Remember when eight police officers filled some innocent women full of bullets while they were chasing the cop killer Chris Dorner a while back? They're back on the job. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/02/05/us/ap-us-lapd-revenge-killings.html?_r=0
I just covered something like this in my Captain Phillips thread. The more the police - military - etc. can show how indispensible they are, the more powerful they become. The more fearful of bad guys the average citizen is, the more shit they will put up with from those who can save them. They accept the lesser of two evils. It's job security. Do we need the SEALS to risks their lives killing Somali pirates? We sure do if we take the guns away from the sailors. If every time the cops responded to an armed robbery and found nothing but a dead robber with a long criminal record, who would need them?
You want to know why they did not get fired? It's right there in the article. Here I'll highlight it for all of you: The civilian Police Commission that found the officers violated policy also faulted the department itself, saying the officers were rotated in during the night to protect the home because of overtime concerns. The sergeant wasn't trained to oversee such a protection detail and there was no operational plan. The commission also cites the officers' inadequate firepower. Translation: The Department violated the policy. We see this in a lot of places not just LAPD. The department violates policy, something happens, and then they go after the officers involved. Then the officers get their jobs back because you can't punish officers for following a legal order. Or you can but the punishment is usually weak. Let me explain that a little bit: If I as an officer am told to do something I've got to do it. I can inform the person giving me the order that I've not been trained to do it but if they say do it then I've got to do it. If something goes wrong you can't punish me for it when I informed you I couldn't do it. That has to be a legal order of course. I can refuse illegal orders. So in this case the department more concerned with money then following policy puts officers in a situation and when shit goes south they try to blame the officer. Note I'm not saying that these officers weren't in the wrong. They were. However because the department violated policy, and the officers by sheer luck didn't kill anyone, the officers basically get a free "get out of jail" card. A slap on the wrist and back on the streets they go. This is why a lot of departments find it hard to fire an officer. The department itself is constantly violating it's own policies in a lot of these cases and it provides protection for the officers at their hearings.
I saw something small, but still similar just this past weekend. The Chief of Police and Chief Magistrate issued a joint memo directing an action be taken. When called on the carpet, the Chief tried to deflect and leave the Officers hanging even though he physically signed the original memo, giving it his authority and approval. Thankfully, the Chief Magistrate stepped up and acted like an adult, saving a couple of people's jobs. It's that kind of stuff that grates on me. Back when I was young and dumb, I used to think that those appointed over me had earned their positions due to merit, character, integrity, and intelligence. Surely the people making those important decisions know more and are smarter than me. I was wrong.
No-one is smarter, no-one is better. It's idiots all the way up and all the way down. Welcome to Earth. Population: duuuuuhhhh . . .
Yes. This is exactly it. Uppers will do something and when it goes wrong they conveniently forget what they just did and try and deflect. But the public misses that part. All they see is an officer getting his job back. The public gets mad because they think the union is so strong. But a majority of the time the officer wins his case because the people above him are complete and total fuckups. Look up German Bosque, a legitimate dirty cop from the city of Opa-Locka Florida. Investigated at least 40 times. Fired around 5-8 times. Arrested multiple times. He got fired in one police academy. Still got into another one. Made his way to Sergeant. Almost impossible to fire. Eighteen year career. Why? Because the people above him keep violating policy in regards to him and he's able to use it as a shield to protect himself. Finally did get fired and arrested. It might be the end of the road for him at this point.
Exactly! I believe in Civil Service protections versus unionization. But, there needs to be better oversight. I saw one officer get fired for posting his picture, in uniform, on an online dating site. They pegged him for Conduct Unbecoming because, well, he was married... But, the guy that should rightfully be in prison for taking bribes and tearing up arrest warrants? He gets a pass because he has some bars on his collar.
There's a larger issue at play here, and that is the is the ever-expanding empires of law enforcement agencies. Much like the NFL or NHL expansions, with more teams in the field the talent pool gets diminished and is watered down. There are simply far too many people entering law enforcement professions that never should have made it past being a bouncer at a night club. They simply don't have the faculties or intelligence to be good law enforcement officers. Couple that with rampant nepotism -- just because your daddy was a cop doesn't mean you'll be a good cop -- and I think you've got the current problem with recruiting in a nutshell. I frequently come across third- and fourth-generation law enforcement personnel who are dumber than a bag of hammers, and are probably only where they are because of the family "dynasty". The United States is one of the worst countries when it comes to the sheer number of federal and state law enforcement agencies. I think it's partly because of 9/11 (don't kid yourself that law enforcement brass didn't seize that opportunity to expand their empires) but it actually dates back much further. The "war on drugs" didn't help things either. But other countries are just as guilty when it comes to poor recruitment of police officers.
It goes further than that even. I can't go into great detail because I'm on my phone and I'm eating lunch. There is a municipality near hear that incorporated a few years ago and has about 750 citizens. They have their own police department complete with a "Chief", one other certified officer, and four non-certified reservists. There is no rational justification for that agency existing. The Sheriff's Office has been covering that area for almost 180 years. But, whether you are a small town mayor or the head of a Federal Cabinet Agency, you are not "real" unless you can wield your own police powers. It's the base foundation of power politics.
This seems to be a "I was only following orders" defense, which only goes so far. So most people are going to be appalled when officers who pulled a literal "shoot first and ask questions later" not only weren't prosecuted for their aggravated assault with deadly weapons and frankly attempted murder, but got their jobs back and are now able to commit more abuses.
