The Growing Problem of Police Misconduct and Brutality

Since the attack on September 11, 2001 there has been an increase in police brutality across the United States. (See related article at USAToday.com.) Police departments are becoming increasingly militarized. Combat fatigued veterans, hardened by the realities of war, are returning from abroad and joining the ranks of the police. As police departments become increasingly corrupt, it becomes more difficult for them to recruit and retain decent people to wear their uniforms.

Homeland Security and Federal law enforcement agencies have been working closely with local police departments, as mentioned in this article from Canadian Free Press and elsewhere. This collusion has led to untold violations of human rights across the nation and the numbers are increasing. The victims are often silenced by threats, both direct and implied, particularly when they have no evidence of the terrible crimes committed against them, as is most often the case.

Those who live through police brutality and live to tell the tale are survivors. The rest become statistics and the subject of an overwhelming number of deadly police brutality stories across the internet. The web has become a forum for people who have no other means to communicate what has happened to them or those they love at the hands of brutal police.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that police brutality cases are not just “isolated incidents” involving “a few bad apples.” As Frank Serpico tried to tell everyone, (Please, see CNN article, of September 3, 1997, "Serpico Resurrects His Decades-old Criticism of NYPD.”) organizations are corrupt from the top down. And, we see it again and again with remarkable cover ups of heinous crimes perpetrated by police across the country in which the perpetrators are promoted and the heads of departments go to great lengths to conceal officers crimes. These uniformed robbers, rapists, murderers and human traffickers flourish in their illegal activities while hiding behind their badges.

They cloak themselves in the public's incredulousness, as well. Ordinary people do not want to believe that such nefarious crimes are being committed by the people they believe they are paying to protect them. The public's fear is the curtain behind which so many villainous acts are committed. But, that curtain is being drawn back by numerous sites around the web.

One brave former cop in Austin, Texas has created an online reality show called KopBusters, at http://www.kopbusters.com, for the purpose of catching corrupt cops in the act. As a former cop the founder and CEO, Barry Cooper, understands the mentality of the police and uses their own dirty tricks against them. It was initially established to help free a young woman who is serving a seven year sentence for a crime she didn't commit. They set out to prove that she was set up by police who had an informant plant drugs in her home.

The website http://www.copwatch.com, encourages citizens to report police brutality incidents. It has an extensive database of charges filed against police and articles about police abuses.

The following website, http://www.policecrimes.com, features a growing number of articles and videos on the subject of police brutality. It also offers advice for dealing with police officers.

Although, much of the information about dealing with police pertains to those police who still have some sense that they are bound by laws. Increasingly, there are cases where police are simply attacking and murdering innocent people. Clearly, no negotiation is possible in instances where you are attacked from behind by unidentified, gun-wielding maniacs, regardless of whether they are sporting a badge or not. An example of this kind of police attack is the attempted murder of Robbie Tolan on his porch in Bellaire, Texas in January of 2009. Tolan was shot in the back for no reason, whatsoever. The officer involved did not seem to know the victim and claims that he thought he was driving a stolen vehicle. He wasn't. This story has been featured on HBO and CNN, please see this website for more details of this shocking police crime: http://binside.typepad.com/binside_tv/robbie_tolan/

Police murders are not rare; it is only rare when they get caught. Few murders of any kind are captured on film, but the New Year's Eve public, very methodical execution of Oscar Grant by Officer Johannes Mehserle in California in 2009 is an exception. Numerous bystanders had their cell phone cameras ready as Grant begged for his life before being shot in the back (a favorite tactic of the police). Even though numerous videos of the murder were caught on tape and posted on http://www.youtube.com, the department was slow to arrest the killer and his accomplices, the people who aided Mehserle in this murder on film, have yet to be indicted.

The reckless use of tasers among police is an increasing concern. They can be deadly to healthy people and they are clearly dangerous to the health of anyone or who has heart problems. But, on a whim the police will taser children, the elderly, pregnant women and anyone else. Young, healthy, vibrant men have died after being tasered by police. The instances are so numerous that it would be impossible to document all of them in this article.

Despite the risks, police departments insist on using tasers. It seems that they enjoy the mayhem; they enjoy committing the murder of innocents, unchecked. Fore example, in Houston, after the death of a Latino man who was tasered by police, the police responded by ordering even more of these execution devices. No one should need to be reminded that police are not judges, jury and executioner rolled up into one. In Houston 2/3 of the people murdered by police are not under arrest for anything and police attacks of innocent people - just because! - are on the rise. The reason that the police departments repeatedly give for using tasers is that they “save lives.” Yet, they have been the cause of, at least, several hundred unnecessary deaths in the U.S. since 2001.

A number of articles about police using tasers to kill innocent people can be found at Ken Adachi's site, http://www.educate-yourself.org. Most shocking is numerous videos of police tasering innocent people, clearly enjoying the pain that they are inflicting. An example is this video taken from the dash camera of an officer repeatedly tasering a handcuffed. and particularly attractive, young woman. Warning: This is an extremely disturbing video. It should be remembered that citizens have the right to resist unlawful arrests and any arrest involving police brutality is an unlawful one. This woman is lucky she is alive. As usual, the police department took no initiative against this violent criminal on their own; it was only after the media got wind of the incident that the officer involved was even placed on leave.

This all begs the question: Do police departments create sociopaths or do they just attract them? It is a particular variety of deviance, sexual sadism, that is displayed in numerous videos involving the brutalization of women (and some men). Sexual sadists receive a sexual thrill from terrorizing and brutalizing their victims; they perversely delight in the control that they have over them. This perverse delight is illustrated in numerous video accounts widely distributed on the internet. Why are so many sexual sadists wearing uniforms? Most likely they are attracted to the power and authority that their positions endow them with.

When one begins to examine the history of the United States and our Constitution, the question arises: Are police departments legal? Moreover, are they really necessary or desirable in a free republic. Police brutality, a term which doesn't really cover the reality of police crimes against innocents - its depth and breadth, which is one of the worst forms of tyranny across this nation - is the norm and not the exception.

People must wake up to this reality. They must overcome their cognitive dissonance and realize that the police have never existed to protect and serve the public. The exist to protect and serve their masters, the elite members of government. It has been that way since the inception of the first police departments in the U.S. The Boston Police Department, an inherently racist organization, existed to quell riots between new immigrants from Ireland and Italy. The New York Police Department was created to protect wealthy Manhattanites from the perceived dangers of immigrants that they perceived as rabble.

Any good that police do is completely overshadowed by their unspeakable crimes; crimes which are not usually committed on camera, but in the shadows.

The police have never served citizens and never will. History should be reviewed and the roles of the police should be put into their proper perspective. They must be brought out of the shadows and a brighter light must be shined on their crimes. Governance must be returned to the good citizens of the United States of America.

Relevant films:

The historical brutality of the Los Angeles Police Department is featured in the movie “The Changeling,” starring Angelina Jolie.

The true story of Frank Serpico is featured in the movie, “Serpico,” starring Al Pacino.

More Police Brutality Sites and Articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cases_of_police_brutality

Frank Serpico's website: http://www.frankserpico.com/

ACLU: http://www.aclu.com/

http://www.louisvillepeace.org/CAPA/police_abuse.html

http://www.policeabuse.com/

No More Tasers: http://nomoretasers.com/

Works Cited

"Police Brutality Cases on the Rise Since 9/11." USA Today. Kevin Johnson. December 18, 2007. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-12-17-Copmisconduct_N.htm

"Controversy: Mercenaries Training US Local Police Officers," Canadian Free Press. Jim Kouri. April 8, 2008. http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2549

"Serpico Resurrects His Decades Old Criticism of NYPD." CNN. September 23, 1997.http://www.cnn.com/US/9709/23/serpico.brutality/