"The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police. Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries. Prosecutors are tight with law enforcement, and share the same values and ideas."
- former St. Louis policeman in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/06/i-was-a-st-louis-cop-my-peers-were-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/ ), quoted in the Atlantic article discussed below on the Pink Pistols list.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))
It is not reasonable to expect prosecutors or district attorneys to prosecutors police officers because prosecutors have to rely on police departments to provide the evidence in order to prosecute murderers, rapists, robbers and vandals. Besides that prosecutors and police officers are both agents of the government so for the prosecutor to press a case against a police officer is in a sense the government prosecuting itself.
Perhaps we need a separate prosecutor from the one who prosecutes rapists etc to prosecute cases of police malfeasance, but this person would also be a government agent. I can't think of any way out of this dilemma except to allow the victim to sue in civil court, but civil courts generally do not have the power to imprison, only to fine, so this solution would probably not satisfy the police haters.
Les
"The problem is that cops aren’t held accountable for their actions, and they know it. These officers violate rights with impunity. They know there’s a different criminal justice system for civilians and police. Even when officers get caught, they know they’ll be investigated by their friends, and put on paid leave. My colleagues would laughingly refer to this as a free vacation. It isn’t a punishment. And excessive force is almost always deemed acceptable in our courts and among our grand juries. Prosecutors are tight with law enforcement, and share the same values and ideas."
- former St. Louis policeman in the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/06/i-was-a-st-louis-cop-my-peers-were-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/ ), quoted in the Atlantic article discussed below on the Pink Pistols list.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))