Posted on 06/01/2020 10:03:38 AM PDT by Cecily
One of the Atlanta Police Department officers fired Sunday for forcibly arresting two college students had previous complaints of excessive force that were upheld after an internal review, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned.
Mark Gardner, who joined APD in 1997, was the subject of four citizen complaints from Richard Williams. Two of the complaints against Gardner were for "maltreatment or unnecessary force" and two were for violation of the department's policy on personal weapons.
The charges were sustained in 2016, according to APD data previously provided to the AJC. The officer received written reprimands for two of the complaints; no action was taken on the other two allegations.
(Excerpt) Read more at ajc.com ...
1. Lose job sooner or be reassigned to non-public work sooner following legitimate excessive force complaints (complaints for which you are reprimanded).
2. Higher salaries for police along with higher standards to be hired.
3. Adopt purity of arms philosophy like the IDF has.
Given the responses in some areas, there needs to be a way to remove politics from policing. Police should never be ordered to stand down and allow criminals to run amok unchallenged.
Liberal controlled cities have liberal controlled police departments who seem to have an awful lot of “bad” cops. There is plenty of proof that will support this theory.
Who wants to be a cop? Raise your hand.
How about this— instead of jumping to conclusions. Two black officers from the FUGITIVE investigation team of APD. They stopped a car... perhaps with known fugitives? Could that possibly be?.... No? And also explain the use of force.
And what if the “fugitives” are drug network pals of a corrupt Atlanta corrupt government? No? Not possible- they are saints.
Quote from the article: “We don’t know why that car was stopped,” Champion said. “Until we know what happened, we don’t know if the officers did anything wrong or not.” From the Atlanta Police Union leadership— who should know.
Other ideas:
- Bodycams on at all times for uniformed officers. I say cams as there should be a redundant backup. Having both your cams turn off, you ‘lose’ them, they get ‘accidentally’ destroyed? Termination. Someone “loses” the video files or the recordings? They get terminated. No excuses, no second chances, goodbye.
- You get one non-lethal excessive force complaint upheld against you for ‘free’ (albeit you get retrained and are put on probation), any more gets you fired and you are barred from police work for at least five years.
complaints reviewed by out of house group and limit number of complaints then fired.
I would say to have a limit on the number of non-excessive force complaints based on breaking department policy, but they would have to be fully backed up, otherwise there is a loophole where you could just keep complaining about a cop you don’t like and get them fired for no reason.
Also, that would require bodycams be mandated, etc.
Yes, all complaints need to be checked by an outside organization that is NOT part of that department and is preferably made up of elected officials with term limits to prevent them from being a rubber stamp.
Police earn great money and incredible pensions
You make a valid point. If I were 25 today and fresh out of the military, I can think forty jobs I’d rate higher on my interest list.
I aged out
Think public employee unions. The Fraternal Order of Police is very strong, and will defend “bad cops” every time.
Police are in an impossible position and should just walk away.
The truth is quite a long answer but I will try to be short with my opinion.
The problem with the police everywhere started as far back as the early 1980's. In a nutshell there is so much wrong with our civilian police agencies that we really need to toss the whole idea and start over.
First the police should never possess military weapons, equipment, vehicles or training. Full auto weapons, AR15's, suppressors, night vision, BDU's, Explosives of any kind, Flash bangs, etc. We are not at war in our cities and neighborhoods. Equip men as a military force and train them in the same way and they will see citizens as the enemy and war like tactics and outcomes is what you will get.
SWAT teams need to be gone forever. This goes along with the first point.
No knock warrants are unconstitutional and should be gone forever.
Police should be known as Peace Officers and not law enforcement.
The police should never wear any color uniform other than blue. Police are not soldiers and should never be allowed to dress as such. The uniform of Blue identifies their nature.
The police have too much power in general. Until probable cause is established the police are not in charge of anything. We should recognize the public is the boss at all times and we never cede this authority until and upon probable cause. I'm not talking about directing traffic, and such. These situations the citizens need to recognize the officer as serving the community and follow instructions out of respect. Common sense must be used on this topic.
Officer safety is not paramount. Citizen safety must take priority over all else.
Lethal force is justified only if the officers life or the life of others is in immediate danger and only when there is no other way to resolve the danger.
Not a police issue but equally part of the problem. We have way too many laws, period.
I thought I could be short and yet I could go on and on. No, I'm not anti cop in any way shape or form. I'm pro citizen. When I was a young people trusted the police because the police trusted the people. Police officers fifty years ago looked at citizens with a very different eye. That has all changed today and is so far off the rails I return to the fact that the entire idea of policing needs to be tossed, returned to decades long past and started over.
On top of that — crappy shifts, weekends and overnights (and if you work overnight, guess what, the courts are open during the day and don’t care that an appearance happens when you’re off-duty), most holidays. Interacting with druggies and drugs, homeless people, and criminals constantly when most of us have the luxury of avoiding that kind of stuff. When the rest of us are Monday-morning quarterbacking all this chaos, there are cops in burned out neighborhoods dealing with violent protestors for the 5th day in a row, knowing that if they make a mistake amidst the stress, they’re out of a job.
Yes, many cops can retire earlier than most of us and get a good pension. After all the of above, I’d say they’ve earned it. There are some fatties riding a desk and taking it easy. Beat cops don’t have it easy.
We can talk about how everyone has it hard. Well, in my field, I’ve worked long hours constantly and a 40 week is like a solar eclipse. multi-day marathons to fix problems while sleeping and showering in the office, overnights, come in on weekends to deal with emergencies. I’ve had to work at times when nobody else was in the building. Worked holidays. From what I can see, I have it way easier than police officers do.
Fire anyone who signs off on hiring a police candidate who FAILED THEIR PSYCH EVAL.
Fully 50% of known and tested psychopaths who failed their psych eval are hired anyway.
Don't believe me?
Listen to the source:
Dr. Clarissa Cole on After Hours AM April 17, 2019
Fire anyone who signs off on hiring a police candidate who FAILED THEIR PSYCH EVAL. and since they violated the law doing so, strip them of sovereign immunity, and open them to criminal and civil actions for any wrongful deaths their willful actions in hiring a known psychopath caused.
Name 'em, shame 'em, ruin their reputations, destroy their careers, strip them of any accumulated wealth they may have, repudiate their cushy pensions, force them into bankruptcy.
Do it VERY publicly.
Make it so every major city and every podunk town Police hiring manager wakes up in a cold sweat whenever they even think about signing off on "...My son, he’s the son of my buddy, his dad is a cop, he has to be a cop, he’s going to work in this county and we’re really understaffed, we need people, we know he failed, but it’s OK".
Make him or her have ulcers about what happens if one of their ticking time-bomb hires goes off!
Then cities can decide whether to simply allow the bad hires to attrit out or be actively removed for failure to meet requirements...
I’ll trust *ANY* entity’s “internal review” about as quickly as I’ll trust Pravada or the NEw Your Times.
Any investigation that isn’t either absolutly neutral, or even hostile, is just a cover up.
Where I live, it’s the Sheriff who investigates the city police and the city police who investigate the Sheriff, and they wonder why no one believes them.
Who defends the HR drone who hired a KNOWN enraged rattlesnake, gave it a gun, a badge, and life-and-death authority and threw it onto a crowded street?
End forfeitures.
End qualified immunity.
End militarization of police.
End war on drugs.
Any force is only as good as the rottenest apple they know about.
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