Posted on 06/18/2015 7:31:36 AM PDT by Kaslin
American police live in a place even more wondrous than the one you know from "A Prairie Home Companion." In Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average. In Police Land, every cop is a model citizen, including those who outwardly resemble criminals.
When a cop thrashes or kills someone, the ensuing investigations almost always find that what the officer did was excusable, if not commendable. Jesus Christ would get tougher scrutiny from a band of angels than most cops do from the people who review their conduct.
So it barely registered with most Americans last month when a Cleveland cop was acquitted of voluntary manslaughter for firing at least 15 shots at an unarmed couple as he stood on the hood of their car after a high-speed chase. Outcomes like that, even when the cops grossly overstepped their bounds, are the norm.
Over four years, The Chicago Tribune recently reported, only 4 percent of all 17,700 complaints against Chicago police were upheld. In those rare instances, the punishment was the equivalent of a disappointed sigh. Of the few cops found to have abused citizens, nearly half got off with verbal reprimands, and only a dozen were fired.
Even a court finding of misconduct doesn't count for much. The Tribune uncovered several cases in which victims filed lawsuits and got monetary damages -- even though the department had cleared the officers.
Consider Cleveland. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the police department looked into 4,427 uses of force by cops over four years and gave its blessing to each one. In Houston, every shooting over six years was found by the internal affairs department to be absolutely necessary.
Same basic story in Ferguson, Mo. After the killing of Michael Brown, staffers from the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division interviewed the police chief, who admitted that "he could not remember ever imposing discipline for an improper use of force."
The feds also assume that law enforcement officers are less fallible than the pope. From January 2010 to October 2013, the Los Angeles Times reported, Border Patrol agents shot 67 people, killing 19. Three of the agents are still being investigated. Of the remaining 64, 62 were absolved. The other two got a stern lecture.
It's all part of a national pattern. Bowling Green State University criminologist Philip Stinson has done extensive research on killings by cops. His conclusion? "It's very rare that an officer gets charged with a homicide offense resulting from their on-duty conduct even though people are killed on a fairly regular basis," he told The Wall Street Journal.
Lack of accountability is a recipe for lawlessness. In 1961, the Supreme Court said that when evidence of a crime was obtained in an illegal search, it could not be used in state court. The Fourth Amendment had always required cops to get warrants before ransacking homes. But until 1961, police generally ignored the Constitution because they paid no price for violating it.
A New York City police official later recalled, "Before this, nobody bothered to take out search warrants. Although the U.S. Constitution requires warrants in most cases, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that evidence obtained without a warrant -- illegally, if you will -- was admissible in state courts. So the feeling was, why bother?"
Many cops obviously feel the same way about the rules on how they are supposed to handle suspects and bystanders. If they can get away with mistreating people, they will mistreat people.
Modern video technology makes that harder. A cop can no longer be sure that when he beats or shoots a suspect without a very good reason, he can cover up what happened. Body cameras and dashboard cameras will make police more careful -- and document their abuses.
If not for an alert citizen with a cellphone, the North Charleston, S.C., officer who fatally shot the unarmed, fleeing Walter Scott in the back would almost certainly have gotten away with it. Instead, he's been charged with murder.
But digital images matter only if authorities are prepared to punish brutal cops. The shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland was captured on squad-car video, which did not support the police account of what happened. Six months later, his killer has not been charged.
Bad cops will stop killing people unnecessarily when they know they will suffer real punishment for their crimes. Until then, why bother?
So sick of this. People expect cops to protect them and their property, keep criminals off the streets, live under constant stress that often causes health problems even after they retire, be constantly insulted and threatened, work all hours of the day and night and holidays, see and do things that most people couldn’t handle and do all this for pitiful pay, and then pansy jerks have the nerve to criticize the police. None of the people who sit in their safe houses and write this BS could do a cop’s job for one shift.
Why do so many bad people get off easy?
Ruined countless people’s lives by planting crack on them and didn’t serve a minute in jail. No further investigations, nothing
Blue “justice” indeed!
...do all this for pitiful pay...A HS grad will make over $100K after five years here in SoCal.
I'm sure they can handle a bit of oversight.
Or, get a different job.
“then pansy jerks have the nerve to criticize the police”
Wow. Police are PUBLIC SERVANTS. We have every right to criticize them here in the U.S.A.
There’s a heart warming report about an Iowa Highway Patrol trooper and a young lady from Michigan making the rounds. It’s a great story...
Sure there a bad cops, and this one in your link is an example. We cannot however toss every police officer into the same pile. There are many good police officers out there
The right, yes. Are these tirades against the police accurate? No.
And bad presidents?
One of the 2 sheriff’s deputies assigned to my township told me this was a dream assignment. He says that if every township was like this the county wouldn’t need more than a handful of cops.
He was at the post office this morning showing a pic of a 15 year old runaway believed to be in the area.
Sure there are bad cops that should have never chosen the profession, as there are bad nurses or bad teachers who should have never chosen their professions
Not possible. The median income in Cal is $61K.
But Arbeeny who was facing up to four years behind bars, miraculously escaped jail yesterday, after bursting into tears in court.
What a pussy.
Many police department require college degrees, and how far does $100K go in SoCal? Tell me, could you view a decomposing, stinking body with equanimity? Stay calm while someone threatens you and your family and makes a move that might mean he has a weapon and intends to use it? Arrest the scum of the earth, like child abusers, and not lose your cool?
At least do a ride-a-long a few times with a cop and get an inkling of what they do. Every cop in uniform is a target for his or her entire shift. They must be on constant alert.
How many are you calling “good” that know about the bad cops but say nothing?
Why don’t many good cops get mentioned?
“Sure there a bad cops, and this one in your link is an example. We cannot however toss every police officer into the same pile. There are many good police officers out there”
So why didn’t the good cops STAND UP AND CRUCIFY this POS? Why weren’t they outraged at the judge’s sentence? NOT A SINGLE ONE!
Why was this story buried in USA media?
Why were all the articles and court transcripts where this cop threatened to “out the entire NYPD” deleted?
We know exactly why!
The police deal with criminals, rarely are criminals well behaved. Sometimes, very rarely when looked at as a percentage of interactions with the public, a criminal attempts to flee or even harm a police officer or another citizen. When that happens force is used.
The reason why in most instances the reason police who shoot criminals dead do not get prosecuted is that when you are in the act of committing a crime, particularly a violent crime, you are subject to being shot and killed. If you want to avoid being shot and killed, do not engage in criminal acts, especially violent criminal acts.
Even in the case of little Tamir Rice, he was engaged in a FELONY. A violent felony. He was brandishing a weapon and menacing a community. He attempted to reach for his weapon and was shot. The fact that it was a replica has no bearing on the incident as it looked like a real pistol.
Was it quick? You damn right it was.
Does the police officer have every right to protect himself from a perceived lethal threat? Also, you damn right he does.
Had Tamir NOT spent his time getting his jolly’s pointing a gun in innocent passers by faces, he would be failing the eighth grade right this minute.
What happened to Tamir Rice is tragic, but HE put himself in that situation. The police acted on the threat as they perceived it. Second guessing people is always easy.
As for the fools who lead the police on a high speed chase through city streets for more than half an hour. They where no saints, the cops where a bit trigger happy, but the DA was an idiot to try to prove that the policeman was guilty of murder. Particularly since there where several dozen police officers shooting at the car.
A better way to handle it would have been a manslaughter charge or several manslaughter charges against every officer who discharged his weapon.
Even better, if the idiot driver had not pulled over when the cops tried to pull them over, the whole mess could have been avoided. If they would not have attempted to ram officers with their car when they where cornered in a parking lot, they would most likely have survived to over dose later in the year.
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