Police Unaccountability: Are Cops Becoming Churlish
Government Employees?
Unaccountable Cops: The only paperwork the public sees is
the tax bill
Two stories of cops evading accountability: Virginia police
are stonewalling the shooting of an unarmed motorist sitting in his car; and,
Maryland cops are arresting citizens videotaping on wire-tapping charges. Are
these more examples of surly public employees with an entitlement mentality
VIRGINIA, MARYLAND
COPS: ACCOUNTABILITY FOR THEE, NOT ME
Have police
become just another group of surly government employees with an entitlement
mentality?
Radley Balko,
Reason, sets the story. From Police Blackout:
Last November a police officer shot and killed David Masters, an unarmed
motorist, as he sat in the driver’s seat of his car on the side of Richmond
Highway, a major thoroughfare in Fairfax County, Virginia. Masters was wanted
for allegedly stealing flowers from a planter. He had been given a ticket the
day before for running a red light and then evading the police, though in a
slow and not particularly dangerous manner. In January of this year, Fairfax
County Commonwealth Attorney Raymond Morrogh announced through a press release
that he would not be filing any charges against the officer who shot Masters.
The shooting, Morrogh found, was justified due to a “furtive gesture” that
suggested Masters had a weapon. The only eyewitness to this gesture was the
police officer who pulled the trigger.
There exists dash-camera video of Masters’ shooting. There are also
police interviews of other witnesses, and there is the police report itself.
But the public and the press are unlikely to see those, or even to learn the
officer’s name. That’s because the Fairfax County Police Department—along with
the neighboring municipal police departments of Arlington and Alexandria—is
among the most secretive, least transparent law enforcement agencies in the
country.Balko has the rest of this sordid story, appropriately subtitled “Law
enforcement agencies in Northern Virginia say you have no right to know what
they’re doing.”Glenn Reynolds remarks, “Just fund their pensions and shut
up.” So, just to make sure we’ve got this
straight: Virginia police shoot and kill and unarmed man and the public has no
right to know any of the details?While in neighboring Maryland, if a citizen
videotapes a police officer–a public official paid with public monies–that
citizen is guilty of wiretapping?!?
Big Brother is
watching you. The city of Annapolis,
Maryland recently received a Homeland Security grant for 20 new surveillance
cameras in the downtown area. The city of Baltimore already has nearly 500.
According to the watchdog site PhotoEnforced, the state of Maryland has at
least 375 red light cameras and 80 speed cameras.But, in Maryland, if you watch
Big Brother, expect the full force of the state to be against you. A Maryland
woman found that out last week after she videotaped a police officer “on her
cell phone for the purpose of trying to show the police are harassing
people.” Shaw’s arrest comes amid
continuing national debate over the arrest and prosecution of Anthony Graber, who
was arrested in April for posting a video of a traffic stop to YouTube. Graber
was pulled over on his motorcycle by Maryland State Trooper Joseph David Ulher,
who drew his gun during the stop. Graber was wearing a camera on his helmet.
Days later, police raided the home of Graber’s parents. Graber was arrested,
booked, and jailed. He has been charged with violating Maryland’s wiretapping
statute, a felony that carries up to five years in prison. He has also been
charged with “Possession of an Interception Device,” that device being his
otherwise perfectly legal video camera.
Police abuse of power and covering up police misdeeds:
that’s Radley Balko’s beat.
Could the surly
police attitudes about the people they’re supposed to “serve and protect” in
the above two stories be a natural outgrowth of the public employee entitlement
mentality? Part of the problem is the militarization of small town police
forces, which turns once-routine problems into life and death encounters: Death
Wears a Badge: SWAT Teams Gone Wild Another is the pursuit of a piece of the
incredible wealth that is the drug enforcement pie. Drug War is a Real War–on
American CitizensIt’s little wonder that cops try to escape accountability for
training that often paints unarmed civilians the same color as heavily-armed gang-bangers.
when police officers alienate normally law-abiding citizens by using
bully tactics and evading accountability, they make the job that much harder
for everyone involved
.
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.