Megan, that is not the type of situation I want to see on our streets. I can understand your concerns.
We do have to understand that we have instant access to information these days. Things may be worse today or we may just be hearing about the bad incidents through a better method of communication.
Clearly there are problem incidents. Clearly we must find a way to reduce those. Clearly we need to get departments operating in full accordance with the law, every bit as much as they think (and I do too) we need to comply with the law.
I have been stopped several times in the last three years with officers that were very polite and in one instance let me off with a warning when he had every right to site me for going twenty miles over the speed limit. I was going somewhat too fast to begin with, and increased my speed to pass. We talked for a while, and he let me off.
I have religiously tried to adhere to traffic laws by the letter since that incident, in appreciation of his actions.
The other situations were not traffic infractions. The officers were professional and efficient.
At any rate, who hears about these types of traffic stops? The only time we hear anything is when cops go postal.
You are right, cops don't "go postal" very often.
I don't accuse all cops because a few cops abuse their authority.
But I do accuse the cops who are complicit in coverups of that abuse.
Clearly we need to eliminate the attitudes which precipitate the problem incidents. Clearly we need to eliminate the "us vs them" attitude among peace officers. When peace officers distinguish between "officers" and "civilians", clearly we have an attitude problem. Officers must clearly see themselves as members of the civilian population and more importantly servants of the civilian population. Clearly we need to eliminate the attitude that misbehaviour among "officers" is to be, or can be, overlooked. An otherwise innocent peace officer who overlooks or covers for misconduct on the part of another peace officer is, and must be made to understand that he is, partially guilty of the misconduct he has covered.
It’s true that the majority of police are great people. The problem is that there’s too many of them anymore who don’t control themselves - go on You Tube and search ‘police abuse’ and you’ll have hours and hours of video to watch.
Add to this the Code of Silence and then the balance of the good cops are covering up for the bad cops. Johannes Meserle (sic?) the BART cop in California is an example of this. He killed a kid who was cuffed and on the ground and in the first iterations of the reports of his colleagues they made it sound justified. And then the video came out and now Mr. Meserle is just out of jail for his criminal conviction.
Absent the video the ‘good cops’ with him would’ve covered for him.
And then the recent Florida issue where the cops murdered a man and then confiscated cell phones from the witnesses and destroyed them. Gee, twelve ‘good cops’ right?
So, yeah, most cops are good folks. But who wants to ‘win the lottery’ and meet one of those people who just can’t wait to use his taser? Or his Glock?
Not me.