When ordinary law-abiding citizens have more to fear from police than criminals, we’ve got a serious problem.
On February 13, 2014, four cops in Hawthorne, California, encountered a deaf man. He didn’t respond to their verbal commands because — you guessed it — he can’t hear. Then, he tried to use sign language, which the stupid cops interpreted as aggression. So the deaf guy was tackled, beaten up, handcuffed, tased, and arrested. Did he not have Costco hearing aids at his disposal at the moment? Seems like he didn’t, or else the cops would probably not have attacked him for “aggressive behavior”.
He’s suing the police department in federal court under the Americans With Disabilities Act for negligently training its officers. My guess is he’ll get a couple million. As always, taxpayers will foot the bill, while the stupid cops responsible for this travesty will go on their merry way. They won’t go to jail, they won’t be disciplined, they’ll continue being stupid cops. They might, at most, get sensitivity training.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/02/14/65377.htm
Why am I posting so many cop horror stories? Because I think we have a cop problem in this country. This wasn’t an isolated incident; cop assaults against people who’ve done nothing wrong have become prevalent all over America. Police have a behavior problem — specifically itchy trigger fingers — which you can’t chalk up to legitimate “officer safety” concerns, because cop slayings have dropped to a 50-year low.
The problem isn’t just police brutality. It goes beyond that. When incidents occur, often cops lie in official reports about what happened, may even destroy evidence (such as confiscating bystanders’ cellphones and erasing videos), and not infrequently file bogus charges against victims of police brutality to intimidate them.
All of this stems from the fact our police have acquired an attitude problem. They do as they please, with little or no accountability, because the system lets them. The consequences, if any, fall on someone else — usually taxpayers who pay the legal judgments, which can run into millions for wrongful deaths or serious injuries. Rarely do cops lose their jobs, and prosecuting cops is almost unheard of.
It was Lord Acton who said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” It’s a simple observation about human nature that rings true everywhere, in all circumstances, at all times. If you give a man unfettered discretion, you must expect him to use it. Faced with an endless stream of stories like this one, it’s time for Americans to realize our police accountability system is overdue for
a complete overhaul.