Police officials in the nation's capital have been facing recent questions about headline-making arrests -- not of hardened street criminals but of their own officers.
In a single month, one District of Columbia police officer was accused of taking semi-nude pictures of a 15-year-old runaway and another was charged with running a prostitution operation involving teenage girls. A third was indicted on an attempted murder charge, accused of striking his wife in the head with a light fixture.
Police say the arrests aren't representative of the entire department, which includes about 4,500 officers and civilian employees. Still, more than 100 officers in the last five years have been arrested on charges ranging from traffic offenses to murder to money laundering, and the latest instances have increased concerns about training, supervision and accountability. The D.C. Council has set a hearing to discuss the problem and Police Chief Cathy Lanier has met with residents to assuage fears of a misbehaving department.
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5 comments:
It's not just in DC. This problem is at epidemic proportions throughout the country. While any police department is going to tell you that their internal investigation/discipline process works I liken that to a fox guarding a hen house. The only answer is a civilian oversight committee with the power to get and keep these criminals out of law enforcement.
Don't forget Marian Berry, the DC mayor who was a drug dealer, user, and criminal!
In order to be a police officer, one must have a criminal mind. That's how you catch them. As much as that's a given, it's not unexpected that there are those that go to the other side.
It's a cost we endure.
Still another step toward our becoming the United States of Mexico (or any other third-world country name). This country's in trouble. Real trouble.
What naïve, head in the sand dummy thinks this is only in D.C, or is just a "few" bad cops?
This is an epidemic of "we can do anything we want" badge carrying gang bangers who, under the color of law, gang beat unarmed women and children (it takes AT LEAST 5 cops to beat ANYONE up and at least 70-100 rounds to hit a criminal), rape female suspects in handcuffs, spray mace into the faces of confined and restrained women, shoot kids (because the cops are always "afraid" of their own shadow), sell drugs, prostitute teenagers (its nice to be able to gun down other pimps in your "territory" and sprinkle a little crack on them, then write a report that they looked like they were "reaching for a weapon"), body slam women face first into concrete (because you and another cop couldn't control a 95lb, 70 year old woman), turn police camera's OFF while you beat a suspect (who showed up with no injuries, but ended up with black eyes, no teeth and 100 stitches), and kick the door down at the wrong address, shoot the family dog and point guns at INNOCENT homeowners, who, if they complain, take an ass-whipping that pales in comparison to an MMA fight. Turn traffic stops into a murder scene, firing wildly at cars with children in them (again, because they were "afraid"). Trying to make up for being 5' 5" by going to the weight room and then looking for a reason to throw a teenager to the pavement for saying something you didn't like (restraint, minimum use of force, and self-control are no longer part of your training or vocabulary). Looking the other way (I didn't see anything!) as OTHER cops beat a citizen within an inch of his life for, again, saying something you didn't like (while the rest of the citizenry, without badges, do 15-25 for attempted murder). We don't have a "serving and protecting' police force any more in the USA -- we have a violent, military-like, above the law, gestapo group whose main intent is to show the serfs who is in charge. While making a little side money in the crime business, of course.
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