Now why would a “good” profession punish officers who report wrongdoing? Why would those “good” officers tell them if you don’t receive back up on your calls for backup you’ll know why? Why does Internal Affairs, an agency that’s supposed to go after “bad” officers initiate or reopen closed investigations against officers who report misconduct? Why are officers who report misconduct often run out, placed on unpaid administrative leave (as opposed to paid leave given to officers under investigation for serious offenses)?

Why do so many “bad” officers receive promotions and awards? It’s really something to watch an officer who harassed and threatened you receive a civic award. On three different different occasions.

Why have officers been brutally assaulted, shot to death, threatened and terrorized for reporting misconduct while the majority of “good” officers did nothing? Why are many of them who do forced to file lawsuits, which is when you finally find out what was going on the whole time behind that blue wall?

Do you know that Frank Serpico is nearly as hated by NYPD officers now as he was in the 1970s? Most of these officers don’t even know him. Many were kids when he blew the whistle on the NYPD and testified before a special anti-corruption commission. How does this hatred get passed on?

Until you address the system, you can have “good” officers in the mix, who still won’t say a damn thing when misconduct takes place. I know, I was mistreated by an officer while the one with him just watched. He didn’t report it. I did.

I was just going to say the same thing. I consider that to be conspiracy, making them all guilty. So until the Blue Shield start cracking and more police are willing to police their own ranks, fuck them.

BTW I’m a native Chicagoan myself. We do not have very many decent cops around here.

Hey, William — I appreciate your anger, but please let’s not overgeneralize, okay? There are plenty of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers, etc who aren’t brutal monsters.

I don’t think its an over-generalization. I grew up, and still live, in Chicago and I’ve seen the routine brutality with my own eyes. I live in a neighborhood that has increased police attention because it used to be poor and black but is now gentrifying and a week doesn’t go by when I don’t see the police roughing up a black kid. I’ve had police point guns at me for asking questions. I’ve been personally assaulted by police officers. I’ve had acquaintances who were cops who bragged about beating handcuffed suspects to give them an “attitude adjustment.” I live in a city where a story broke about police routinely using car batteries on people’s genitals to extract confessions and no one was surprised.

I’m sure there are good cops, but they cover for the legions of bad ones and look the other way. On top of that every single cop working today contributes to a system which arrests (usually brown) people for smoking pot and puts them in prison then laughs about them getting raped. We live in a country where every police force in every jurisdiction is militarizing. Where no-knock raids are routine. Where the police feel comfortable confiscating people’s cellphones so they can get rid of videos of one of their own executing an unarmed man.

I know it isn’t popular, but the police aren’t the good guys. They aren’t an honorable group with a few bad apples.

Anyway, most of the inmates in “Tent City” however? Not there long-term and indeed the majority have not even been CONVICTED yet, which is the scary part. Sigh.

And AshKW, thank you for that. What with that officer shooting that man in the back, there has been a LOT of outrage and vitriol against ALL officers, and while I understand the emotion behind it, it’s just not logical. In my time, I have worked with many officers of the law. The majority are normal, wonderful human beings who don’t shoot people in the back. We definitely have a problem with how much power the police have in our country, especially in certain areas, but that doesn’t mean every officer everywhere is horrible. The majority really aren’t. Besides, we have a problem with authority in our government, PERIOD. Just because guns aren’t involved doesn’t mean that its any less harmful that government and religious leaders have so much damn power over us.

Hey, William — I appreciate your anger, but please let’s not overgeneralize, okay? There are plenty of police officers, sheriff’s deputies, correctional officers, etc who aren’t brutal monsters.

And let me not even begin on the “illegal alien” bullshit. God how I hate that term. It’s so dehuminizing. BUT WHO CARES THEY ARE MEXICAN AMIRIGHT?

RAGE!

I can’t even be level headed about it. Fuck you, Sheriff Joe, fuck you.

And given the way that formulaic crime/courtroom dramas portray justice in America, I doubt that viewers will be in a questioning frame of mind. If somebody like Arpaio is actually brutalizing prisoners, all Casey has to do is ask Judith Light to go pull a few strings, right? Fred Thompson would never allow that kind of thing on his watch, media circus be damned.

I had to leave the room before I did something I regretted.

Yeah. I can’t have these arguments, because I don’t _have_ a calm, reasoned response to, “But they’re criminals! Who cares?”