I'm not counting on that. It is very rare Police are convicted and sent to Prison. They're treated different than other Citizens. They're above the Law. And that's the big problem. This Police State has granted them too much power.
Here's a little anecdote which might be of interest to some:
One afternoon in the early 1950s, my brother, his girlfriend and I were seated on the front steps of a small apartment house on Sixth Avenue in South Brooklyn. Two uniformed cops strolled past and turned the corner. A few minutes later one of them returned and told us to leave because something was about to happen. So we went upstairs to the second floor apartment where the girl's family lived and looked out the front window to see what the cop had warned us about.
By then an NYPD radio car had parked just around the corner with another uniformed cop in it. A short time later a plain black Ford pulled up diagonally across the street. Three men in fedoras got out and walked up to a small apartment house. One stood outside while the other two went in.
About five minutes later the two fedoras came out leading a slender man in shirtsleeves who was handcuffed. They placed the man in the Ford and drove off with the radio car and the three uniforms following.
Later that evening we learned that Detectives from the 78 Precinct had arrested Willie Sutton, Public Enemy Number One, a notorious bank robber whose gang was known to be armed with machine guns.
This whole event took place within a twenty minute period and was carried out quietly and efficiently by three detectives with only three uniformed cops as backup. The point I am melodramatically making is if the same operation were carried out today it would involve a SWAT team with no less than thirty masked, helmeted cops with machine-guns and stun grenades, and they would arrive in armored cars.
For a glimpse of just how seriously militarized domestic American police have become in recent years, go here:
Botched Paramilitary Police Raids
And here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/balko_whitepaper_2006.pdf
Today, all over America, police SWAT teams armed with machine guns are kicking down doors, tossing in stun grenades, and rousting people out of bed at 3AM -- for
suspicion of even minor marijuana offfenses. And in many cases these raids are
mistakes!
Compare that with the 1950s capture of Willie Sutton I witnessed and it becomes quite clear that the U.S. is moving quietly but resolutely in the direction of a police state. Combine that reality with provisions contained in the "Patriot" Act and there is no question that we Americans have something to fear.