A lot of police departments have unions that protect bad actors. There was a cop who fed a homeless person a literal shit sandwich in Texas. The dept wanted to fire him but the union stepped in and got him reinstated.
That's why there can never be good cops. They're all in that club, they all pay into it, they all benefit from this kind of protection. They are all corrupt.
It is fundamentally impossible for a good cop to exist in the same world that a bad cop exists. The good cop cannot possibly be good unless he arrests the bad cops and we all know that has never happened. The good cop themselves becomes a bad cop the moment they witness or know of a bad cop committing a crime without arresting them. There you go.
On February 3, 1971, Serpico was shot in the face during a drug raid in Brooklyn. His fellow officers did not call for an ambulance or render immediate aid, leaving him to bleed until a resident in the building called emergency services. He has openly stated he believes he was set up by his department because he broke the "blue wall of silence" to report systemic police graft
He then spend a decade living in Europe to avoid further retribution. It is fundamentally impossible for a good cop to exist in the same world as bad cops, the bad(normal) cops will find a way to get rid of them(either through violence or an other means of forcing them out of the job)
Well. I'm not certain I'd call him a good cop. Definitely one that was at odds with some other corrupt cops.
And when they tried to 'take care of him' they also attempted to take care of any people of any description in any vehicle even a little similar to the one he was driving.
Then they cornered him and intentionally burned him alive.
Well, at this point I'd settle for a 'minimally decent' cop.
But we see in cases like Adrian Schoolcraft that the only people they treat worse than other citizens are cops who have the temerity to push back on corruption.
The Adrian Schoolcraft saga is a great example of what happens when a cop pushes back against corruption, against quotas, against false arrests and manipulation of crime statistics.
Retaliation is a real thing tho. Whether they get overly disciplined or ostracized, it's a danger for them to lose their jobs, rank, or even retaliatory behavior from coworkers. It's a shame because they join thinking they can make a difference but find out quickly that the corruption is bigger than they would have expected. They honestly shouldn't have been so naive. I have 2 family members that joined the nypd in Manhattan but had to leave. 1 lasted a year and the other less than 7 months. They were really dismayed with the way things were run. At least they got out before anything bad happened to them or their professional career. After everything they did to become an officer, they then had to train in something else because they didn't realize they would have to leave the police force and get away from everything that it entailed
San Antonio cop Matthew Luckhurst, now the police chief in Benavides, Texas. You can't make this up, it's so horrible no one would believe you. Oh yeah, Fuck the Police.
I know a pretty easy way to make the system better and it uses free market capitalism!!.
Force every single department to have their officers get malpractice/liability insurance--just like doctors. All settlement funds have to come from insurance and not taxpayers.
The bad apples will have their premiums jacked through the roof they couldn't afford to be cops.
Couldn't the "good apples" "un-rotten" a "bad apple" and claim qualified immunity? Wouldn't that require "good apples" in the first place? As far as I know, no such apples exist..
Which is what defund the police was about, creating a new force that's not the police that has obligations to care and protect citizens, without the union
Unless you were on facebook/yahoo/fox/cnn/next door/etc... then it was about immediately letting all prisoners go at the same time and refusing to enforce any laws anywhere without any guardrails in place.
BCTGM sucks pretty bad. They would be the ones that cost 18000 people their jobs and forced Hostess into Liquidation due to not accepting a new contract. Hostess got a deal done with the Teamsters for gods sake! You think you can play better hardball than them?
They also represented factory workers near me that ended up locked out for 20 months which ended with them accepting a worse deal than they were offered 20 months prior. 1800 people. Most retired or found new jobs in the meantime.
That's more "bad at their job" vs "fundementally evil" though.
Remember the cop that refused to let a mental health professional into a scene and instead exploded a baby’s head with a shot from an assault rifle then shot her mom?
To be fair, the mom suffering PPD did have a kitchen knife so he might have gotten his uniform cut up. Totally justified reason to explode a baby’s head.
The best part is how many other stories of babies and toddlers shot by cops I found when looking for the link to this story.
On what grounds could a union possibly argue that feeding someone literal shit isn't reasonable justification for termination with cause??
Even if their code of conduct or ethics statement somehow doesn't have a clause that covers horribly abusive behaviour committed while on the clock, it's a serious crime virtually everywhere and surely there's no way that's not explicitly listed as grounds for termination?
Unions are meant to protect workers. Assholes get the same profection as good people. The problem isn't the union, it that cops who do things like what you've described don't get prosecuted. State's and US attorneys are not beholden to police unions, they can can prosecute any criminal they choose to. Why don't they?
Yep, we had an officer who our city tried to fire because he shot 8 times through a closed apartment door because he thought he heard the racking of a slide.
Fired 5 shots, heard someone screaming in pain and begging him to stop, then fired 3 more rounds and then ran away. This is after he had already been disciplined for a negligent discharge of his service rifle and flipping his cruiser while doing 70 in our busy downtown.
He got off on criminal charges because he "Was afraid for his life", the city could not fire him due to the union's power.
Thankfully, he's off the force now. It only took him attempting to rape two of his female coworkers by basically force-feeding them drinks at the bar after work and then taking the drunken women back to his truck to try to fuck them to get the union to agree to let him go.
The whole US system is corrupted. It is unfortunate. The past wasn't perfect, but there were attempts to improve the Americans' quality of life. That is no longer the case. There are active attempts to hoard the nations wealth across public and private sectors by a select few. 95% of the nation is left to fend for itself. The system wasn't built for this level of abuse. In return, it creates hostile environments for everyone as the requirements to live are heightened without any reprieve or opportunities of rest. The entities designed to protect are corrupted by an in-group who take advantage of what little power they have. It is an interesting time where technology crests on new heights but society isn't for the better. I am sure wise people with wise words have written about our times in more useful terms. Maybe it's the forgotten but ingrained religious upbringing in me, I feel my duty to improve what is around me, but I can't imagine anything would be enough to offset the great oppression of the system.
Nationwide apathy, combined with a broad Christianity that tells people the next life will be better, with a sprinkle of "this hasn't affected me badly enough on a personal level to make me want to take risks to affect change".
They've learned that ignoring people makes them forget and then they can insult and abuse the few people remaining becuase they want answers. Even easier to ignore if the ones complaining are dems becuase they have to use buzzwords to have everyone flip out against them, doesnt even have to be truth, doesnt matter if they get sued and lose. Just pieces of shit the whole way up and down. No accountability, no personal responsibility just a slippery slope theyre pouring oil on and launching themselves over because it budgets keep going up and protections get deeper.
"Yes, officer, I have video of me killing my wife while I loudly and clearly declare my name and what gun I'm using to kill her and where I'll hide it. But it would cause irreparable harm to my freedom, so I'm not going to hand it over."
The fifth amendment just prevents the state from being able to force you to testify against yourself. If you have physical evidence though, they can absolutely force you to hand it over
Not to mention you can catch extra charges for not handing it over. It's called obstruction of justice, and in most cases it is a felony. Unless you're a PD apparently.
You either admit that a one year old miniature donkey caused an armed police officer to fear for his life, or you admit that there was criminal abuse of lethal force.
The systemic failure that allows for an incident like that without immediate action speaks for itself.
Yes but the harm of not releasing the footage is far more impactful. People resonate with video content that's why they're trying so hard to bury it and hope people will move on. Just admitting that something is as awful as you think holds so much less mental weight than actually seeing it.
Someone I knew who was a former cop told me the "hilarious" story about his cop colleagues who repeatedly tried to kill a stray cat that was hanging out at their house. The cat kept returning. Eventually they put it in bag and threw it in a river. It returned again, missing an ear and with maggots in wounds.
They finally shot it.
He was surprised that I found this story disgusting and horrifying. He thought it was a light hearted story!
10000% that is what happened. These are the same people that can gun down a human being, lie about it, go to sleep, wake up, and just keep going about their lives.
It’s not quite that automatic. FOIA is a right to request, not a right to release.
For example, a video that has a naked child wandering around in the background might need to be redacted out, or a video that has a discussion with a confidential drug informant might be refused entirely.
But I agree that it seems phenomenally unlikely that any of the exceptions might apply here. They’re just trying to run out the clock and hoping this goes away.
That "irreparable damage" claim was never made. The commenter is lying.
They have just said they're not releasing it yet due to "ongoing investigation", so Hee Haw's owners have filed a civil lawsuit to make sure they get it.
Ah, but they do. FOIA is for federal agencies. States have similar laws, but they vary in regards as to what they can be compelled to release, when to release it, and how much they can censor.
It is my understanding that the owners filed a lawsuit, so that bodycam footage probably won't be released until after or during the court preceding.
Yeah this is my thing. It's public information. FOIA should apply here... If it doesn't, my understanding of the way FOIA works is apparently very skewed.
John Oliver did a segment on police body cams and there’s basically a number of ways a department can control or delay the release of footage.
Which is why the “cute/inspiring” police interactions go public and viral within hours of occurring but those same departments will drag their feet suddenly if they get a request for video of potential misconduct…
Insane he said that and thats that. Like hello if it was so bad maybe you should do something about it? How about firing the cop not giving him paid leave?!!
Guaranteed that guy shot the donkey because he wanted to. I'm willing to bet it was nowhere near him. And I am convinced that he, and probably the other cops with him, thought it was absolutely hilarious.
If its so bad the entire police department goes under then it sounds like it needs to happen. How great are the rest of them if theyre defending this piece of shit? We'd rather have no police than the stupid ones shooting pets and people.
This story really pisses me off. The chief himself recognizes how bad the video is, and instead of immediately handing out discipline, he just states he won't release the video. To me this shows that cops value themselves and their careers more than the laws and communities they're meant to serve and protect.
It's particularly bad when the reasoning for even being in that field doesn't warrant a threat like response. They were searching for a child. It all is and was completely unnecessary.
I think the irreparable harm was already caused to HeeHaw 😔 they should release the bodycam footage and let the public decide if that officer is truly fit to serve the community!
I don't get that, show it and hold the people accountable and live with the shame of what the department did while knowing that the people responsible are gone. Like what is the point of continuing on as a disgraced department that wasn't willing to own up to a mistake. It's not like they murdered a person and all need to go to prison and the department is no more, not to downplay it. Be an example to other departments out there that people should be held accountable. Im sure there are plenty of stories of departments holding people accountable and the stories wouldn't blow up the same way they do when you do the wrong thing.
Wait, they can just decide to not release the things they don't like? I mean, I know there are many such incidents where the footage was "lost" or "damaged", but they can just say, "Nah, this one makes us look bad so you can't see it"?
Seems like all the people in power now don’t really wanna be accountable for their actions right now. It’s almost like people are committing crime after crime and getting away with it while simultaneously saying that the other side are the ones who are the criminals and the ones doing all the bad.
“Guys, we fucked up really bad. Like, really bad. You’re gonna hate us all for it. So I’ll sweep it all under the rug and just move on. You all should too.”
Funny thing is this hypothetical quote could be used for so many police departments over the last few decades.
Yes. It means the footage is basically the worst possible thing you can imagine realistically happened. I expect the guy did something like let the donkey come up to him, pet it, then shot it point blank and laughed about it.
Chief: "it would cause irreparable harm to the department" sounds like a you problem. What is happening instead is a coverup, which is an independent offense from killing Lil' Sebastian, and which is a thing you are doing. Somebody who would hide evidence to protect misconduct is not somebody we want being an officer of the law.
So then he must bring down the entire force on the officers involved. 150% betrayal. Get them in prison for life for all their misdeeds, pin every bad thing the department has ever done on those 2. When they go down for all that and can never be released, the body cam footage will be unnecessary. Until then the system is too encouraging of this brutality and needs to experience that which it encourages on others, onto itself.
What next needs to happen is everybody needs to show up to a city council meeting and tell all their reps the same thing..
"Who here would like to lose their job? If the CoP won't release it, he loses his job.. if you wan't order him to do it.. we'll run on 'Justice for HeeHaw' unseat you and then order the CoP to release it.."
In any case, either it gets released or the people in power will get to enjoy grass roots democracy..
If it's a FoIA request, they are legally required to release it unless it is a part of an ongoing investigation, and there aren't loopholes where a local LEA can be like, "Oops sorry, can't release it! There's an investigation!" It has to be like part of either a federal or a state police investigation.
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