One
of the problems with handing over an almost unlimited amount of other people’s
cash to people who have spent their lives in salary is that they have no true
understanding of the value of the money their spending.
In August of 1991, the cops could not explain
why more than $1 million worth of brand new police cars were sitting unused on
a fenced grassy lot; their batteries disconnected depreciating and
deteriorating.
An off the record answer from the cops was
that they bought one million dollars’ worth of cars they couldn’t use because
they thought the big sedans they favor would no longer be manufactured. Then it was learned that the cops had
actually spent $3,200,000, not $1,000,000 to buy twice as many cars they
needed. The Board of supervisors said
and did nothing.
In
March of 2008 a female cop with the Fairfax County Police sped through a red
light without her siren on and struck and killed 33-year-old Ashley McIntosh, a
kindergarten teacher's assistant.
The cop sped through the intersection without
putting on her brakes. The police said that the cop had been dispatched to a
call about a fight in progress but have never provided any proof that there was
actually such a call. And for good
reason. There was no fight. Eventually the cops admitted that the matter at
hand was the arrest of a shoplifter.
Witnesses
said the cop didn’t have her siren on. The police must have known that. The
interviewed people who saw the woman killed. But they insisted they didn’t know
if the siren was on or off.
The
in-car video camera was active and working at the time of the crash, but the
police refused to release it to the press or discuss what it showed. Nor would
they release the cops name to the public.
The
chief of police called McIntosh's parents to express his sympathy and then
ruined the moment with a joke by promising "a comprehensive, balanced, and
fair investigation of the crash”.
When
the family hired a lawyer, the police stopped communicating to anyone about the
killing. The victim’s family received no updates from police on what happened,
nor were they contacted from the department's victim services unit.
The
public and the family launched an online petition urging police "to
conduct a fair, impartial, and full investigation”. More than 600 people signed
it in two weeks.
When
asked to explain the foot dragging of the police investigating themselves, the
cops said “we want to make sure we have all the facts, analyzed every bit of
data to have a complete package to present to the commonwealth's attorney."
Or, in other words “We’re really in trouble now, this has made the national
news, and we don’t know what to do next”
Over
700 people attended McIntosh’s funeral.
In
2010 the County agreed to pay McIntosh’s family $1.5 million. The cop who hit
her paid nothing. The police department budget went untouched. They got away with it.
The
cop was charged with reckless driving but found not guilty, which, even in
Fairfax County, came as a shock. Then
another judge ruled that the cop was not entitled to "sovereign immunity”,
as a government official performing her duties, because her actions were
grossly negligent. The cop was doomed
anyway. The department has a way of punishing
those who embarrass it, because as everyone knows, only the department is allowed
to embarrass itself. The cop was placed on administrative duties and the
department took no disciplinary action against her. Then she was accused of
falsifying her time cards and forced to resign.
In
February of 2011 Ashley's Law was passed by the two houses of Virginia's
General Assembly 137 to 1. The law
requires those operating police cars and fire engines in Virginia to activate
emergency lights and sound sirens before driving through a stop light, slow down
and yield to other cars, or stop completely if they wanted to keep the siren
silent.
The
Fairfax County Council did and said nothing to help pass Ashley’s Law.