reply to post by TorqueyThePig
I have to say, I am kind of shocked. This is the first time I have ever seen a cop actually SAY that two other cops were in the wrong. That being
said, I would pose a question to YOU, sir, and I believe it cuts right to the problem we are having in the country today
When have you ever SEEN a Police Officer doing something illegal, and FAILED to arrest him right then and there?
Unless your department is a paragon of virtuous and perfect officers, I am almost 100% positive that you HAVE.
For example, a dash-cam video I saw a short while ago of a high speed chase ending in a rollover of the suspect vehicle in LA county. suspect
crawls out of the broken window, and is immediately dog-piled by officers. THAT is not my issue. What IS my issue is that while this man is down under
several police, held flat, mind you, ANOTHER officer comes and kicks him in the head like a field goal. What is FURTHER my issue is that once the
suspect was secured, THAT officer was NOT immediately arrested for assault. I have seen NUMEROUS videos of police doing things that are CLEARLY over
the line and criminal, and yet NO immediate correction is taken by the other "enforcers of the law" that were there and witnessed it. Yet if that
same action were taken in the exact same circumstances by private citizens they would find themselves in chains, but since it was police they had no
repercussions whatsoever, and I do NOT count "admin leave with pay/verbal counseling/a black mark on their record" as repercussions.
A lady I know in Cedar creek, Texas works on the admissions desk of a medical clinic. she was listening to two police talk about beating someone
they had arrested. When she told the two of them, "And things like that are the reason every one hates you." One of the police GRINNED at her and
said, "We don't CARE if you hate us." The attitude of said officer was "I'VE got the badge gun and power, so what you 'people' think just
doesn't matter to me."
I mention this because it points out PART of the problem, is that police seem INCAPABLE of policing themselves. They don't want to be a "rat or
snitch", maybe they are afraid of the other officers retaliation, I don't know. What I DO know is that every time something like this occurs, I hear
the tired "few bad apples" cliche. Whenever I try to talk to Police about these kind of problems, ALWAYS being clear that I am not recording them in
any way, and am not anything other than a private citizen trying to think of ways to find common ground between citizens and officers before this
problem gets beyond repair, I ALWAYS see the defensive wall go up, the body language changes, and TO A MAN I always hear, " Well I wasn't there so I
can't offer an opinion/unless you were there you don't know for sure what happened/you don't know what happened before." ALL of these responses
sound like fear of having any kind of opinion that doesn't back up the "cops on one side, everybody else on the other" mentality. A response like
this gives me ZERO faith in the police even WANTING to try to fix it.
People would begin to have faith in the Police again if they say an officer clearly break the law(often violently), and another officer
IMMEDIATELY arrest him. In public, right then. Seeing PROOF IN ACTIONS that not all of the police are thugs on a power trip would go a GREAT DEAL OF
THE WAY to bringing Police back into being part of the communities that they live in. Seeing Police NOT trying to arrest people recording them in
performance of their duties would go even further. "if you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about/nothing to hide,
nothing to be scared of." Remember that line? I have heard it MANY times from Police after being stopped trying to intimidate consent to search my
vehicle out of me, in a fishing expedition.
"I've got the badge, so I do what I want", seems to be the common theme in the attitude of all these "bad apples". If in fact they are just a
"few" then they are overwhelming outnumbered in whatever department they are part of and replacing them should not be an issue. I would think it
would be obvious that the attitude and demeanor they display would NOT be what a department wants the public to perceive. However, what I am seeing is
they are NOT being replaced, even after multiple "incidents" so logic dictates that this must be what the departments WANT the public to think.
Police need to be reminded about something. It is not the gun or badge the citizen submits to, it is the system behind it, that tracks you, pays
you, taxes you, that you cannot escape from without means. One of the reasons poor people are harassed so much. When unrest comes to this country,
that system will not be there, not functioning well, or spiraling out of control. when that happens, and the citizen realizes it, the hopelessly
outnumbered police will be relying on the goodwill and MEMORY of the communities that they live in, unless you live in some completely self-sufficient
copland type of gated community.
The bottom line is simple: Police yourselves, pluck OUT the "bad apples" and throw them in the garbage where they belong, don't do anything in
public that is NOT above board and recording will not be an issue. Get your act together as a group or when SHTF here in America without a system to
back up the badge that shiny plate might become a target.
For the record, I don't want to see that. I'm not trying to start a pissing contest nor call names. You see people doing wrong, call them on it.
You see people breaking the law and hurting people, ARREST THEM. I mean, that's your job, right?