Cop-Proof Citizen Review Board Part 7

Cop Proof Citizen Review Board Part 1 2  3  4  5  6

How They Hire and Fire

Evidently, this needs to be spelled out.

They hire. They fire. What part of that does a cop not understand? It is like what police departments have always done, but with a couple changes to benefit the citizen. Covering up what cops do wrong is gone, and the expectation of doing the job the citizen’s way is inserted. It is in line with the purpose of the police department, as created by the people of the city, to protect and serve the public. Nothing to panic about.

Why is the hiring (forget firing for a moment) done only by non-citizens? Is there a rule saying “only that who hires it, fires it”? I can hear police explanations pouring in already, with the #1 answer being “Only police know a good cop when they see one”, or “the Academy certifies only the best, so it doesn’t require a screening process. If there is an opening, we can fill it.” This is a production line mentality that works for cops even less than it worked for Toyota. Every citizen has the right to limit their employees to whom they prefer, especially when it comes to a department entrusted with the ability to destroy a person’s life.

Every cop has his own reasons for joining the force. Some of them are spoken by the cop himself, (“My daddy was a cop and his daddy before him, so I’m gonna be a cop”, or “I want to be a hero”), but most are never spoken, because they are NEVER known to him. They are too deeply emotional.

After being drawn in by an inability to make the grade on his own in this world, coupled with promises from the Academy, his unspoken reasons for becoming a cop speak loudly while on duty, but he doesn’t notice it due to the insulation a gun and badge and his fellow cops give him. A cop wears his inner mind on the outside, especially in the eyes, clear to all but himself. The psychological reasoning used by a cop is sad at least, and criminal at most, but currently, we pay them every day to stay that way. Maybe a CRB can set this straight.  

How To Do It

How it is done is simplicity and common sense combined, and free of cost. When a CRB finds a cop not cooperative with the wants and needs of the very people he gets paid from, or not having ideas and work ethic that conform to the preferences of the people, he will be shown the door by the review board, BUT, on his way out that door, he will be given something few other jobs would provide: an envelope of information and applications to become a cop.

The offer is good forever, whenever he wants to use it. Granted, he would have to update his resumé to say he was fired from his last job, but on the good side, he has plenty of first hand experience to bring to any position he applies for. This is a Reaganesque Trickle-Down theory that actually works. Through firings and re-hirings, every cop will trickle his way down into the position that he is best suited for, along with his workload, his tolerance for the nature of the work, his payrate, everything he deserves in a public service job, but without abusing the public’s rights. Most important to the citizen however, will be not having to pay the guy while he finds himself. This is how a Citizen Review Board hires and fires.

The Advantages To The Citizen Taxpayers

None of the Internal Affairs (a taxpaid department), lying or covering up mistakes, none of the Chief (who is paid by the taxpayers), hiring defectives or looking the other way when those defectives screw up, (another burden to the taxpayer when lawsuit settlements come) will occur when the CRB hires and fires. Eventually, Trickle Down will have another positive effect: no more Academy misfits making their way into the PDs of America. Remember, the police academy is a business for profit. They are at the mercy of supply and demand, and if we the people stop demanding what they are currently supplying, things will change.

When every cop knows he will be held immediately accountable for his mistakes by the people, he will suddenly become much more dedicated to the job of doing the people’s business. Eventually, the Academy will become more dedicated to cranking out trained cops that actually do what we the people want them to do. The two will have no choice but to work hand-in-hand.

This approach is not a deterrent to becoming a cop, it is an invitation to becoming the cop who earns his pay, which is a nuance cops don’t seem to get these days. When any town in this country builds a legion of police that truly serves them as described here, we will have a town that stands out and glows on the pages of Rand McNally, and all other cities in the USA will know its success.

Let’s Face the Known Facts

You gotta catch the dog in the act of leaking on the rug to train him out of it. It is the immediacy of the catch that makes it work, right? Well, there is no better time to fire somebody than right after he acts in a way that is not in keeping with the employer’s desires. Bad analogy? Well….

The owner is responsible for the behavior of his dog. The employer is responsible for the behavior of his employees, right? Citizens, we must own up to a few facts---

·         we created (adopted) police and police departments

·         We pay (feed) them to do what they do, good or bad

·         If we don’t like cop behavior, it is our fault for not training them properly

·         Nobody can fix our mistakes but us; cops will never re-train themselves

·         We must catch them in the act of doing it wrong and correct it immediately

If you see similarities between the above list and having problems with your new puppy, you are getting the idea. If you don’t see any similarities, sit back and be ready for the police department in your city or town to own, use and abuse you, (leak on the rug). That’s not good. You need, for your own protection, as well as your flooring, the ability to say “enough is enough” and fire the errant cop on the spot when needed. Only then will he be re-trained.

Who can you count on for this service? Police Chief Friendly? Internal Affairs Assigned To Assuage Citizen Unrest? Call the Mayor? Face it, you’ve got nobody but your fellow townies at the CRB. This is a job ONLY for the Citizen Review Boards of America, and never for the police departments themselves. It will insure the sculpting process the CRB is meant to do.

And let’s not forget the motto of the Cop-Proof CRB--“Do It For Free”. Just think of all the millions in settlement money, straight out of the taxpayer’s pockets, that will not be needed in lawsuits against police crimes. Believe it, much more money is awarded in settlements than it would ever cost to run a city-funded CRB, and the Cop-Proof CRB as described on this blog would cost the city absolutely nothing. No calculator necessary. Shall we get started?

An Addition To The Police Uniform…Alcohol Detecting Ankle Bracelets

Ankle Bracelet
Ankle Bracelet

The ankle bracelet is a device that has been embraced by cops all over America for its accuracy and dependability in measuring latent alcohol content in the blood stream, implying recent alcohol consumption. I suggest this device embrace cop ankles  all over America.

Too much liquor, too few hours in a cop’s day, it seems. We the people need the protection and assurance the ankle bracelet gives. The citizen needs to know a cop screaming “freeze” isn’t calling for a frozen daiquiri. We deserve to know the cop is dealing from a sober mind. It may be a misguided one, but we can work on that later.

Consider This Scenario

A driver who had been out late the night before, but woke up with a hangover, is on his way to work. That driver may not signal before changing lanes, or come to a full stop before turning right on red. While it is not debated whether that driver should be stopped, it is clear that alcohol played a part in the quality of his driving, even if all the alcohol was completely metabolized by that time. While not drunk, he is still, in essence, driving under the influence.

What If The Driver Is A Cop?

Well, they have a few routes they like to take, all of which are designed to exempt them from accountability.

The first is The Claim. “I have a private life off-duty and should be able to pursue it in the same way a citizen does.” Wrong. A cop is the first to remind the citizen that they are a cop 24/7, something they always declare with a phony, long-suffering heroic tone in their voice. The “private” life to which they refer went away when they took the job of public servant.

Second is The Beg. “Hey, get off my case. We are all human and we all make mistakes.” Yeah, right. That one only works if it goes both ways, and we all know that cops look for any reason to heap on, exaggerate and fabricate everything in their favor that comes their way, especially while on duty. Cop beats in the head of the arrestee and it is necessary office safety. That same arrestee coughs on a cop, and it is attempted murder against the whole police profession. Can they spell hypocrite?

Third is The Coverup. Cops help cops, no matter what and against the citizen, and they do so to prevent the public from knowing what screw-ups they can be. Once again, sheer lying is employed here, and at the taxpayer’s expense. So, Cop #1 crashes into a tree while drunk and flees the scene. When caught up with, Cop #2 provides a police-friendly tow truck to deliver the crashed car to a repair shop and a free ride home for Cop #1. No report is filed and no evidence is recovered or documented. The event didn’t happen.

“We’re All Human”

OK, let’s go with that for a moment. We humans all get hangovers when we stay out drinking till 2AM, and we definitely notice it at 6AM the next morning when we try to get up and go to work. Too much alcohol and too little sleep is a one-two punch. We humans haven’t reached peak form when we start our shift, and won’t for hours, no matter how much coffee is consumed to neutralize the last night’s abuse. Blurred mind, slow reactions, poor judgment and faulty memory would bring anybody’s job performance down to the level of dangerous and destructive, no matter what their profession. Cops are human, though, by their own admission.

Cops are quick to describe the intelligence required to perform their job as very high, with lofty training at all levels being necessary to deliver the services the PD is dedicated to. Physically, tip-top condition is the only condition that will do. How many hangovers can a cop put up with when faced with the constant split-second judgment calls they must make, the high-speed chases they are engaged in, and the finely honed talent of discerning a perp’s gun from a Pittsburgh viola player’s soda bottle?  Cops love to cry and squeal “I am human, just like everybody else”, and now, that cry comes back to bite them.

A quick example: If a crime occurs first thing in the morning, a business or bank maybe, and cops are summoned, but their minds are clouded by last night’s revelry and debauchery, might they misread a harmless object for a weapon and open fire on an innocent person? Could a car horn be mistaken for a gunshot? How about a man who only looks similar to someone the cop doesn’t like, maybe a wise guy in the bar last night? Mistaken identity for sure, but an unwarranted arrest or worse can take place. And their mouths, oh boy. Capt Smartmouth will never be able to think first, speak second when under the after-influence. Here is a fact: Cops cannot be trusted when sober. How can they be trusted when hung over? 

I’m glad you asked. They can’t be trusted. So, what do we do? We make an addition to the standard uniform. The alcohol detecting ankle bracelet. If some police unions actually have the audacity to demand an hourly paycheck to don and doff, (and they do), it only makes sense to make an ankle bracelet part of the equipment cops wear when they prepare to make contact with citizens. Any police uniform acts as an identifier, so when we see a cop, any cop, we know exactly what we are dealing with. The uniform must include some visual cues, like the badge for proof of authority and legitimacy, the Batman Utility Belt, (sorry), for preparedness, and of course, the weapons like flashlight, baton and gun for defense. We need to add the ankle bracelet to insure citizens the cop is prepared mentally and physically to carry out the duties we expect of him, and do it in a sober and respectful manner.

As long as a cop is allowed to drink to the point of impairment (0.08 or more) when he is off work, but still expected to operate in a high-intensity, fast-paced, split-second decision making environment after only a few hours of sleep when returning to work, we are begging for disaster. Only the ankle bracelet will restore the confidence the public deserves.

If a cop is hung over, he is actually more impaired than when he was .08 or over. His response rate is much slower, his physical abilities are dramatically reduced, and his speed of going from calm to pissed off goes through the roof. Worse, an impaired cop still is allowed to drive his tax money purchased police car at any speed he chooses, write tickets, make arrests, and let’s not forget, shoot and tase people.

Cops’ ability to accurately understand what he sees is bad enough when sobriety prevails, (Gun vs Soda Bottle in Pittsburgh), but vision and reaction compromised by a hangover become a recipe for disaster. The recent incident in MD with the cops beating a student for “assaulting” the police horse points out what cops do when supposedly sober. They lied and lied and lied, until the video showed up. How many of the cops involved in this situation were drunk or hung over will probably never be known, but alcohol impairment can account for the total stab-in-the-back the citizen took on this one.

(BTW, one cop lie to account for the student’s injuries was “the horse did it”. Uh-huh. My dog ate my homework once.)

MD Student Beaten By Cops Accused of Assaulting Horses

 Why should we put up with this? An alcohol detecting ankle bracelet on every cop can be called a start. At least we will know they are sober. Meanwhile, we need to double down on our efforts to establish a Hire and Fire CRB everywhere, unless you are happy with the police department you have now. If so, best of luck to your city or town.

Cops Say Citizen Oversight Won't Work Part 7

Why It Won't Work Part 1  2  3  4  5  6

#7--It is Too Time and Money Consuming

What? For whom do they speak? The citizen or themselves? Both are equally wrong. Excuse #7 is a rookie attempt to move the focus of myriad cop screw-ups off themselves and onto pretty much anything else they can find. This excuse is professional dodging and weaving at its most transparent. It even shames the practiced liars that cops are. Once again, they are blinded by their own balls. OK, now we break down the already obvious----

TIME--The wasteful time they speak of isn’t their own, it’s that of the citizen. Cops are either hourly or salaried, and get paid accordingly no matter what they do, including nothing. They have no concept of wasted time. And since cops are not good stewards of the citizen’s time, (remember, it is cops who put people in jail for as long as it takes to decide how to make their spurious accusations stick), they are not experts on how citizens should best employ their time.

Yet somehow, looking at a CRB that will spend time learning the fallacies and downfalls of that city’s police department and is dedicated to the improvement of that department as desired by the very people that pay for it, is somehow a top concern of the PD itself. The longer we think about that logic, the dumber it gets. Highway road signs in Braille make more sense.

Maybe they are thinking of the time cops will have to spend dealing with the review board. Well, there may be the time dedicated to supplying police reports and dash cam videos to the CRB when requested, but the Chief should be archiving those things anyway. There also may be the time for a cop to explain himself to the CRB when an incident is reported, but a cop can mitigate that time by learning how not to screw up. A CRB is devoted to the sculpting process, and just as sculpting marble goes, the specifics of the vision slowly become more clear as the sculptor progresses, until all that is needed is regular, minor polishing of the finished product. The closer a cop acts to what the citizen wants, the less time it will take to keep things that way, and the more time the oversight board can spend on bigger and better refinements.

MONEY--The money they speak of is again not theirs, and if everything is done well, not even existent. A well produced CRB will run with very little or no funds at all. When a cop says money is being wasted, he should think about bogus charges to justify an arrest and the law suits that follow, not to mention the cost to the citizen in legal fees that were never necessary. He should think about the huge settlements cities are forced to pay out to citizens that were wrongfully approached and treated because the cop didn’t bother to handle himself as the citizens of his town want him to. They should think about the paycheck they earn, no….receive…no….make that steal, from the taxpayer every week when they don’t have a clue as to what the citizen wants, (assuming they are willing to providing such a thing). Cops who mention the citizen’s money or time are only providing another proof of police arrogance.

Regular readers of this blog who have clicked on my Cop-Proof CRB series already know that a working CRB needs diligent preparation and dedicated staff, but little money, and surprisingly little time to get up and running. Any cop who doesn’t get that is deep in denial.

How About Some Top-Notch Cop Arrogance
The idea that we the people need financial guidance from our PD is not a new one. Get a load of this example from a few years ago, 1994. In Boston, cops broke down the door of an apartment in a drug raid. They had the wrong address. The elderly minister living there was chased and terrorized by police and within about 45 minutes, died of a heart attack. His widow sued the police department and was awarded $1M out of the $18M she sued for. (The cop settlement offer was $600K.) The PD appealed the case, not because they believed the cops who caused Rev Accelyne Williams’ heart attack were not guilty, (both Chief Paul Evans and Mayor Menino of Boston apologized), but because they believed the widow, Mary Williams, was too elderly to “handle that much money”, and a request was made to appoint a guardian for her. They wanted the award reduced. Is that arrogance beyond all ability to measure it or what? And cops worry that citizens may find the expense of an oversight panel excessive. Thinking like that is reminiscent of the stink on day-old trout.

No Mr Policeman, we little boys and girls out here who pay your bar tab with our tax money can handle the burden, and probably with more accuracy than PDs handle their annual budget. And we won’t even have to worry our pretty little heads about it, because a smoothly operating CRB has little or no budget to start with, and works on donations from citizens and local businesses that enjoy the quality of the police department citizen control insures.

A CRB would dramatically reduce if not eliminate the lawsuit payouts to citizens who were abused or cheated out of their rights by cops. Millions of dollars go to settle lawsuits like that every month across the USA, and the taxpayer has to foot that bill. Cops cause insurmountable financial cost on a citizen with charges which are later dropped, or Constitutional violations, or physical injuries during arrests. But they think a CRB that runs on a shoestring or less is too expensive for us. They don’t know expense when they see it.

Burgess of Pittsburgh Still Has No Clue How To Control Police

Ricky Burgess Introduces The Jordan Miles Package of Bills

They still don’t get it! Jordan Miles is the viola player that was beaten into pulp by Pittsburgh police last January while on his way to orchestra practice because he was thought to be carrying a gun. It was a bottle of Mountain Dew.

We have cops on every street in America who are equally clueless. When anybody cannot tell the difference between a sidearm and a soda bottle, they can’t be trusted with a license to kill. So, why does Pittsburgh hand out such licenses to a police force of about 850?

Councilman Ricky Burgess, above, without claiming guilt on the part of the cops in question, was reported as saying in the WDUQ report,

"What I have said is that this incident allows us the opportunity to go beyond it and begin to heal the relationship. What I want to do is to embark on a process, not a single piece of legislation or five pieces of legislation, but a process." Burgess says the bills are all aimed at helping to build trust between police and the community. Dowd counters that there is nothing in the legislation that would have prevented the confrontation between police and Miles. The bills deal with getting the police department accredited, putting video cameras in police cars, placing officers on administrative leave, requiring yearly reports from the chief of police and forcing the Citizens Police Review Board to investigate any case where a suspect is seriously injured or killed.

Read the report for yourself, but get the disconnect between the City Council and the real problem. Burgess says--

· Get departments accredited

· Require yearly report from the Chief

· Require CRB to investigate killings and injuries

· Put video cameras in police cars

· Administrative leave for accused cops

His own additional words only make it worse. Burgess wants to “embark on a process” and “heal the relationship”. He wants to build trust between the police and the community. He doesn’t get it. The citizens are currently dealing with the schoolyard bully and the classroom cheat in cop uniforms. What kind of relationship can we expect with that?

There is nothing to heal, there is no process to embark on. Cops do not act in good faith, and consider deception a tool of their trade. As any citizen who has tried to converse with a cop will report, if you ask a cop something, he will lie to you, if you tell a cop something, he will argue with you. Verbal communication with a cop is useless. Bringing a police representative to a negotiation is like pointing your finger at a piranha. There is virtually no respect in them.

Dealing with police on a level playing field is not the way to control cops, and control is what citizens need to apply. It must be remembered that cops are in the business of not listening to learn; they only listen to argue. (Blame the Academy.) Want proof?

“Anything you say WILL BE used against you in a court of law”.

“Will be”. Sound familiar? A police department cannot be molded into the extension of the citizenry they are supposed to be if cops are given an inch of wiggle room. The leash must be short, but the Pittsburgh City Council is giving them enough leash to wrap around every citizen’s neck by simply allowing the PD a place at the negotiation table.

Councilman’s 5-Part Plan

Why do any of the five pieces of legislation being offered by Ricky Burgess require any legislation anyway? These are things a Hire and Fire Citizen Review Board could do in one meeting. Let’s look at them--

Get accredited.

For what? It is the will of the people the PD is hired to serve that matters. The CRB can accredit whomever they want, or not. They don’t need to be accredited.

Require a yearly report from the Chief.

If Chief Nate Harper isn’t doing that now, he is an organizational slob. Reports should be compiled daily and published weekly at least. Turning them over to the CRB is a simple formality.

Require the CRB to investigate all injuries and killings by cops.

Automatic and assumed. That is what a Hire & Fire CRB is for.

Put video cameras in all police cars.

Video cameras in every police vehicle with both forward and backward views are already in the works in Pittsburgh, so no problem there, unless the cops don’t turn them on when they start their shift. (Connecting them to the ignition may help that. Penalties of up to a day’s pay for the cop who doesn’t activate his video may help that too.)

Administrative leave for cops in question.

Well, that one leaves some room for improvement. The best way to tell a cop he has “done wrong” is to fire him, and not to give him a desk job at full pay. His firing, however, can amount to administrative leave without pay by simply providing all the proper forms to that cop to apply for a job with the PD on his way out the door. If this method is used, his work record and educational background would be reviewed and updated, his experience would be considered, and if rehired, he would be more accurately placed in a position suited to his strengths, eliminating paid downtime. Police employees need to be utilized to the best advantage for the citizens, just like all other jobs citizens hold, and it isn’t hard to do if we use citizen oversight.

It is for sure that no cop will assist in the application of any of Councilman Burgess’s legislative suggestions. It is the police department’s goal to take forever to accomplish police control. We must leave them out of the decision making.

When will the City Council get that message? When will Ricky Burgess lead the Council as well as the citizens of Pittsburgh in a direction that will solve the problem, as opposed to simply prolonging it? This is a situation for the people to determine and solve, not for the employees of the Pittsburgh Police department to judge. Empower the CRB with Hire & Fire.

New Cop Motto: "We're Not Happy Till You're Not Happy"

Forget “Protect and Serve”, meaning the citizen. Forget “Protect and Serve” meaning the police department itself. Cops have entered into a third realm of thinking about how to carry out the job of law enforcement.

Sample Schedule of a Sample Cop in a Sample City

6:00AM-Wake up, and SSS

7:00AM-Drive to precinct in PD vehicle

7:30AM-Don & Doff (a paid procedure, BTW)

8:00AM-Begin shift looking for citizens to disagree with and arrest those found

12:00PM-Have lunch someplace where it will be comped

1:00PM-Continue looking for citizens to disagree with and arrest those found

5:00PM-Feel satisfied at the number of citizens with whom disagreement was established.

5:30PM-De-uniform and drive home in PD vehicle

6:00PM-Go to a bar and drink, hoping to find more citizens with whom to disagree

(Screaming “freeze”, calling for backup, pulling and aiming weapons, and intermittent smart-mouthing are all omitted from the above list, and assumed to take place constantly.)

Consider This Example

A few months back, man was chased by police and caught up with in the street. He knew the chase was over, and gave up. He also knew the drill. Down on the ground, hands out where I can see them. Then comes the cuff and stuff. The perp had no problem with any of that, and in a spirit of cooperation, he went face down and extended his arms. Cops approached with guns drawn, but instead of proceeding with the cuffs, they “ordered” the man to his feet. When he remained on his stomach on the ground with arms extended, shouting “I give up”, the cop tasered him. Even more unable to comply with the “order”, the man twitched and burned until the taser was shut off, at which time the cops raised him to his feet, patted him down, and cuffed him. What is the problem with this story?

That it is untrue? No way. Improper use of a TASER? Nope. That it makes the cops look like the boneheads they are? Well, that is just an unfortunate truth. This story points out that cops don’t know compliance when they see it, that CO-operation doesn’t exist for them, and they resent anybody who understands them better than they understand themselves.

Different Words, Same Meaning

Exceeding a cop in thinking speed is perceived as non-compliance, justifying cop-determined punishment, even when the compliance given is EXACTLY what the cop would have “ordered” anyway. Why does this upset a cop? It robs them. Living in the World of The Narrow Mind, cops injure if they can, kill if they feel like it, but without a doubt, find what a person doesn’t want to do, and then FORCE them to do it, no matter how irrational or contradictory. The man in the above story didn’t let the cop “order” him down to the ground, so the cop “ordered” him to stand up, something cops never want an arrestee to do anyway until he is cuffed. The man’s ability to know the procedure in advance, and then beat them to it, rendering a cop’s “orders” needless, is an act of aggression in the World of the Narrow Mind. So out came the punishment. Tasing.

These cops were faced with the fact they didn’t force the man to act against his will, which according to Academy training, must happen to qualify as compliance. Their need to feel powerful was robbed, so they were not happy. It destroyed the reason for being there. THE COP DIDN’T “WIN”.

What Comes Next

So now what? When a cop isn’t happy, they have no choice but to make a citizen unhappy. They tased him. It’s doubtful a cop can go home at the end of his shift unhappy without violating a domestic law when he gets there. Take it out on the wife, kid, dog, anything. That may calm him down. As Tom Schaffling of the Philadelphia department proved, cops will beat anything including mothers and children at a baby shower when they are unhappy, so when Mr. Toughguy cop comes home from a bad day at work, everybody would do well to hide until he can make an unrelated citizen unhappy. Somebody has to suffer or the job isn’t complete. That is the attitude living in the World of the Narrow Mind, and the only one that gets a cop job.

And cops can’t figure out why citizens want oversight to control their police department. They are bears of very little brain, it seems.