The organized crime involving public officials has been happening even around some of the small cities for decades. Much of it involved local drug dealing, while police were forbidden from arresting special individuals. Some of those individuals have since been caught in other jurisdictions, though, and have developed long records in more recent years.
Sooner or later, they get to be too much trouble for their parents in local banking or whatever. I was a reserve for a short time in the past, mostly patrolling overnight on weekends by myself. The corruption was too much, and the area leadership too saturated with it. Became pretty disgusted and left the work behind despite offers from friends in other jurisdictions.
In my opinion, the best that we can do besides voting and being politically involved, is to continue promoting laws in favor of concealed carry and knowledge about security for as many competent, clean people as possible (clean meaning no drugs, not dangerously insane, no recent serious record). At least that way, even more of them will defend themselves against the local thugs. Sad that we need to do it that way, but too many youngsters over the past several generations were brought up wrong.
How about a zero tolerance approach to police misconduct. Start enforcing federal law =>
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18 U.S. Code § 242 - Deprivation of rights under color of law
Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both;
and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both;
and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
Your assessment is dead-on.
I remember well the time when I was working SWAT for a relatively large city in the mid-west. We were doing joint raids with the FBI, DEA, and ATF. It was the culmination of almost a years work at the Task Force.
We received word that one of our own had just been arrested for passing information about our operations to a local dealer. When he was brought into the detective bureau, our team watched in disbelief. For the “dirty cop” the Feds brought in was one of the most respected street sergeants on our department. He had survived riots, shootings, and had been involved in several high profile investigations.
He had also sold out our entire team repeatedly to various local dealers. Every time we would do a high risk entry or search warrant, he had already called tHe perp and they knew we were coming.
It was the lowest day of my career.
I would never have thought he would sell us out, but he did. Corruption can surface in places you’d never expect. But what bothers me is the action of the deputies as portrayed in the article. If, as reported, the deputies did detain, question, and belittle this young man, then there is a deeper cancer affecting Broward County and it’s SO.
The tone is set at the top. If this is business as usual, then Gov. Scott has to remove Sheriff Israel now. I’d like to know what the justification for pulling this kid out of class and interrogating him was. If this was a political hatchet job, there are some serious problems in the department.