5 ms·

The town I grew up (about 10k people, in the midwest) had exactly one bike cop. I don't recall his real name, but everybody called him Lurch. The story was th

The town I grew up (about 10k people, in the midwest) had exactly one bike cop. I don't recall his real name, but everybody called him Lurch. The story was that when he was new, he spent a day speed trapping outside the police station, and giving other cops speeding tickets. They took away his squad car, and he was a bike cop forever after. I'm not sure what he did when there were three feet of snow on the ground. Anyway, when I heard that story, it was a joke about how dumb Lurch was. As a grown up, this is a story about how local law enforcement is above the law, and how they punished an officer who challenged that.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
People around the NYC area openly drive around with fake badges mounted on their windshield to indicate they know a cop and should get preferable treatment. And cop unions openly advertise handing out cop union support stickers in exchange for donation. Very in your face corruption.
- soulofmischief 4y ago
  I know a career opiate addict who has about a dozen of those stickers on their car, many on top of each other. Like they truly believe each sticker reduces their chance of not looking like a total suck up
eftychis 4y ago
I mean nobody is expected to investigate their own group. That is why things like judges/courts, prosecutors, civil/town/city observation groups and federal agencies are there. The problem arises when you have cases like: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/lawsuit-claims-loveland-cop-has-history-of-wrongful-dui-arrests/ar-AASuq95 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/lawsuit-claims-loveland... (series of false DUI arrest to bring in cash) and the whole police department is not raided on the spot. Courts just drop cases because: a) qualified immunity and b) an "allergy" to having the D.A. and other agencies step in and do the investigation. P.S. Hold your D.A. accountable in your area when you hear things like that. It is more important in the long run to have a few less street criminals behind bars and more corrupt "apples" in. Edit: typo
- Animats 4y ago
  > I mean nobody is expected to investigate their own group. That is why things like judges/courts, prosecutors, civil/town/city observation groups and federal agencies are there. Maybe we need a setup where local cops are investigated by the FBI, the FBI and CIA are investigated by DoD's Navy NCIS or Army CID, DoD is investigated by Homeland Security or Treasury, and Homeland Security is investigated by local cops. It's hard to collude around that big a loop.
  - BurningFrog 4y ago
    Right. State cops can investigates local cops, etc. > It's hard to collude around that big a loop. Yeah, but I don't know that collusion is the min mechanism. I think it's more that cops just feel a lot of solidarity with other cops. If incentives are strong enough that a cop can make a career by putting away a lot of "dirty cops", that usually is what works. I think we're far from there though.
  - nopenopenopeno 4y ago
    It’s far from perfect, but this is probably the best proposal I’ve ever heard except the federal agencies would need to be more broken up.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

People around the NYC area openly drive around with fake badges mounted on their windshield to indicate they know a cop and should get preferable treatment. And cop unions openly advertise handing out cop union support stickers in exchange for donation. Very in your face corruption.

soulofmischief 4y ago
I know a career opiate addict who has about a dozen of those stickers on their car, many on top of each other. Like they truly believe each sticker reduces their chance of not looking like a total suck up

eftychis 4y ago

I mean nobody is expected to investigate their own group. That is why things like judges/courts, prosecutors, civil/town/city observation groups and federal agencies are there. The problem arises when you have cases like: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/lawsuit-claims-loveland-cop-has-history-of-wrongful-dui-arrests/ar-AASuq95 https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/lawsuit-claims-loveland... (series of false DUI arrest to bring in cash) and the whole police department is not raided on the spot. Courts just drop cases because: a) qualified immunity and b) an "allergy" to having the D.A. and other agencies step in and do the investigation. P.S. Hold your D.A. accountable in your area when you hear things like that. It is more important in the long run to have a few less street criminals behind bars and more corrupt "apples" in. Edit: typo

Animats 4y ago
> I mean nobody is expected to investigate their own group. That is why things like judges/courts, prosecutors, civil/town/city observation groups and federal agencies are there. Maybe we need a setup where local cops are investigated by the FBI, the FBI and CIA are investigated by DoD's Navy NCIS or Army CID, DoD is investigated by Homeland Security or Treasury, and Homeland Security is investigated by local cops. It's hard to collude around that big a loop.
- BurningFrog 4y ago
  Right. State cops can investigates local cops, etc. > It's hard to collude around that big a loop. Yeah, but I don't know that collusion is the min mechanism. I think it's more that cops just feel a lot of solidarity with other cops. If incentives are strong enough that a cop can make a career by putting away a lot of "dirty cops", that usually is what works. I think we're far from there though.
- nopenopenopeno 4y ago
  It’s far from perfect, but this is probably the best proposal I’ve ever heard except the federal agencies would need to be more broken up.