions.”

 

5 Responses to Ethnic slurs and tire dumping alleged

  1. Guest

    April 17, 2016 at 3:35 pm

    The first thing after leaving state control is to disband the PD and contact it’s duties to Wayne County Sheriff.

  2. Roadman

    April 19, 2016 at 1:07 am

    Wow! What a story!

    The $64.00 is whether the persons who may have had their property taken will also sue the City of Hamtramck?

    One gets the feeling that this story is only going to get BIGGER as time goes on.

    Curiously, no spokesperson for the city has yet come forward to deny the allegations as poppycock.

  3. Roadman

    May 19, 2016 at 1:41 pm

    The city attorney had the state circuit court case removed to U.S. District Court and has filed a motion to disclose the name of the informant.

    That motion remains pending.

  4. Uncle Cooter

    May 22, 2016 at 3:31 pm

    The public should remember that these are only allegations and each side will have an opportunity to present their side in a court of law.

  5. Roadman

    May 26, 2016 at 1:10 am

    Six police officers appeared as spectators at the Transition Advisory Board(TAB)meeting on Tuesday. This was very unusual.

    CM Katrina Powell requested further budget funding for legal fees for “two problematic cases”.

    A resident appeared at the TAB meeting and supplied a copy of second lawsuit filed in connection with the alleged tire dumping incident to the TAB chairman, who promised the resident he would make copies for all TAB members.

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