Who Polices the Police?

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Who Polices the Police?

by Aaron Ginn

 

I have a cousin who works for the Mesa, Arizona Police Department. In

October of 2002, Dan Lovelace, an officer who works for the Chandler,

Arizona Police Department gunned down a woman who attempted to pass a

fake prescription at a local Walgreens. Lovelace claimed the woman

attempted to run him down as she sped away from the scene, and he shot

her in self-defense. Forensic and eyewitness evidence contradicted his

testimony. Despite this, Lovelace was acquitted

http://www.ahwatukee.com/afn/crime/articles/040714a.html

of all charges against him.

 

At the time, I asked my cousin what he thought of the verdict. He

simply stated that he would never question a fellow officer in the

line of duty. In his view, an officer should never be questioned. His

(or her) authority is absolute out in the field. From what I've been

able to discern, this attitude is systemic in police officers. The

force is a fraternity. They stick together and watch each others' backs.

 

I recalled this exchange in light of an undercover investigation

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_033170755.html

conducted by a Miami local news crew that aired last month in which an

investigator attempted to perform a seemingly simple task: to obtain a

form to file a complaint against a police officer. The investigator

went to 38 separate departments in South Florida in an attempt to

obtain such a form. He walked out of 35 of them empty-handed. But the

worst part of the story was the reactions he received from several

officers when he asked for the form. Some of the reactions included

asking for his personal information in a threatening manner,

threatened citations, lewd comments about his wife, asking if he was

on medications, etc. One officer went so far as to chase the man out

of the office and down the street, at one point putting his hand on

his gun in a threatening manner.

 

I have no idea how widespread this problem is, but I have a hard time

believing this incident is isolated to South Florida, and even one

incident is still too much. The state is the entity which maintains a

legal monopoly on force, and the police departments are the enforcers

of said force. All men have the capacity for good or for evil, and the

last time I looked, police officers were still all men. Simply because

a person is given a badge, a gun, and the authority to enforce the law

by the state does not make that person a moral agent. Just as there

are good and bad people who are plumbers, teachers, and engineers,

there are good and bad people who are police officers. Simply trusting

police officers to behave themselves is not sufficient. Given my

cousin's attitude and yet another example of police officers looking

out for their own kind at the expense of the public good, it's clear

that the responsibility for policing the police lies with each of us.

 

As an addendum, it seems that the belligerent officer in the video

above who threatened the investigator has filed suit

http://cbs4.com/local/local_story_053001510.html

against the local news station to prevent the airing of the story.

We'll soon see if the South Florida courts are more trustworthy than

most South Florida police departments.

 

March 1, 2006

 

Aaron Ginn [send him mail] is an electrical engineer from Chandler,

Arizona.

 

2006 LewRockwell.com