No Control----Police Drinking and Cop Culture Pt 1

Should Cops Drink?

Well, here’s a few reasons why not----

Durham NC--Article

Holladay UT--Article

Ocala FL--Article

Los Lunas NM--Article

Memphis TN--Article

Rocklin CA--Article

Durham NC--Article

Clinton, SC--Article

Aspen CO--Article

Columbia MO--Article

Largo FL--Article

NY NY--Article

Toledo OH--Article

Toledo OH--Article

Chicago IL--Article

Richmond VA--Article

Butler Township OH--Article

San Mateo, CA--Article

But let’s look at this from a different perspective.

One night, Mr. Cop goes out with friends and gets a bit over the legal limit, breathalyzer-wise. He finds his car and starts driving, just to get home. Another cop sees him and stops him, and he is arrested or ticketed. What happens next?

He might face a judge and pay a fine or something else, but that’s not the point here. What will he do when he goes back to work?

He will stop a citizen for DUI. He will arrest that person, impound their car, and cause a whole bunch of expense and trouble. Trouble for something he just did himself, not that long ago, but paid a much smaller price for. Cop Culture.

We are all human and we all make mistakes, but cops are the last to get that. There is a problem with the pot and the kettle here. It is a citizen equality issue. A cop is supposed to be above the crimes he arrests others for, (you heard the phrase [town name here]’s Finest) and DUI is an easy one to rise above. We all know cops fabricate stories, on and off the witness stand, including the Vancouver cop who claimed he was not drunk when he hit and killed a motorcyclist, that he instead left the scene of the accident and went home, drank 2 shots of vodka, and returned, failing the breathalyzer test. Imagination usage can run right off the charts when pressed, can’t it? (BTW, he only left the scene of the accident to walk his kids home, who were in his vehicle at the time of the crash. Note to self: Always be ready to play the Kid Card.) Read Article

This is just more fallout from living the Cop Culture. Cops who can’t avoid breaking the law have no business enforcing the law. We know stuff happens in this life, but some of that “stuff” must be eschewed for the sake of a job, especially if that job includes the taking of an oath. Avoiding the drink-drive combo should be a quick one to master, if the job is important, but as the above list of cops nationwide shows, the boys in blue just don’t have the knack. Another notch in the bedpost of the cop’s mistress named “Hypocrisy”.

As with all posts on this site, the question remains, “Can a civilian oversight board help this problem?” For me, I want us all on the same page, the one labeled Equality. A civilian review panel could do something here. It can make a clear policy prohibiting cops from breaking the laws they enforce, and that policy alone could go a long way in decreasing the crime rate and increasing the trust rate of the police force citizens pay to protect them.

It seems to me, with the fusillade of cop DUI stories above, (there are many more, the ones above all happened in just the last few weeks), cop drinking seems to be a constantly growing problem in Cop Culture. Civilian oversight can help any cop having a problem keeping alcohol abuse off the job by simply preventing that cop from working until he gets the attitude adjustment he needs. No Internal Affairs, no reprimand from the Chief or any other stall tactic, just action.

While many of the above links will show that cops can and do get fired for drunkenness, none of the stories reveal how much alcohol was previously involved in the daily events of the cop, including beating, Tasering, and shooting of civilians, or lying on the stand, falsifying police reports, and conspiring with other cops to facilitate those lies. Could theft of drugs from the evidence room be fueled by alcohol? How about planting drugs or a weapon at the scene to justify a killing?

Remember, alcohol consumption alters a person’s thinking and good judgment, (it is the “I” in DUI, right?). That’s what citizens are arrested for. Does alcohol only affects a person’s driving? No, it affects all judgment-making ability, like, if it would be a good idea to pretext-stop a car for having a crooked front license plate. (It happened.) Or beating an arrestee into unconsciousness because he mentioned the cop’s mother. Hey, not to worry….Internal Affairs will sort all that out.

LOL…. Sure it will……..More later.