The motto of the Chicago Police Department is "We Serve and Protect." Some people have asked who protects us from the police, and it's no joke. (The Romans used to say, "Who guards the guardians?")
Some noteworthy stories in the news lately: About a week ago we had a second (in the space of a few months) case of a Chicago policeman driving drunk, causing a fatal auto accident, and walking away! (I don't think either of these cases has come to trial yet so I'd best not say much about them.)
Two years ago there was a case of an off-duty Chicago policeman who was accused of battery in an occurrence famously caught on video: he attacked a female bartender who refused to serve him any more drinks. He was convicted of battery yesterday (but not yet sentenced). His defense was that he acted in self-defense as the bartender pushed him when he tried to come behind the bar--I guess to get that drink for himself when she would not let him have it. Since the woman in question is 5'3" and weighs 125 lb, and the policeman weights just double that, the self-defense plea was perfectly ludicrous.
Plus we have the famous case of Drew Peterson, now a former police sergeant in suburban Bollingbrook who was indicted in the murder of his third wife and is a suspect in the disappearance of his fourth wife.
Also, there is the story of a body that was just found that might turn out to be the spouse of a police officer. This may turn out to be another woman killed by her policeman husband (again, I must not comment further).
All these are cases of police officers within, say, 30 miles of where I live. In Chicago and certain of its suburbs there have been, over the years, many stories of police corruption and bad cops who were in league with criminals and often committed crimes themselves--for example, a ring of thieves that stole TVs included several cops.
There are good and nice cops who truly want to help the public and have no animus against anyone but bad guys. And, obviously, there are bad ones. I have often suspected that at least some men become policemen so as to be able to throw their weight around. Let's just hope that that first category is much larger than the category with the bad eggs in it.
An addendum: I'm not quite the only one who has some misgivings about policemen or police forces. Here is an article about police tasering and using pepper spray on a deaf and handicapped man:
http://www.bvblackspin.com/2009/07/28/police-taser-deaf-disabled-man/?icid=mainhtmlws-maindl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bvblackspin.com%2F2009%2F07%2F28%2Fpolice-taser-deaf-disabled-man%2F
Copyright © Richard Stein 2009
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