More Crooked Cops - Who Can You Trust Anymore?!

[Sal Collaziano]

This is just... well, decide for yourselves. A Hollywood, Florida police officer rams into the back of a woman's car. Three other cops arrive on the scene and they concoct a fictional story about a cat jumping out of a car, and the officer thinking it's a pedestrian, thereby causing the accident. They then pinned a DUI charge on the woman. The cops even went so far as to change the angle of the pictures to make it look like the woman swerved in front of the police car. And it gets worse from there -- and it's all caught on the video. One of the officers says on tape (NSFW language), "I don't lie and make things up ever because it's wrong, but if I need to bend it a little bit to protect a cop, I'll do it -- She's freaking hammered anyway."

All charges have been dropped against the woman by the Broward State Attorney's Office and all four officers are now on administrative duty pending the completion of the investigation. To paraphrase Dave Barry, only in South Florida.

[YOUTUBE]hrBSYUF5gkQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Sal Collaziano]

These guys should go to prison. They're criminals.. With all these bad cops - it doesn't really matter how many are "good". Chances are, you're going to run into a bad one - or one will run into you - and then you're getting buttF'd in prison. At this point, I choose to be skeptical than appreciative...

 

[jwaters943]

I respect good cops. They chose an admirable profession. Too bad they seem to be few and far between. It's almost like they support/promote this type of behavior. A family friend is a cop and after only a couple years on the job his attitude/ego got out of control. He drives like an ass and thinks he is above the law because he's a cop. I still remember him b*tching about a co-worker of his getting a 2nd DUI and stating how it's F'ed up that the cop who pulled him over didn't cover for his "brother".

Disgusting.

 

[LLT]

I used to be a LEO in the Detroit area... rampant corruption is one of the reasons I didn't pursue it longer. Contrary to what seems to be popular belief, cops are people and there's good and bad people, just like in any other field.

From my experience, a large part of what type of cop you have is the department he works for. While not a popular opinion in the LEO community - local police qualifications vary far too much from department to department. Generally speaking (exceptions to every rule, of course), state police are typically more educated, more disciplined, more professional and some might even say more competent than your local sheriff's deputy or city cop. My brother-in-law for example, whom I consider one of my best friends, entered the state police academy and said he just couldn't handle it. The training was too vigorous. He quit after 6 months and got hired on to a sheriff's department. He's a great guy and a great officer -- but even he will say there's no denying, the training is more extensive with the state police and they tend to weed out those not cut out for the work.

I think if all departments had the same standards, requirements and qualifications, you'd see a lot less bad cops (certainly not to say bad troopers don't exist.)

Too many get into it for the wrong reasons.... perceived invincibility, flashy lights and siren, etc. A recipe for disaster.

All of that said, there's still many more good cops than bad cops. It's a shame the few that are bad cast such a shadow over the good ones.

 

[Richard Ft. Lauderdale]

I've been following this case in the news for a few days since I live just a few miles north of Hollywood. There is a discussion in our local paper (on line) today asking whether the cops should be fired or not. I personally think there is ample evidence that the cops should be immediately fired and indicted for several crimes.

The one problem that I see is trying to find a jury that has not already convicted them in their minds before the trial starts. I have been on a couple of juries since I retired (FBI Agent) and I was able be impartial and actually find the defendants in two cases "not guilty". In this case there is no way the defense would allow me on the jury. As far as I'm concerned they are already guilty.

This case just cries out as a reason to bring back public hangings.

 

[ctrcbob]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

The Police can do anything they want, and often do.

Also, we live in a Police Society.

I see more police cars, in four hours, than I see in a week in Europe, (not counting the European City Police on the beat). Yesterday morning, I must have seen six or seven cruisers (various departments) around the county. This morning, I only saw two. I go out every morning for my Cafe Mocha, visit with friends, etc.
In Europe, (mostly France and Italy) whenever I do see a police car, it has two to four cops in it, not this one per car we have here. I go to Europe (mostly France and Italy) for 3 to 7 weeks, every 3 or 4 years. (What ever happened to the Beat Cop we used to have back when I was "younger"?)

Its just no fun driving anymore <grin>.

 

[JOwest]

A year ago one Polish immigrant was tasered 5 times and killed at the Vancouver Airport by 4 RCMP. The Polish man was tasered for no reason at all. The whole thing was captured on video by an amatuer.
This caused an international outcry for an inquiry. The RCMP did its own internal investigation and said the officers did the right thing. A public inquiry is currently underway and initial findings found the officiers lied in the initial inquiry. The public is calling for criminal charges against the officiers.

Link to the video of this incident
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wYEBd-Mpus"]YouTube - Vancouver Airport Taser/Tazer Killing of Dziekanski by Cops[/ame]

 

[wallymn]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again.

The Police can do anything they want, and often do.

Also, we live in a Police Society.

I see more police cars, in four hours, than I see in a week in Europe, (not counting the European City Police on the beat). Yesterday morning, I must have seen six or seven cruisers (various departments) around the county. This morning, I only saw two. I go out every morning for my Cafe Mocha, visit with friends, etc.
In Europe, (mostly France and Italy) whenever I do see a police car, it has two to four cops in it, not this one per car we have here. I go to Europe (mostly France and Italy) for 3 to 7 weeks, every 3 or 4 years. (What ever happened to the Beat Cop we used to have back when I was "younger"?)

Its just no fun driving anymore <grin>.

depends where you live, We have one car (two officers) which cover half the county (about 160 sq miles). Rarely seen....

 

[ctrcbob]

Went to the town of Tavares, this morning. (Next to Mount Dora) Saw no cops going, but on returning, saw THREE Tavares cars, ONE Lake County Sheriff's car and TWO Mount Dora cars. I went out at 10am and returned home at 12:30. That is a lot of police cars in two and a half hours, plus it was all on my return to Mount Dora. The towns are about eight miles apart.

In addition, yesterday, I went to McDonalds. Got out of my car and started to walk inside. I had to pass the cars waiting in the Drive Thru Line. One of the cars just coming in, (while still moving) was a Mount Dora cop, who was typing into her laptop computer that sits next to her. After she stopped, (still typing into her laptop) I told her that I know dam well she would be giving me a ticket if I was doing the same thing. She did not like that at all. (As I said before, they can do anything they want!)