Law enforcement officers are a necessary evil. No matter how evolved we are, humans fail to police themselves. This makes law enforcement a necessary evil. There are laws that give them power because they need it to do their job. This is where the problem starts.
This problem is easy to identify. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. A system of checks and balances is either missing or has no teeth. That makes the actions of a police officer subject to his own integrity. I have met one with integrity. Also have been involved in more than a few arguments over the fact that I feel and hope that there may be more out there. These arguments have been with people from low to high economic status.
To me, nothing is scarier than being a jail inmate. It is because jail employees like most law enforcement fail to recognize that all lives matter. Working health care in various states has caused this feeling to grow deep inside me. I have been trained since childhood to watch how other people are treated. Life is in constant change. Depending on change, I could be in that persons shoes receiving the same "special" treatment. The mildest things I have seen are disrespect, humiliation, denial of use of a bathroom. and refusal to let a inmate eat. Yes, I did speak up and I can't count the number of reprimands I received. The second time I was pulled over by police while going home taught me. I did not receive a ticket either time, I changed work assignments till I moved.
Having the inmates take part in a jail fight club is barbaric. What is going on while the jailers bet on the outcome? Threats of rape and other violence means the jailers are on the wrong side of the jail cell.
Words have power. To put foul, hateful, biased words into text violates what law enforcement stands for. Failing to understand this has consequences. All cases these officers have touched will be reviewed, to see if officer bias affected their arrest and outcome at trial. False arrest is serious. Look at what happened with Freddie Gray.
Reading about the problems in the DNA lab made me just shake my head. Protocols are drawn up for a reason. Not following them in a crime lab causes serious situations. All cases these people have touched could be thrown out. A rapist or murderer could be released. A really horrible problem happens if a innocent person has been convicted of rape or murder. In these jobs, thinking you are above the rules has life altering consequences.
Criminals need to pay for their crimes. What happened to them in jail is barbaric, Threats of rape and beatings are what is common place in third world countries. Third world countries should mimic the United States. We should not mimic them.
Law enforcement officers are needed. They need to be trained better. Standards for officers need to be reviewed and updated yearly. Current training materials need to be reviewed in a timely matter. They should be rewritten or updated as standards indicate. More supervision is needed. Yearly psychiatric evaluations should be mandatory. To have as much power that a law enforcement officer has requires heavy training and oversight so that situations that have happened in San Francisco do not happen again.
I read information from the following links and watched news feeds before blogging.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sf-staged-inmate-fights-20150326-story.html
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/S-F-jail-inmates-forced-to-fight-Adachi-says-6161221.php
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/04/10/fbi-investigating-s-f-sheriffs-department-over-forced-inmate-fights
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/03/30/task-force-created-to-investigate-police-sheriff-after-allegations-of-misconduct/
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/judges-review-3-000-arrests-bias-after-san-francisco-police-n355626
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/us/san-francisco-police-department-racial-bias-investigation.html?_r=0
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/calif-inmates-forced-gladiator-style-fight-club-article-1.2164297
http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/05/07/s-f-da-convenes-three-retired-judges-to-probe-police-department
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/08/us/san-francisco-police-texts/
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