Fully-automatic weapons and armored vehicles used on unarmed protesters in Ferguson, MO., and the questions which remain about Michael Brown's death are both enormous and numerous. The local PD and hundreds of others across the nation close ranks to protect the cop - not to demand that an independent investigation determine the truth about the circumstances.
A 50-year-old First Nations woodcarver is shot 4 times while crossing a street - for holding a closed pocket knife in his hand. The officer who shot him dead served no jail time because the DA declined to prosecute. He wasn't even fired - he resigned before the Disciplinary Committee could take any action against him.
Tens of thousands of YouTube videos documenting police misconduct - from verbal abuse and threats at traffic stops to cops parking in handicapped parking slots to shootings of unarmed Americans . . . some of them shot in the back. Plug the term "police misconduct" into the YouTube search bar and you will get 67,000 results. And that won't cover ALL of the videos available on YouTube about this problem. More are added every day by average Americans who are recording their encounters with the police.
And don't even get me started on the repulsive things to be read on the police blogs. Some of that stuff is horrifying and borders on overt terrorism.
So what's to be done? One answer is offered by retired Detective Frank Serpico. I'll introduce him, link to his write-up, and present his recommendations after the Great Orange Cloud.
Frank Serpico joined the NYPD on Sept. 11, 1959. While on the Narcotics Squad, he learned how the men who were supposed to be fighting crime were actually stealing drugs and money from the dealers they were (or were not) busting. After refusing to accept his share of the take, Detective Serpico took his concerns to his commanders who all told him to go to Hell. He even went to the mayor's investigation department and was told that he could forget about the whole thing . . . or be found face-down in the East River. Even the office of the District Attorney refused to entertain the man's request for an investigation. After all, the DA's Office NEEDS the testimony of the police in order to make their criminal cases stick.
Then on Feb. 3, 1971 - Detective Frank Serpico was shot at a drug bust. His fellow officers - who knew of his efforts to expose their own corruption - offered no assistance either before or after the shooting. In fact, they never called in a "10-13", which is the code for "officer down". They never even bothered to call an ambulance. A resident of the apartment building made that call. Eight months later - in October, 1971 and again in December, 1971 - Frank Serpico testified before the Knapp Commission - convened to investigate corruption in the NYPD.
In Frank's opinion, little has changed since that day he was shot more than 43 years ago.
Please read his account - published here at Politico Magazine (dot com) - and get plenty of details, examples, and a tale or two of how good cops conduct themselves.
At the end, Frank offers six recommendations to reform our American police departments. I don't think his recommendations go quite far enough, but even implementing these six would be a huge step in the right direction. Here they are, quoted from the linked article - which you really, REALLY should read:
1. Strengthen the selection process and psychological screening process for police recruits. Police departments are simply a microcosm of the greater society. If your screening standards encourage corrupt and forceful tendencies, you will end up with a larger concentration of these types of individuals;
2. Provide ongoing, examples-based training and simulations. Not only telling but showing police officers how they are expected to behave and react is critical;
3. Require community involvement from police officers so they know the districts and the individuals they are policing. This will encourage empathy and understanding;
4. Enforce the laws against everyone, including police officers. When police officers do wrong, use those individuals as examples of what not to do – so that others know that this behavior will not be tolerated. And tell the police unions and detective endowment associations they need to keep their noses out of the justice system;
5. Support the good guys. Honest cops who tell the truth and behave in exemplary fashion should be honored, promoted and held up as strong positive examples of what it means to be a cop;
6. Last but not least, police cannot police themselves. Develop permanent, independent boards to review incidents of police corruption and brutality—and then fund them well and support them publicly. Only this can change a culture that has existed since the beginnings of the modern police department.
I feel that #6 is the most important of the bunch, but I want these commissions to have the power to fire cops who are obviously bad - at their jobs or in how they conduct themselves. These Citizen Review Boards are meaningless without the ability to discipline and/or fire bad cops. Without teeth, they're just paper tigers.
Hope you enjoy reading this man's presentation. I found it interesting and, moreover, a fine starting point on how to police the police from a man who is a genuine expert on the subject of police corruption.