"Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are."

[Nice Squirrel]

Being a cop showed me just how racist and violent the police are. There’s only one fix.

Unfortunately, I don’t think better training alone will reduce police brutality. My fellow officers and I took plenty of classes on racial sensitivity and on limiting the use of force.

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.

 

[Horatio Parker]

The suicide of Duy Ngo

Q: [...] did you see evidence of that in the department as kind of a systemic thing where they would leak rumors and information about … victims or others to cover their own misdeeds or tracks?

A: I saw and heard it all the time. It was an epidemic. It was widespread throughout the whole police department. A lot of that is a defense mechanism; most police officers feel like they’re unfairly scrutinized and they’re attacked by the public and the media goes after them and reports on police actions negatively, biasly and unfairly. Even if it doesn’t get into the public arena, I heard it over and over again. The victim-blaming game. I’ve heard over these almost five years now, I’ve heard every reason why that night that I was shot why I was wrong, why I made the mistake. I’ve heard cops say why I wasn’t supposed to be out there. Whatever way that they’ve come up with to point out that if they were in that situation, they never would’ve been shot because they did the right thing and I believe that they honestly believe they have to say those things because otherwise it would become a reality to them that they would have to accept the fact that this could happen to any one of us.

 

[Underseer]

Uh, did you intend to include a link in that original post, Squirrel?

 

[Nice Squirrel]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/poste...e-racist-and-violent-and-theres-only-one-fix/

Oh lookie there it gave me a date of three weeks ago. Not today like in the first time I clicked.