Officers Misbehave!

This made the news in Ohio, and as the newsman said it is hard to watch, so fair warning. A women called 911 and ended up arrested herself by an officer confused as to who was who.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1yUsYIk2EM

Whatever explanations come forth, the facts are male officers stripped a women, a violation of rules, they left her naked and handcuffed in a cell, a violation, for six hours, a violation.

About 20 years ago the rules changed in USA, where cops were no longer allowed to use their discretion in domestic violence cases. Always someone must be arrested. Cops hate domestic violence calls, and hate the requirement to arrest someone even more. Obviously this cop arrested whoever was close at hand and got it over with. Probably one reason all cities are having trouble hiring new officers is “who wants to do that kind of work?” More and more, it is the wrong people.

(When the law was first passed, the cops resisted by arresting women instead of men, since very often in domestic violence cases it is the woman doing the hitting, something of a backfire for those pushed for this legislation).

There is a sort of cause and effect in life, and since none of those responsible for Abu Ghraib were punished for it, the politicians have invited this kind of abuse into our culture. (OK, agreed, it only becomes news when it happens to an attractive white woman; nobody complains what has been going on for years to minorities...)

Glenn Greenwald at Salon makes the same argument regarding torture and spying, noting that the democrats are giving a pass to the republicans on every degeneration the republicans demand. Of course they do, because they want that power when they rule next.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/31/mukasey/index.html

There is an alternative to all of this, and that is withdraw our consent and turn these functions over to private enterprise. No, not “outsource government work” but to take the work away from government and let insurance companies and private security firms provide for our safety and security.

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