Stop calling all cops heroes: Baltimore police corruption case isn't shocking to me

[SummerMadness]

Stop calling all cops heroes: Baltimore police corruption case isnâ...

Hate to say I told you so — but I told you so.

Let me take it back to the beginning. Back to when I watched my late brother and his homeboys separate the money into multiple piles. They sold crack, heroin and cocaine, exactly in that order. I rarely saw their drugs but I always — always — saw the money.

The first pile was my brother's. He was stashing that — as the boss, it was only right that he took first dibs. The second pile went to the lieutenants; they’d take their cut out and use the rest to pay the workers. Pile three was for product re-up, supplies and everything else you need to run a dope shop. And pile four got stuffed into a manila envelope and wrapped tight with rubber bands. They called that the "taxes.” Of course they weren't actually paying taxes on their income or sales to the government, and they weren't setting aside contributions to a retirement plan. Their "taxes" went straight to the cops.

Yes, cops take money from drug dealers. Cops rape. Cops lie in their reports. Cops beat people. Cops sell drugs. Cops threaten citizens. Cops intimidate other cops. Cops are gang-affiliated; they’ll snatch a blunt out of your hand and smoke it, hide extra guns in the dope house, aim their pistol at you for fun, plant drugs on you, make you sell drugs for them or with them, make you rob and steal, and then expect to be called "hero" no matter what they've done.

Eight Baltimore city police officers were indicted last year. Four, including Ward, are expected to testify. Their stories stretch far beyond overtime fraud, dipping into the deepest elements of criminal activity.

According to Ward, officers kept BB guns with them “in case we accidentally hit somebody or got into a shootout, so we could plant them," and tampered with criminal cases, even lying to the wife of a man they had locked up and stolen from, accusing him of infidelity so she would cut off her support. They planned robberies, drank alcohol on the job as they profiled African Americans, and still saw themselves as heroes. "Abuse of power" is an understatement here.

Staff edited: Fixed broken link.

 

[SummerMadness]

How a Corrupt Baltimore Police Task Force Tainted Thousands of Cases

Two Baltimore police officers are on trial this week in federal court for some of the worst misconduct imaginable — even for a department plagued by misconduct.

Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor were members of Baltimore’s Gun Trace Task Force, an elite group of plainclothes officers tasked with getting the worst firearms and offenders off the city streets.

But eight of the nine men on the task force have since been accused of a range of organized crime-level charges that range from robbery and extortion, to faking evidence, planting drugs, dealing drugs, and other serious crimes. Six of the officers, Sergeants Thomas Allers and Wayne Jenkins, and Detectives Momodu Gondo, Evodio Hendrix, Maurice Ward, and Jemell Rayam, have all pleaded guilty.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Does this mean that all of their cases get invalidated?

 

[Dave-W]

Does this mean that all of their cases get invalidated?

Yeah, probably.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

What I learned in psychology is whatever mindset you choose to accept about an issue, it will determine how you see the world. Even if the world is not how you think it is. You will notice all the negative things that happen according to the belief you hold, but you will not notice all the positive things that outweigh the negatives (or vica versa).

Which is true. In the case of a certain subject that is presented on here, the negative stuff is always brought up. But I never see certain people post about the positive stuff that heavily outweighs it. Which to me a lack of being able to have a honest and unbiased view on certain subjects. So when I see certain subjects I just laugh because I know they are the minority. Almost all cops are good. That is fact.

I'd say I'd read the article but as I said, the more one reads negative things, the more they reenforce their beliefs about that subject and lose sight of what is true or not. Though from the headline I do know certain cities have a bigger issues with their cops then others.

 

[Dave-W]

What I learned in psychology is whatever mindset you choose to accept about an issue, it will determine how you see the world. Even if the world is not how you think it is.

That is called a world view. It is deeper than any faith.

 

[A_Thinker]

Stop calling all cops heroes: Baltimore police corruption case isn't shocking to me

Regardless of the fact of evident police corruption and much needed reformation, I still think that we can/should regard the vocation of police officer as "heroic" in nature, ... like the vocations of firemen, school-teachers, doctors, nurses, EMT's, etc.

The police don't always live up to their calling, ... but to continue to view the vocation as "heroic" gives us a standard to strive for ...

 

[com7fy8]

A day before he was going to testify, Detective Sean Suiter was shot in a rough area, reportedly while doing routine work; it is claimed he was not killed in order to keep him from testifying. But his partner possibly only heard the shot and took cover, and they have yet to find the killer; so from that information, to me it seems the partner did not see what happened and did not see the shooter. It is possible the killer used Officer Suiter's own gun to shoot him in the head.

Officer Suiter appears to be black. I would say he is a hero. The real and honest officers are heroes. So, why make a major project of criticizing evil people, and not at all making a point of appreciating the officers who risk their lives to protect our children, brothers, sisters, friends, mothers and fathers?????

God's word is clear that there are evil people in this world. This includes among the real police officers. And there are plenty of people who kill unborn Americans > ones called "doctors" do that. And we have politicians who betray Americans. And in religious situations there are betrayers. Because evil people are operating in every sort of cultural area, including as predators, including in the Olympic culture. So, it is Biblical not to be surprised how Satanic people will take advantage of the opportunity they have by being police officers and other trusted professionals.

And yet, we have police who risk their lives to protect other people.

According to the photos I saw of the accused officers, five are black and three are white.

In case all are guilty, this can support how skin color does not decide who is evil and who is not. They have not been proven guilty in court, and four pleaded innocent. But four pleaded guilty. So, at least one is black.

And, by being involved in making money from drug dealing, ones are involved in the murder of ones who die of overdoses. So, this, too, is a form of murder by certain people who pass themselves off as being police officers. So, murder by police is not only done by guns.

But in the United States there are a million police officers. And not all shootings by police are being done to innocent people. So, from a Biblical standpoint, I think we need to first be appreciative of the ones who risk their lives for us, and who are doing what is good. We need to not assume that six officers, out of a million officers, means all police are "bad cops". And how many unjustified shootings have officers done, this year? They do not represent the million officers who serve in the United States.

So, from a Biblical standpoint, I can not be surprised that there are evil people working as police, or priests, or politicians or physicians. But I need to not assume that the evil doers represent all others. Or else, I am false witness, since I don't have evidence.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Ecc. 3:16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

 

[Landon Caeli]

What I learned in psychology is whatever mindset you choose to accept about an issue, it will determine how you see the world. Even if the world is not how you think it is. You will notice all the negative things that happen according to the belief you hold, but you will not notice all the positive things that outweigh the negatives (or vica versa).

Which is true. In the case of a certain subject that is presented on here, the negative stuff is always brought up. But I never see certain people post about the positive stuff that heavily outweighs it. Which to me a lack of being able to have a honest and unbiased view on certain subjects. So when I see certain subjects I just laugh because I know they are the minority. Almost all cops are good. That is fact.

I'd say I'd read the article but as I said, the more one reads negative things, the more they reenforce their beliefs about that subject and lose sight of what is true or not. Though from the headline I do know certain cities have a bigger issues with their cops then others.

So, your view is that cops are good and that "that is a fact"... That's your worldview. So could it be that you are blind to opposing views?

The "fact" is, that many people choose law enforcement as a career because they like the idea of being able to arrest people and put them in jail. They lust for power.

That's not a "good" attitude. A lot of police officers constantly profile people even off duty, staring people down they feel suspicious of. They're jerks. Many even beat their wives and kids like my wifes grandfather did.

 

[Landon Caeli]

The demon associated with 'wrath' is Satan.

 

[Landon Caeli]

...Another thing about my wifes grandpa, who was a cop, is that he actually had two families at the SAME TIME. In each family, he had at least 5 kids. What a weirdo!

There is so much hatred between the two families even to this day.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

So, your view is that cops are good and that "that is a fact"... That's your worldview. So could it be that you are blind to opposing views?

The "fact" is, that many people choose law enforcement as a career because they like the idea of being able to arrest people and put them in jail. They lust for power.

That's not a "good" attitude. A lot of police officers constantly profile people even off duty, staring people down they feel suspicious of. They're jerks. Many even beat their wives and kids like my wifes grandfather did.

Not my worldview, its called statistics and actual facts. I tend to go by those over assumptions. Cops do their duty thousands of times a day across the USA. So given we have an occasional story of a bad cop means its not common place. The media is also very good at controlling the population. If they report on something that makes people annoyed, they will post any bad news about that subject to increase viewers and at the same time make people hate that subject.

Such as after a big school shooting, suddenly news stations across the country will have stories about any little thing that happened at a school. Thus people panic thinking the worlds ending and kids are all out to kill each other.

I think the best example of this is 9/11. Look at what a negative hateful view of muslims since then because the media is always reporting the bad and never any of the good. Also doesn't help that when younger sometimes peoples parents or grandparents feed them a false narrative of how the world works.

 

[SummerMadness]

I do not believe any profession or occupation should be lionized. There are just and heroic people, not just and heroic professions. When we place too much emphasis arguing that we should be praising a profession, we ignore the corruption that arises that hides behind that praise.

But talking about statistics, most people do not commit crimes, yet people caution against going into "high" crime areas. The reality is, most of the time, there isn't crime happening in those areas. You cannot use such spurious logic; most planes do not crash, that should not stop us from investigating and making reforms to prevent future crashes. Most dogs do not bite, that does not mean we should ignore dog maulings. Most police officers are not corrupt, however, when you uncover corruption, as egregious as this case in Baltimore (Baltimore is not an anomaly with this kind of corruption), you need to not only punish the offending officers, but understand what about the systemic organization of this task force allowed such corruption to flourish. Complaining that most police officers are not corrupt simply ignores what allowed these officers to do what they did, inevitably setting up the next group of corrupt cops.

 

[Handmaid for Jesus]

Regardless of the fact of evident police corruption and much needed reformation, I still think that we can/should regard the vocation of police officer as "heroic" in nature, ... like the vocations of firemen, school-teachers, doctors, nurses, EMT's, etc.

The police don't always live up to their calling, ... but to continue to view the vocation as "heroic" gives us a standard to strive for ...

I believe police officer is a noble profession.I believe also that not all police officers are noble in character. It is these that bring shame to the profession through corruption. I think too that it is the love of money and power that corrupts the individual police officer.

 

[whatbogsends]

Almost all cops are good. That is fact.

No, "Almost all cops are good" is an unsubstantiated assertion that doesn't fare well when tested against reality.

 

[iluvatar5150]

Not my worldview, its called statistics and actual facts. I tend to go by those over assumptions. Cops do their duty thousands of times a day across the USA. So given we have an occasional story of a bad cop means its not common place.

The BPD has somewhere around 3,200 officers. According to wikipedia, at least a couple of them are arrested on serious felony charges every year.

Baltimore Police Department - Wikipedia

Have you ever worked for a company with 3,200 employees? I have, for a defense contractor. If we'd had that many people getting busted for murder, rape, molestation, etc every year (which means that many more were likely committing lesser offenses), corporate HR would've lost their minds. At least around here, these stories aren't "occasional" and are disturbingly commonplace.

 

[Landon Caeli]

Not my worldview, its called statistics and actual facts. I tend to go by those over assumptions. Cops do their duty thousands of times a day across the USA. So given we have an occasional story of a bad cop means its not common place. The media is also very good at controlling the population. If they report on something that makes people annoyed, they will post any bad news about that subject to increase viewers and at the same time make people hate that subject.

Such as after a big school shooting, suddenly news stations across the country will have stories about any little thing that happened at a school. Thus people panic thinking the worlds ending and kids are all out to kill each other.

I think the best example of this is 9/11. Look at what a negative hateful view of muslims since then because the media is always reporting the bad and never any of the good. Also doesn't help that when younger sometimes peoples parents or grandparents feed them a false narrative of how the world works.

I disagree on all counts.

 

[NothingIsImpossible]

Well I guess if one feels most cops must be bad, then most christians must be bad also. Since we are just taking a smaller percentage of something bad and saying everything in that "group" is bad then.

 

[SummerMadness]

Well I guess if one feels most cops must be bad, then most christians must be bad also. Since we are just taking a smaller percentage of something bad and saying everything in that "group" is bad then.

The only person arguing that most people are any qualification is you. You are attacking an argument that no one made. People are concerned with police corruption, which as we factually know, most people do not have to be corrupt for it to be a problem. Someone already discussed having a 3000 person company where a handful of people are fired every year for misconduct; it is quite obvious that numbers like that are a concern and should not be ignored because most employees are not committing crimes. There is a reason you avoid high crime areas despite most of the time no crimes occur in that area.