Police Coverups, Conspiracies, and Cost to Taxpayers

The number of bad cop videos should be zero. It's not. Unless it's taped by someone else, the police control the only footage. If it is not FOIA'ed, they control the narrative. Again, and I do mean again, it's not that there are bad cops.. It's that they are covered for. There is a Blue Wall of Silence that keep bad cops on the road, A culture of us vs them, and administrative controls in place that keep them there. That needs to be fixed, whether or not there are 9,325,378,864,320,476 good interactions. How many of these bad interactions are caught on cell phone or someone's security camera. Had that evidence not been captured on something other than body/dash cam, it would have been swept under the rug. I understand bad apples get hired. I get it. Weed them out, don't cover for them.


You should be able to file a complaint, right? That in itself should not be intimidating, but it could be. How would you like to be threatened for arrest for trying to file a complaint? Should you been ran out of the building by a guy with a badge and a gun? Why are they hostile to taking complaints? Why do they straight up lie about the process? Be honest.

Don't watch this, either, and then tell me there isn't a culture issue.

 

This, This is what I'm talking about. This officer had been fired SEVEN times. Why was he allowed to still be a cop:

A Florida police sergeant has been fired after allegedly conspiring to cover for a colleague who failed to secure an October crime scene—marking the seventh time the lawman has been terminated for misconduct and criminal behavior, officials said Friday.

The firing marks the seventh time Bosque, once dubbed “Florida’s Worst Cop,” has been fired during his 28-year career at the Opa-Locka Police Department—with alleged violations ranging from excessive force, stealing from suspects, and misuse of police firearms. He has also been arrested and cleared three times.

The countless misconduct claims have earned Bosque state-wide attention, including a 2011 exposé by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that stated his personnel file was more like “a rap sheet than a résumé.” The bombshell report detailed more than 40 internal affairs complaints against the sergeant—noting that 16 were for excessive force or battery. Most recently, Bosque was found guilty of false imprisonment and witness-tampering in 2014 after he allegedly illegally handcuffed a man trying to file a complaint against him. While he was sentenced to 364 days in jail, he did not serve any time.

‘Florida’s Worst Cop’ Was Just Fired for Misconduct—for the Seventh Time

 

So, showing rampant corruption in the Aurora PD, you come back with something something red lights? The AG said they had a pattern of racially motivated policing and excessive force, clear cut evidence of preferential treatment by fellow officers of an on-duty officer drunk at the wheel at 5 times the legal limit, pistol whipping suspects while another officer watches, killing a kid with Ketamine, etc etc.. Proof of coverups and conspiracies and you want to talk about red lights.. lol.

But sure, good cop, right here in Valdosta. RIP SSGT Guthrie

 

You're right, there are a lot of mass shootings and shootings in general. That's why many people want.. reform. The same thing I want here. Reform.

And similar to this thread, people boil it down when gun reform is called for to "millions of responsible gun owners shootings no one ever single day." (Insinuating that there isn't a problem, or one not big enough to do anything about. This analogous to your argument here, imo.) and "You want to confiscate everyone's guns." (Similar to what Oke posted earlier infering that I want to disband the police.)

It's fine if you think no changes need to be made. I just can't agree with you on that.

 

Anyone, black or white, should be prosecuted for breaking the law, like looting.

I think you are getting tied up in the video aspect part of it. The videos provide proof. I could go on without them, and probably should, because they aren't going to get watched.

There is data out there. Should I bother posting it? It sounds like you are going to get hung up on something else instead of what's really at hand, whether reform is needed.

Do you think reform is needed?

 

I'll have to find it, but I read story in the past couple weeks of a department targeting black people for traffic stops at severe disproportion to the rest of the community. One thing that the reporter noticed, is that traffic stops of all kinds slowed way down after sunset. Why? Because in the dark, you can't see as easily who is driving the vehicle. Coincidence? Doubtful.

 

WaPo looked into lawsuit payments in the past decade of 25 departments. How much did they pay out? $3.2 Billion, or $10 for every man, woman, and child in all of the United States.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve.../2022/police-misconduct-repeated-settlements/

The Post found that more than 1,200 officers in the departments surveyed had been the subject of at least five payments. More than 200 had 10 or more.

There are disincentives to such tracking, legal and policing experts said.

“If an officer has multiple lawsuits, then the city is in jeopardy of negligent retention,” says Stephen Downing, a retired deputy chief with the Los Angeles Police Department and current adviser with the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, a criminal justice reform group. “Few cities want to risk retaining that information to avoid being part of an even more costly lawsuit.”

Taken from the article, why was this officer allowed to be a cop for a decade?

 

I agree with a lot of that. I think we are closer to being on the same page more than we think we are.

I, too, have been on the bad end of policing. If I knew what I knew now, I would have sued. But, I was late teen, early 20's and didn't know any better. I've also had positive interactions.

I get your point about the videos, but sometimes it helps for folks to see what it looks like, because articles can only convey so much. It's like reading an article on when those officers beat that man to death, but watching it something different.

Not all police are corrupt or bad cops, however, turning a blind eye to corruption and coverups, will increase the amount of bad cops and reinforce bad culture.

 

That's fair.