The most common response to an accusation by a defendant that a police officer fabricated the occurrence of a crime is, “why would he do such a thing? He has no feelings toward the defendant either way.”  Of course, sometimes, a cop does have feelings. 

Not particularly special feelings, but the same sort of anger that rises in many from the annoyances of daily life.  Those were the feeling of Chicago Police Officer Sylshina London, who was on her way to work, maybe running late, when she got hung up with a funeral procession. 

Don’t you just hate those lines of cars with their lights on and those signs tying up the road?  Well, London apparently did.  From the Chicago Sun-Times :

On March 19, 2010, London was driving a white Lexus to work at the Gresham District police station when she cut in and out of a funeral procession for Michele Green, prosecutors said. The mourners had just left A.R. Leak and Sons Funeral Home at 78th and Cottage Grove.

Debra Green, 31, angrily yelled at London from the passenger seat of the Pontiac Grand Prix she was riding in at 79th and Vincennes, and she pointed to a funeral procession sticker on the car, prosecutors said.

London then allegedly radioed a 10-1 call — for an officer in need of assistance.

There’s a pretty good chance that Green yelled something really bad, though the doppler effect tends to make all things yelled from cars sound like YouAaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggllllllllllll.  Nonetheless, that was enough to set London off and call in the troops.  And the troops came.

Numerous police vehicles were waiting for the procession at 100th and Vincennes, and Green and several other family members were detained, causing them to miss the burial, prosecutors said.

London falsely testified against Green at a trial on Sept. 21, 2010, claiming Green threw the bottle at her from the passenger seat, prosecutors said.

According to London, the bottle flew through London’s open window and struck her in the face.  Want to bet that London could “prove it” because she had a bottle?  And so Green was convicted of misdemeanor battery upon London’s testimony.  Note that this isn’t merely about the ride, but the rap.  Debra Green, funeral attendee and car yeller, was convicted of a crime that only existed via the word of Police Officer Sylshina London, who was annoyed at being held up by the funeral procession, and then really miffed by Green’s disrespect.  She’ll show her, and she did.

Ordinarily, this is where the story ends, and we have only Green’s word to suggest that there’s anything awry with the conviction.  Not much of a story, but other people who were part of the funeral procession chose not to remain silent or limit their dismay to some private “tsk”-ing among themselves.

Green was convicted, but the Independent Police Review Authority continued a separate investigation that was launched after several of the mourners filed complaints.

The investigators discovered that a Chicago Police blue-light camera had captured the incident. And the video recording from the camera near 79th and Vincennes showed that London’s driver-side window was up at the time she said the bottle hit her through an open window, prosecutors said.

Not only is the outcome quite remarkable in terms of outing the wholesale fabrication of a crime by an annoyed cop who’s going to teach this loudmouth Green not to screw with her, but that the Police Review Authority than just toss the complaints into the file after stamping them “whatever.”  Remember, Green had already been given “due process,” and been convicted of the crime.  It’s hardly a stretch for the cops to deep-six the investigation, and yet they didn’t.

There’s no video to play to show outrageous scenes of violence and abuse.  The video this time was a bore.  It showed nothing.  And sometimes nothing is exactly what matters, what needs to be seen.

The only question that remains unanswered is why the video of London with her window up wasn’t found or disclosed in advance of Green’s trial, and why it took a secondary review to disclose that this evidence existed showing London to have committed rank perjury. 

It appears that the Cook County State’s Attorney will be prosecuting London for her perjury, so if you happen to get her case, I hear she has an undamaged Lexus that might serve to cover her fee that she may not need for a while.