So… the county residents’ tax money is paying for the misdeeds of a single cop? And what happened to the cop who cost the county’s tax payers $100,000?
Collective governance implies collective accountability. It’s something that people conveniently don’t think about when they get apathetic about things like torture. If the county is willing to pay for the cop’s misdeeds they may not fire him. If the people of the county don’t actually care about that tax money, they won’t pressure the police to reform and review themselves. Then it will happen again, and the county residents will get what they deserve: Another hit to the pocketbook.
The cops are paying nothing - the taxpayers of Cobb County are paying $100,000 for the stupid actions of some cops.
But this does raise an issue: should we have laws that automatically make cops who flagrantly violate rights liable in subsequent court actions? The story does not mention what disciplinary actions the police department took; are we to assume none? Is this another case of a cop getting away with abuse of power? I really wish reporters would do a better job of covering these things instead of the the easy court reporting. It’s just lazy journalism.
Cobb County is paying $672,000,000 to lure the Atlanta Braves away from Turner Field into a new stadium being built out in the suburbs. I doubt $100k is going to break the bank for them.
I agree… it’s a common pattern, and the “again” usually DOES happen again.
Could individual accountability work? What if police officers were actually personally liable? Faced individual criminal trials? I think that’d be far, far more of a deterrent of future abuse of power.
Of course I’d also like to see individual accountability for Presidents, CIA directors, corporate CEOs etc. But it’s so much harder to prove anything there. With a cop caught on camera doing something that costs tax payers $100K… there is very clearly an individual responsible.
Not a bad payoff for a days work
Two cops. Brian Scurr and Dipa Patel. Can’t find anything conclusive, but they testified at this trial and were still officers at the time.
Likely nothing will happen - they’re union, and this is absolutely nothing compared to the sorts of things police union gets cops off the hook for. They might even be heroes at the station for harassing someone who slandered the blue line. $100K of other people’s money is a small price to pay to remind the scum who’s got the power to throw you in jail.
It only appears lazy because you happen to be interested in this. There is so much happening every day and not all of it can get the attention you think it deserves. Not everything is going to get the New Yorker in-depth treatment. Limited resources (specifically time and money) apply to journalists, too.
Thinking about what the average annual income of a part-time fuck the police bike rider vs. my current wage is. Would I sit in solitary for 24 hours for $100K? I know it’s besides the point, but the amount of money being awarded nationally for comparatively and without philosophical insight, good money is worth pondering.
Minus legal fees, I wonder if it replaces the income from whatever job she was fired from by being unable to get to work…
Fuck commenting
It wasn’t one cop though, was it? It was everyone involved in holding her for 24 hours and sending her to court with a dubious at best charge.
The money awarded is not just about compensation, it’s about punishment. If a cop came up to you and busted your front tooth out with his baton for no apparent reason would you think it reasonable that all he really had to do was pay your dental bill? This is also about sending a message to cops that they are not above the law.
That’s a rather good point.
Where’s my $100K?
At this rate, I’m prepared to say it a lot.
Well, if they will settle for just putting you in solitary for 24 hours…
It’s the beatings and body cavity searches and restraint chairs that make that day really problematic…
I’d actually say that collective (shared) accountability actually breeds apathy; when the average taxpayer is told that the total cost of police misconduct was $0.11, they get the sense that it’s far less of a concern than it actually is. You can see this in all kinds of situations - whenever there is shared cost (and costs are lower because they’re shared) people care less. It’s a sort of tragedy of the commons; when nobody is responsible for the whole, everyone is irresponsible with the parts.
Except taxpayers never see it that way. They will be told it’s the teachers’ fault, and they’re going to believe it, and vote to cut funding for schools. Because freedom!
