Disgraced Massachusetts cop Matthew Farwell, 38, strangled Sandra Birchmore, 23, in 2021 after she revealed she was pregnant with his child, prosecutors alleged Wednesday.

Farwell is accused of having a years-long sexual relationship with Birchmore, beginning when she was 15 and he was 27, the US Attorney’s Office said.

130 points

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99 points

It’s always inappropriate relationship when facist adults in.positions of power are raping children.

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31 points

so fucking infuriating

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57 points

It’s not an “inappropriate relationship”, they raped her.

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35 points

He’s the oldest 35 years old I’ve ever seen

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19 points

when she was 15 and he was 27

In the picture she’s 13, so he must be 25?

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13 points
*

That’s another person. 2 cops were involved

Edit: oh apparently 3. Great

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11 points

Yeah 3. His twin brother was also raping the girl

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15 points

This photo makes it so much worse

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9 points

Can’t be too harsh on cops. We don’t want them against the government…

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107 points

It gets worse.

On April 1, 2022, Farwell resigned from the force after he had been on paid administrative leave for weeks, the Boston Globe reported.

Days later, his twin brother William Farwell, who also met Birchmore through the program, and another police officer Robert Devine, who was an instructor when Birchmore was enrolled, were both put on administrative leave.

In September 2022, the chief of the Stoughton Police Department revealed all three of the officers had been fired for having “inappropriate” relationships with Birchmore.

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8 points

Fired?

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76 points

There needs to be waaaaaaay stricter and harsher punishments for crooked cops.

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34 points

At a minimum they should be held to the ones we already have. That would be a start.

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4 points

Yep, like a couple of life sentences by these alone. Should frankly be enough.

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29 points

Agreed

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18 points

Fun Fact: Iron maidens were invented in the 19th century.

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6 points

Also the whole aesthetic of the romantic medieval (think Central European propaganda posters in the first half of the XX century, or Dumas’ interpretation of Robin Hood) and of the gothic (as in dark fantasy stylistic, that one especially popular in the 90s, black metal, TES: Daggerfall, and so on) medieval.

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57 points

guys I’m starting to think that cops may not be the best people

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6 points

I noticed long ago they are starkly lacking in qualities I require to label something ‘a person’.

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2 points
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They’re only as good as their training, which is laughable if you look it up, while the profession do tend to attract these types…

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5 points
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Remember, police have advocated and fought for the right to hire not the qualified, educated applicants.

cause qualified and educated means they are more threat to the police and the institutional corruption within, than some high school bully type who would gladly partake.

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54 points

It’s always the ones you most suspect

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THE POLICE PROBLEM

!thepoliceproblem@lemmy.world

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    The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

    99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it’s not on this page.

    When cops are caught breaking the law, they’re investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers’ names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

    When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with ‘law enforcement experience’ and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It’s called “Wandering Cops.”

    When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: “testilying.” Yet it’s almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

    Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don’t, they aren’t cops for long.

    The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past ‘qualified immunity’ is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

    All this is a path to a police state.

    In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

    Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

    That’s the solution.

♦ ♦ ♦

Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.

♦ ♦ ♦

RULES

Real-life decorum is expected. Please don’t say things only a child or a jackass would say in person.

If you’re here to support the police, you’re trolling. Please exercise your right to remain silent.

Saying cops ANYONE should be killed lowers the IQ in any conversation. They’re about killing people; we’re not.

Please don’t dox or post calls for harassment, vigilantism, tar & feather attacks, etc.

Please also abide by the instance rules.

It you’ve been banned but don’t know why, check the moderator’s log. If you feel you didn’t deserve it, hey, I’m new at this and maybe you’re right. Send a cordial PM, for a second chance.

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ALLIES

!abolition@slrpnk.net

!acab@lemmygrad.ml

r/ACAB

r/BadCopNoDonut/

Randy Balko

The Civil Rights Lawyer

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Identity Project

MirandaWarning.org

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INFO

A demonstrator’s guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren’t supposed to be smart

Don’t talk to the police.

Killings by law enforcement in Canada

Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom

Killings by law enforcement in the United States

Know your rights: Filming the police

Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of ‘I can’t breathe’ (as of 2020)

Police aren’t primarily about helping you or solving crimes.

Police lie under oath, a lot

Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak

Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street

Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

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ORGANIZATIONS

Black Lives Matter

Campaign Zero

Innocence Project

The Marshall Project

Movement Law Lab

NAACP

National Police Accountability Project

Say Their Names

Vera: Ending Mass Incarceration

 

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