In many of my articles, one of the things you have seen me talk about is the deep and pervasive corruption that permeates many of America’s 18,000 plus police departments, large and small.
As convoluted as the notion of making a complaint against the police means that a citizen has to go to the same police department and be greeted with hostility and intimidation. It is far worse when the surface is scratched away.
My contention has systematically been those police officers who violate their oaths do so with impunity because they know they are protected.
A citizen who lies under oath is summarily criminalized even when that citizen may have genuinely forgotten or omitted part of an incident when talking to law enforcement or prosecutors.
Think about the level of complicity that goes into using taxpayers’ dollars to purchase body cameras. Still, the legislation says that the public that pays for those cameras has no right to the footage from the camera because they are not public property?
Never mind that they are purchased with the public’s money! Imagine the criminal intent inherent in the practices that allow cops to turn off body cameras during encounters with the public and turn them back on whenever they feel like it?
The collusion from legislators and others exposes to the American public the level of corruption that is deeply ingrained into the American police culture.
However, when police officers are caught lying under oath or falsifying documents, they suffer no consequence.
This two-tiered system of justice runs the gamut; it isn’t just an unhealthy alliance between cops and corrupt prosecutors but corrupt judges who actively shield criminal cops all the way to the highest court and even the Federal Bureau Of Investigations (FBI) that is supposed to do their jobs as they are sworn to do.
Unfortunately, making a report to the FBI or a Federal Prosecutors’ office for action against police may not be such a good idea as there is evidence that some Federal Prosecutors and FBI agents are quite comfortable leaking evidence to the very subjects they’re supposed to be investigating.
In the link provided below, hear Attorney at law John H Bryan outline his experiences after submitting evidence of a crime committed by police officers in West Virginia to the Federal Prosecutor in that state.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=search&v=491070869300435&external_log_id=7c506f9d-d5a9-4ab4-abfb-1d729309d9a5&q=john%20H%20bryan%20attorney%20at%20law%20fbi%20agent%20leaked%20my%20video
Another issue has cropped up, lawyers refusing to take cases that have to do with police departments. I understand that no lawyer is obligated to take a case if they believe they have no case or that it is unwinnable.
In fact, when lawyers are taking cases that they are only rewarded if they win, it is understandable that they may be even more cautious about the cases they take.
With that said, there seems to be a pattern in many one hoss towns across the United States where an aggrieved person abused by police should not seek legal counsel in that town; it simply won’t be there.
In some cases, the entire system of justice, all sides (a) police, prosecutors,(b) defense attorneys, © judges, (d) Legislators, all sip from the same bitter chalice. Justice is what they say it is- their brand of justice is completely divorced from the conventional expectations of how the system is supposed to work.
In a June 7, 2020 article, the Cato Institute’s Clarke Neiley responding to the turmoil in the streets after the George Floyd murder, wrote the following.
Before you can fairly assess the legitimacy of the ongoing protests or the quality of the government’s response, you must understand the relevant facts. And the most relevant fact is that America’s criminal justice system is rotten to its core. Though that certainly does not justify the violence and wanton destruction of property perpetrated by far too many protesters, it does provide useful context for comprehending the intensity of their anger and the fecklessness of the government’s response. If America is burning, it is fair to say that America’s criminal justice system — which is itself a raging dumpster fire of injustice — lit the fuse. (C Neiley)
The citizenry must have faith in government institutions, particularly institutions tasked with dispensing justice, police, prosecutors, and courts. I have always been and continue to be a little unsure why the Black community had any faith in the justice system, including Federal agencies and the FBI in particular, given that agency’s record of hostility toward the community?
Sure, the entire policing infrastructure needs overhauling, but bad police officers are only bad because they are allowed to be so.
The entire system is guilty; the police are merely foot soldiers. The entire system is rotten to the core.
Neily wrote
...I feel moved to write these words because it appears from some of the commentary I’ve been reading — including even from libertarian circles — that many people who consider themselves to be generally skeptical of government and supportive of individual rights have no idea just how fundamentally broken our criminal justice system is and how wildly antithetical it has become to our core constitutional values. I see three fundamental pathologies in America’s criminal justice system that completely undermine its moral and political legitimacy and render it a menace to the very concept of constitutionally limited government. Those three pathologies are (1) unconstitutional overcriminalization, (2) point-and-convict adjudication, and (3) near-zero accountability for police and prosecutors.
I concur wholeheartedly!
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.