Is there any hope?

 

Beaten by the police

I submit that there is no hope.  There is no evidence of any hope coming in the future.  This horrific problem just continues to rear it's extremely ugly head in an almost predictable fashion.  

Seriously - mark your calendar right after some police officer or a group of officers demonstrate their inability to exercise good judgment and like clockwork, exert unreasonable force, to the point of injuring or killing someone.  

Then, in a day, a few days, perhaps a week, ask yourself if it has happened again.  Just because you haven't seen a news report on TV doesn't mean it hasn't happened again - try googling and see if there has been one, or several more instances across the country that escaped your notice, or the notice of the media.  

I honestly cannot understand how we as a country have not corrected this problem by now. Here in the USA we have known about it for hundreds of years, literally. The problem of criminal activity committed by law enforcement IS NOT GOING TO CORRECT IT'S SELF.  Police departments are not going to fix it.  Extra training is not going to fix it.  What will fix it is actual criminal prosecution and jail time of the offending officers, and that is it.

I am a 65 year old white male.  The extent of my interactions with any "law enforcement officer" has been limited to: a ticket for driving 45mph in a 35mph zone, an expired inspection sticker, and several minor accidents, none of which were my fault.  That's it.  The only instance in which I have called 911 was some 12-15 years back when a car wrecked across the street from my home, flipped over, and the driver crawled out and fled the scene.

Yet, even though I have not personally had any seriously negative interactions with law enforcement, over the past many years I have developed an extreme distrust for any and every law enforcement officer.  I no longer accept the notion that "most cops are good" and "just a few bad apples make the rest look bad".  

NO!  NO! NO!

I suggest that if there is a cop that is not actively corrupt or actively violating the rights of citizens, then that cop is actively covering for the cops that are committing those crimes.  It's called the "blue wall of silence" and it has plagued this country for a hundred years and our society has proven over and over again that it doesn't have the desire or the backbone to deal with this very serious problem.  

Imagine for a moment that there is a cop that is physically assaulting an individual that he has apprehended - violating his civil rights and breaking the law.  Why is he assaulting him, because he feels the individual disrespected him, he didn't pull his car over fast enough, what ever.  The individual ends up dying from the injuries that resulted from the beating received from this police officer.  The criminal-cop is put on desk duty while internal affairs investigates.  Even though he has numerous complaints against him over the years on the force, he has always been "cleared" (gotten away with it), even this latest one in which he killed someone, he gets away with it.  After a couple months he goes back on patrol duty and since he got away with his crime, once again, he continues to violate the rights of the citizenry - all is well in the world.

Over the next few years there are many more instances of cops seriously injuring or even killing individuals that they have apprehended.  Some of those instances make the local news, perhaps a few make the national news, but in all instances, the cops basically get away with it.  None of them are prosecuted, none are tried for their crimes, though some may lose their job and have to apply with another police department in a neighboring 
city - all is well in the world.

Then one day another cop, in another town or state, kills another person due to his use of excessive force.  He actually kneels on the neck of this poor man that has been handcuffed and has been rendered laying face down and is complaining that he can't breathe.  He is not a threat to anyone, but this cop just keeps all his weight on the back of this poor mans neck until he is dead - why - because he can !

But this time it's different for the cop.  This one makes national news because it is caught on video and broadcast all over the country and even the world.  There is outrage.  The population is demanding justice for the victim, demanding that the cop be arrested and tried for his crime.  And this time, justice is served.  The cop is tried, found guilty, and sentenced to 22 years for his crime - finally there is justice, finally the slow churning tide is turning, finally the cops in the US will see that they will now pay the price for their criminal abuse and civil rights violations, finally, law enforcement will see the ramifications for their illegal activities and learn - all is well in the world.

But as the days, weeks, months go by, we still read or hear of instance after instance where it seems that cops have not learned from the violent assault perpetrated by their corrupt peer, the one that finally had to pay for his violent actions.  

And before long, less than three years after this landmark conviction . . .

. . . five police officers beat to death an unarmed man, a man who has been maced and handcuffed and is not a threat to anyone.  A man who is clearly terrified of the police and what they are going to do to him - and they do not disappoint -  as this terrified young man is calling for his mother these criminal-cops take turns beating and kicking him to death. 

As the video shows in the aftermath, their conversation reveals that these criminal-cops are not the slightest bit concerned that they will pay for this crime.  Why would they be concerned, they have been getting away with their crimes for years.

All five cops have now been fired, and charged with the murder of another poor unfortunate man that they apprehended. 

Clearly, even the arrest, prosecution, and incarceration of one of their own several years earlier failed to influence them to change their behavior.  Clearly these 5 cops had no fear that there would be any ramifications for their assault on a citizen of their community.  And why did they have no fear - because for generations, they and millions of other cops have been taught an unwritten philosophy:

Don't get caught.

But if you do get caught, don't worry, 

I got your back.

Everyone from the mayor, the district attorney, the Chief of police, the internal affairs investigator, and the fellow officers - all "have their backs".

~ ~ ~

Cops, as children, are social miscreants.  I have no idea what percentage of male children, when you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, will say "a police man".  But I suspect that it is perhaps a fairly high percentage.  But when a little boy's answer to the question is "a police man", the questioner should be extremely concerned.  

What is it about being a police man that this little boy finds attractive?  I'll tell you what it is:

They wear a uniform.
They carry guns and sticks.
They are strong and tough.
They force people to obey their commands.
They can arrest people.
They can kill people.

Many young boys, when they see this played out on TV, find the power and authority that police exert to be attractive.  They don't desire to be police officers so that they can "serve the community".  They want to defeat the "bad guy".  This attitude remains through out their teen years and into their 20's and 30's - at least.  

I never found policing attractive.  I never had the desire to exert power over anyone.

I have absolutely no idea what goes on during police training once someone is accepted into a police academy, but based on the actions of so many cops, aside from learning how to exert their power and authority over the citizenry, there is little to zero training in deescalation and how to treat people humanely.  And if there is such training, it is clearly not being grasped by the bullies with the badges - why - because they are still those little boys, only much bigger, and now they can get revenge with impunity.

~ ~ ~

Solutions

These people have got to be held accountable for the actions of their officers.

Well, that doesn't sound exactly fair, does it?  Yes, it is completely fair.  Remember, these police chiefs used to be regular cops on patrol at some point in their carrier, and it is guaranteed that they committed and/or witnessed policy violations, serious misbehavior, and law breaking by some (many) of their fellow officers, and they did absolutely nothing to stop it or to prevent it from happening in the future.  In other words, they covered for them, and now they are in charge.  

Memphis Police Chief
Cerelyn Davis

Clearly Chief Davis failed to insure that any and all rogue officers under her command were removed.  She had to have known that they were there.  The signs had to be obvious.  Those five cops didn't just commit one policy violation one day.  I can guarantee the reader that those cops, likely every one of them, has had numerous complaints against them over many years.

If Chief Davis had of been a good cop, immediately upon taking command in June of 2021, she would have gone to these people . . .

and these people . . .

and these people . . .

and these people . . .

. . . and she would have made it perfectly clear to all of them, that if they violate department policy, she will make it her personal mission to fire them, and their violation will be made public.  And if they violate the rights of any citizen, they will be fired, arrested, charged, and prosecuted.  And if they assault, injure, or murder any citizen, she will do everything in her power to make sure that they spend a good portion of the rest of their life assigned to the general population wing of the nearest prison. And if they feel that they can't work under these constraints, to please put their badge and gun on her desk at the end of their shift.

But as I said, Chief Davis is not a good cop.  She has never been a good cop. Sure, she looks like a good cop, an attractive African American female, but she is a cop first, and being a cop taints every aspect of her life.  Being a cop covers her entire persona with the stench of corruption.  Don't believe me . . . ?

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, January 27th, 2023, reported that: Davis became chief of the Memphis Police Department in 2021, but got her start as a patrol officer in Atlanta in 1986. She quickly advanced through the ranks, holding various titles before eventually being named deputy chief.

~Commander of Atlanta’s Special Operations Section, which included SWAT, mounted patrol, motors, APD’s helicopter unit, vice and narcotics. She also led the city’s infamous REDDOG unit, which was later disbanded.

~Atlanta Police Department’s internal affairs commander.

She was fired in 2008 for her alleged involvement in a botched sex crimes investigation into the husband of an Atlanta police sergeant.  Two detectives accused Cerelyn Davis of telling them not to investigate the officers husband after the department obtained sexual photos of him with underage girls. A federal grand jury later indicted T.C. Crane on charges of producing child pornography. He pleaded guilty to one count in January 2009.

The federal indictment was issued after Atlanta police took no action in the case, though an investigation by the city later pointed to Davis largely as the reason.

Then-Chief Richard Pennington first demoted Davis from major to lieutenant before firing her. She challenged her firing before the city’s Civil Service Board and was ultimately reinstated.

She retired from the department in 2016 to take the job as the Durham, North Carolina, police chief.

No wonder the department she now oversee's is in the spotlight for employing violent criminal cops - she clearly doesn't give a shit!  She got away with crimes some 15 years ago, and if she had her way, these five criminal cops would be exonerated and return to the force, with honers.

This is why I despise the police - they are corrupt from the top all the way down.  

When will this country do something about this?  

I suggest, never.  

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com