In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

[SummerMadness]

In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat

Stacks of bills, $100,000 in all, taken from a safe.

Garbage bags full of stolen prescription drugs dumped on the black market.

A motorist robbed of $25,000.

The crimes were not carried out by civilian criminals, but by Baltimore police officers. They are among the dozens of bombshells in one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation. In a trial in Baltimore federal court, witnesses and even the officers themselves have described an elite squad gone rogue, taking every opportunity to rob those they were supposed to be policing or protecting, and barely bothering to cover up their deeds.

 

[majj27]

When you have inadequately screened and trained individuals operating with insufficient public oversight, this sort of thing becomes pretty much inevitable.

Refusing to address the issues and correct them, however, is basically approving them.

 

[SummerMadness]

When you have inadequately screened and trained individuals operating with insufficient public oversight, this sort of thing becomes pretty much inevitable.

Refusing to address the issues and correct them, however, is basically approving them.

Unfortunately the current attorney general has been fighting such reform, we can only surmise why he opposes such reforms (likely due to a personal animosity).

 

[dgiharris]

When you have inadequately screened and trained individuals operating with insufficient public oversight, this sort of thing becomes pretty much inevitable.

Refusing to address the issues and correct them, however, is basically approving them.

At the core of many "defend police at all costs" arguments is the rationalization that police jobs are so dangerous that police need the ability to do "Whatever they need to do" in order to keep us all safe. ANd thus, since they are "keeping us all safe" we should be thankful and appreciative and not question how they go about doing their jobs.

Not only the above, but we should be willing to twist our brains in a fit of mental gymnastics to NOT question whatever fanciful excuses officers come up with when they render their excuses. Nevermind that we would NEVER accept those excuses from any other person or profession or circumstance. Yet we will accept those excuses from police officers.

Every time these sorts of things happen, we make the mistake of focusing on the actual event. That is a red herring. The real focus needs to be the "environment" and "atmosphere" that enables and emboldens "the bad" officers to do what they do.

 

[majj27]

It's interesting, because being a police officer isn't anywhere NEAR the most dangerous job in America. Some people would have you beleive that police are literally dodging a hail of gunfire from the instant they wake up until the moment they go to sleep.

The simple fact is a sanitation worker is twice as likely to die on the job as a police officer. And in the top 10 most dangerous occupations in America, police work doesn't even make the list.

IOW, when people start getting up in arms about the fact that fishing is TEN TIMES more dangerous than being a cop, then I'll know they're being honest. Until then, they're just making up excuses out of thin air.

 

[SummerMadness]

At the core of many "defend police at all costs" arguments is the rationalization that police jobs are so dangerous that police need the ability to do "Whatever they need to do" in order to keep us all safe. ANd thus, since they are "keeping us all safe" we should be thankful and appreciative and not question how they go about doing their jobs.

Not only the above, but we should be willing to twist our brains in a fit of mental gymnastics to NOT question whatever fanciful excuses officers come up with when they render their excuses. Nevermind that we would NEVER accept those excuses from any other person or profession or circumstance. Yet we will accept those excuses from police officers.

Every time these sorts of things happen, we make the mistake of focusing on the actual event. That is a red herring. The real focus needs to be the "environment" and "atmosphere" that enables and emboldens "the bad" officers to do what they do.

They often use the misrepresented bad apple idiom (ignoring the rot of the whole barrel), but like the news item about officers receiving inadequate training, the systemic issues that creates these problems need to be addressed.

 

[Ana the Ist]

It's interesting, because being a police officer isn't anywhere NEAR the most dangerous job in America. Some people would have you beleive that police are literally dodging a hail of gunfire from the instant they wake up until the moment they go to sleep.

The simple fact is a sanitation worker is twice as likely to die on the job as a police officer. And in the top 10 most dangerous occupations in America, police work doesn't even make the list.

IOW, when people start getting up in arms about the fact that fishing is TEN TIMES more dangerous than being a cop, then I'll know they're being honest. Until then, they're just making up excuses out of thin air.

Is that what makes a job dangerous? If someone dies?

That's kind of a stupid metric isn't it?

There's a recent thread regarding a cop who was assaulted and suffered a broken eye socket, amongst other injuries, before being saved by a passerby with a gun...

...would you tell him "hey, you didn't die...so it's not like your job is as dangerous as a sanitation worker's!"?