Police are committing crimes all over the globe. When Police get away with their crimes it is because we let them. WE LET THEM. Compare these two stories---
Synopsis--An American woman, 62, was visited by two Eugene, Oregon cops at 11:30AM and told her house would be searched to locate a stabbing victim, (it was an anonymous tip). She was asked to go outside during the search but the request was refused because she was wearing a see-through gown and didn’t want to go out in public. She asked police if she could go only to the porch or to change clothes, but the cops forced her out to the yard immediately. Two adult male cops used a “pain compliance” hold on a woman double their age, injuring her arms and shoulders, as well as exposing her to public ridicule outside her home with the see-thru gown. No stabbing victim was discovered in the home. She sued for $150K but received only $21K along with a police statement that her settlement payment was “not an admission of liability or disputed facts”. It is the old “no wrongdoing” routine again.
Synopsis-- A 57 year old man from Chatham, UK, was visited by Kent police on suspicion of robbery. He was the wrong man. He was forced into arrest with a knife brandished by one of the cops. The citizen was never charged or injured, and later sued the PD for assault. Both cops were found guilty and fired, (one went to prison), and the citizen received a letter of apology from the PD.
Comparison
Who’s rear-hole do American cops have their heads shoved up? Over and over, British cops keep showing America it’s possible to admit when they are wrong and make a public apology for it, including restitution. Truly, admitting wrong doing, (forget restitution), goes a million miles in making a positive connection between the police department and the citizen, just like it does in any relationship. But in America?
In the US, a lack of positive connection from the citizen is interpreted as disrespect for cops, so it’s met with additional smart-mouthed arrogance, threats and physical force, objection to which is then met with even more abuse and accusation of crimes committed. It is all the wrong things combined and totally wrong-headed, (but we know where they keep their heads). The worst way to handle anything is to repeat the mistakes that caused the problem, but that is exactly what cops do, every day, everywhere.
We are totally far behind the rest of the English-speaking world in our relationship with the police force we fund. Try Australia, where a judge told the cops they should grow up and take it if a citizen calls them a “prick”.
But not in America. Our cops find a citizen’s mere existence to be a threat to their life and breath, and then they stupidly arrest, injure and/or offend pretty much everybody they contact for any violation they can dream up, no matter how stretched or convoluted, including calling them a “name”. Awwww…..
The UK has their problems as well when it comes to bad cops, (remember, the personality type that gives cops a bad name is attracted to the job in ALL countries), but time after time, the Brits show us how to take a cop screw-up and make it right. For cops, it’s a quick “halt when at fault”, followed by punishment equal to what a citizen could expect, followed then by a public letter of apology to the victim of the police abuse. That is the only, repeat the ONLY, way for a police department to retain any credibility with their fellow countrymen. Could a CRB in America accomplish this?
When a department refuses or avoids owning up to their mistakes, (USA), cops become the criminals they are sworn to arrest. Insult is added to that injury when the same cops demand a form of respect that amounts to bowing down. All that while expecting the citizen to pay them their salary and buy them toys like tasers. Barf bag, anyone?
A Citizens Review Board is the only solution to this deficit. How our cops treat us is up to us to decide, and we are only getting worse in our decision making. We can’t count on the police department to see the light and clean up their act. Of course, if you like being beaten while providing the beater’s income, just stay quiet. If not, get a CRB, will ya? Before we are completely owned?
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