Posted by Radley Balko on August 02, 2006
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:XWcF8WiI8zcJ:www.theagitator.com/archives/026885.php+harrison+county+devils%27+chair&hl=en&c t=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
This is the pattern, over and over, when it comes to police brutality, excessive force, and botched raid cases. The problem isn't necessarily widespread police abuse -- there are good cops and bad cops, just as is the case in any profession. The problem is the lack of accountability, and the decidedly different standards of justice applied to police as opposed to everyone else. The problem is that when the small percentage of bad cops act up, nobody takes them to task.
Prosecutors eager to push the boundaries of punishment when it comes to other crimes seem to require an extraordinary amount of evidence of wrongdoing before pushing forward with charges
of any kind against a police officer. Public officials shut up. There's a halt to information flow. All the while, the famlies of victims are left in the lurch. And public confidence in the system wanes.
As my colleague Tim Lynch has put it:
Some people may prefer a strict application of the law, across the board. Some may prefer a lenient application of the law, across the board. A case can be made for both. I also think a case can be made for strict application of the law as applied to the government, but a lenient application as applied to the people. But the least defensible position, it seems to me, is the one that dominates: Strict justice for the people and leniency for the government.
If prosecutors held civilians to the same standards they hold police officers, my guess is that there would be a lot fewer people in prison.