On Police Misconduct, Yet Again

There was a news item yesterday about (if I have all my facts right--could not find the item today to verify everything) police who tasered and pepper-sprayed an arrest suspect--while he was handcuffed.

There have been similar stories in the past. Regular readers of this blog know that I have often written about abuses of police power. It disturbs me greatly.

It seems, also, that in many of the cases that come to public attention, the policemen involved are not disciplined by their respective police forces. Many times they are put on leave--with pay, which amounts to additional paid vacation--pending an investigation. When they are brought to trial for criminal charges, they are very often acquitted or given a meaningless sentence, like probation. (The infamous Chicago police officer Joseph Abbatte, whose beating of a female bartender half his size was caught on video and seen around the world, was convicted--and then given probation!) Police show legendary solidarity with their fellow officers and often give false testimony in court.

I think prosecutors and judges are too prone to somehow completely excuse police misconduct. A professor of criminology has said that prosecutors are more inclined to believe the police. Juries might believe the police are more likely to be telling the truth and presume the truth cannot be on the side of someone accused if that person was arrested. Also, I wonder if police unions exert pressure on judges and juries in these criminal cases.

Even more disturbing, perhaps, is that police often shoot people. Here in Chicago, so far this year the rate of police shootings is running much higher than last year. In these cases the police often say that the shooting victim pointed a gun at them; but often the families of the victim, and even witnesses, say that the victim had no gun. These shooting victims are African Americans in a large percentage of cases.

I try to be fair-minded, so I'll say that I hope that bad cops constitute a small minority. But I also fear that the recruiting of candidates for police forces does not employ adequate testing that would exclude people with very aggressive or violent tendencies.

So, improved psychological screening of police in advance of their hiring is one thing that could be done. Another thing to be done might be a change in attitudes of prosecutors, juries, and judges whose views might be skewed such as to be too sympathetic to police who pretty plainly have done wrong.

Update, September 24, 2011
There have been two recent news items, one in Colorado and one in Fullerton, California. In one of these cases, a homeless man died after being beaten by police. In the other, I believe, a teen-age boy who was part of a demonstration was tasered by police. The sad record just goes on and on.

Update, November 17, 2012
Further to the case of officer (or actually, now, former police officer) Joseph Abbate, who was convicted of beating bartender Carolyn Obrycka and then given probation: Obrycka sued Abbate and the City of Chicago in a civil suit in which she alleged basically a police coverup. She prevailed in her case and was awarded $850,000.

The criminal case of the police officer in Chicago who allegedly was driving drunk and caused a car accident that killed two young men is just coming to trial.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Richard Stein