Wry Catcher
Diamond Member
- Banned
- #21
No, Baz, the cops are not a gang of murderers.
There are some bad cops, and this Slaeger was one of them. At least his mother will not be able to hold him until he gets out. She may die before he gets out.
He should have thought of that.
Nonsense. While Baz is a little.... Exuberant by the standards of the reality, he’s closer to the mark than the unsupportable argument that it is a few bad apples.
Think about it for a moment. Those body camera videos that show the cops planting drugs. There were other cops present, and all their statements and reports showed exactly the same as the guy they watched plant the drugs. Now how is this possible? Are the cops running in packs where only the bad ones respond to calls for assistance from other bad ones? Is there some sort of secret handshake or a pin they wear on their uniforms to identify each other?
In incident after incident, the cops statements all agree, until the video shows they are lying, then perhaps the one who was in the lead becomes the sacrificial lamb. All the others who were there, and participated, are at most given a slap on the wrist for lying to protect a fellow cop.
Then there are the expert witness’ who flock to defend the cops when they are charged. They explain to the jury that often the officer thinks he saw a gun, even when there wasn’t one. This means it was a good use of force, because the cop was apparently delusional, or even hallucinating in seeing things that weren’t there.
The Supreme Court has ruled that good cops are ignorant of the law, and perfectly justified in enforcing non existant laws. So long as they stick to the lie that they thought the law said this.
Even the good cops, aren’t so good. The way we know this is that good cops are either fired, prosecuted, or killed by the bad ones. I know, an insane argument right? Yet it has happened, many times. Serpico was left hanging to die. The cops said that if they had known it was Serpico on the floor bleeding, they would have left him there to die. A citizen called it in, not his partners. But hey, that was the 1970’s, and it doesn’t happen like that anymore.
Tell that to Cariol Horne. A Buffalo Police Officer who stopped a fellow officer from choking a handcuffed, and unresisting suspect. She was fired, the cop who choked the unresisting man who was already in handcuffs, was not. She broke the cardinal rule, thou will back up fellow cops no matter what.
In another case, the department found an officer was recording them telling the department how to lie to abuse the suspects rights, and they locked him up in an insane asylum for weeks. You see, insane people have no right to a lawyer, or to challenge their confinement. You would have to be insane to believe that the cops are honest.
Where were the honest cops to stand up for a guy who got thrown in an insane asylum for recording the conspiracy to violate civil rights of citizens? Where were these good cops who should have, could have stood up for Officer Horne? They were quiet and in line, like good members of the club.
In a way, we never grew up as people. As Children, we want to believe in the Tooth Fairy, we want to believe in Santa Claus. Look at the Stanta at the mall this holiday season. Look at the faces of the people standing or walking by. They glance over, and remember fondly when they believed. They also wished they could still be that child, and believe in the so good it was a miracle.
We want to believe that the cops are Adam 12, or Dragnet, following procedures and virtuous beyond our ability to describe. We want to believe that the cops are really out there for twenty or thirty years doing a hard job, and remaining unstained by it. They aren’t. They lie, they cover up for fellow cops, and they observe cops committing crimes, and stay silent.
When we are faced with this, we try to diminish it. We say it is a few bad apples, or we ascribe some sort of psychic power to the police. They may have planted evidence, but only because they knew this was a bad guy, and they were trying to protect us.
They aren’t. The Supreme Court has also ruled that police have no duty to protect us.
I doubt any rebuttal will convince someone like you and the other guy. So I'll be short. I was charged for a few years recruiting and training persons interested in a law enforcement career, and training recruits on dept. policies including use of force policies.
Many people apply for a career in LE, and very few make it through the entire process. In our agency for every 100 applicants, only five made it to the streets and one of those did not complete the one year probationary period, and another was required to additional training, on average.
Before a recruit is given a conditional offer of employment they go through a rigorous background check which included in our agency:
At any time during the one year probation an employee can be terminated without appeal.
- Three non relative recommendations and telehpone or personal interviews of each of them by my staff
- Employment History
- School Records
- A credit check
- FBI criminal records check
- DD-214 of a vet
- records of local law enforcement contacts in every county or city&county in which they resided
- civil court records, divorce records, civil judgments
- driving record
- drug testing
- a full psychological workup, including written tests and two meetings with psychologists
- An interview by three managers from other LE Jurisdiction
- An interview with three managers within our agency
- An interview by three Sgts in our agency
- a health examination by county doctors
- A 40-hours course on arrests
- A 24-hours course on firearms, OC Gas and the Management of Assaultive behavior
- One year of probationary status on the streets with supervision by a field training officer (FTA).
Now, I'm sure not every agency in every state has such a background check, but this is an example of what a someone who wants a job in the State of California.
Do we get some bad apples? Sure, and the job itself can change an officer's response in a very stressful job. That is the job of supervisors and managers, to watch and listen for changes, and when a complaint is filed (under penalty of perjury if the complaint is deemed fraudulent) a thorough investigation will be conducted, and if sustained the consquences can be as little as a counseling memo and require training, to a recommendation to the hiring authority for termination of employment.
I'm sure all that is very comforting to the families of all those dead people, and the others who aren't dead, but just had the shit kicked out of them for no reason.
As I indicated, such behavior when founded to violate dept. policy, and the penal code, will result in termination by HR, and then the matter goes to the District Attorney.
If an agency does not follow through and enforce their policies, the Chief and his Sr. Staff can be brought before a civil grand jury, which may very well end their careers.