Since El Borak wondered what I think about this, I figured that I would add my two cents.
U.S. law enforcement agencies are struggling with the threat of lawsuits regarding the conduct of officers.
Officials said the threat has become so acute that many officers would rather die than be sued. They said this has seriously hurt law enforcement and endangered the lives of officers.
Call me crazy, but I really doubt that most cops on the street really fear a lawsuit more than taking a bullet. I think that this sort of thing is more likely than not the kind of propaganda created by people who are ideologically predisposed to not like holding the police accountable for their actions. Yes, police do fear lawsuits for legitimate and illegitimate reasons, but I just find it very unlikely that the average cop would prefer being killed to being party to a lawsuit.
Again, call me crazy, but I just find it unlikely that the average cop would rather lose their life, leave a grieving family behind and a number of devastated friends and colleagues than go to court. However, if I am wrong, I would consider that to be the surest sign of moral, spiritual and intellectual rot in law enforcement that one could ever ask for.
I think that the greatest problem that we face in dealing with law enforcement is one of getting people who are willing to act responsibly with force. There seem to be no end of dumb jock rubbish these days, combined with an unwillingness to accept the fact that losing one's life is a risk that comes with the job.
Look, I don't want to beat around the bush, so I'll just say it. I think a big part of the problem is that many police really are cowards behind the veneer of macho crap. There is no other explanation for why in so many drug cases they will use SWAT units to enforce the law, when all too often it turns out that the offender was not that scary of a person. And you know what? A lot of innocent people get shot and killed by SWAT units every year because drug cops do terrible jobs at verifying their informants' information before rushing in with machine guns blazing.
I think the issue is quite simple. If the governments would end the vile practice of sovereign immunity for the police, holding them fully accountable to the law at all times, most of this would go away. They'd no longer be able to hide behind the face of the bureaucracy when, in cases like Cheryl Noel's, they shoot a woman point blank range and kill her over marijuana seeds that didn't even belong to her.
What is seriously lacking is a willingness to punish people for bad judgement calls. It isn't some mysterious gift from God that only happens when someone has been blessed. Prosecutors expect "mere civilians" to make such judgement calls, but seem uncannily forgiving when the police make bad judgement calls that would get a "mere civilian" in serious trouble with the law. Perhaps I am arrogant, but when I see these bad reports in the news, I can't help but think that if I were in the situation, I wouldn't have made those judgement calls. I think this cuts to the core of issue, really. It just doesn't take a rocket scientist or a lifelong pursuit of arcane moral truths to realize that it's immoral and just outright stupid (to once again borrow from Cheryl Noel's shooting) to send in the Kommando Korps of the Keystone Cops over what is, worst case scenario, going to be a mild pot growing operation.
Officials said the threat has become so acute that many officers would rather die than be sued.
Like you, I'm skeptical about the veracity of this. In the unlikely event that it's true, it raises a powerful question about the guilt of the officers who prefer death to their day in court during a lawsuit.
I just don't see it as some of you, I guess :-S
I want a macho guy/gal with my back. Just as I want a fire fighter who's strong. I want and need certain personailities and physical aspects in these professionals to aid in their performance, ie: to help me ...
I agree, sometimes things go wrong, very wrong.
It's a small price to pay for the other times things go as planned, and needed.
Wes,
Exactly. What I wonder is what the hell they are so afraid of? Civil cases are not necessarily going to result in them getting a follow up criminal case, so what's the big deal? Just fight it out in court.
Wonder Woman,
I think it's more of a thing where the machismo gets out of hand really badly. A lot of the time when you see cases that go badly, it's very obvious that no one really thought through what was being ordered, like sending in the SWAT unit to enforce a warrant against an optometrist caught gambling with his buddies at a fancy bar. How stupid do you have to be to think that something like that is justified?
I come from a law enforcement family, so it's not like I'm entire unsympathetic. It's just that I am not sympathetic to the people who order stuff that no normal person would order.
It's a small price to pay for the other times things go as planned, and needed.
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but we are talking about excessive force and accidental loss of life because some "Keystone cop" didn't get his facts straight or came in with both barrels blazing?
Because if we are talking about abuse of the system and the innocent being harmed as the result, I don't find that a "small price". Neither do I find it an acceptable risk to think that my door could be bashed in at any moment and my kids shot at point blank range because someone got the wrong intel and went all ballistic on my house because I live in the wrong neighborhood.
That anon above was me. DOH!