imported post
Fallschirmjäger wrote:
Firing them would work fine for me. There are few better ways to dirve home the point to all officers than for them to how others can lose their paychecks and livelihood because they did something illegal.
When the courts start awarding 'retraining education' to convicted criminals that Aren't police officers then I might change my mind. Until that time, those who perform criminal acts, ESPECIALLY under color of law should face harsher punishments, not lessor.
I made the point that
officersshould be under the same laws ascitizens (in another post), not be shielded by the law when they are abusing power, power that they shouldn't have in the first place.
Each case should be taken individually. Police can make a mistake in judgement, just like the rest of us. Bad guys will continue to try to fool police, and they have to do what they think is right.
But there is a problem when a person is doing something completely legal and the officer calls it in and the DA says bend the guy over anyway because of some case law he was reading--that's even worse than legislating from the bench, it's gang mentality.
The Dickerson case is pretty clear-cut:
Families were eating. In this case the officers' response was completely out of line, as was the DA, etc. Such blatant abuses of power do need to be dealt with. Filing false reports needs to be considered "evidence tampering." Arresting someone for eating dinner should be considered "kidnapping" (by definition). If any of us pulled a stunt like that at work because someone was not "eating strictly vegetarian" we'd be fired on the spot, plus possibly sued. The officers, DA, etc. did the same basicthing because
they didn't like people lawfully defending their right to life. They should face the same penalties.
On the other hand, if they investigated the scene, found that nothing bad was happening (like a robbery), and asked to speak with the men carrying and the other customers, and confirmed the law before continuing with a detention, different story. If the 9-1-1 operator handled the call better, like asking a few basic questions, different story.
For the record, 9-1-1 operators do have some discretion. If they get a call that someone is wearing an Apple iPod mini, they can and will ask, "Is it stolen?" They can just as easily ask, "Is the gun in a holster? Is a robbery taking place?"
