Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/17/la-sheriff-saddened-that-his-d.html
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This is the whole problem with shooting the sheriff but not the deputy in today’s society.
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Power corrupts, but what does an arrest of a drug dealer/officer have to do with unions and benefits? Maybe we don’t need to quote unReason, their comment seems irrelevant.
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Lee Baca and his horrible deputies may have ended up in the slammer, but it looks like the rot has metastasised to the point where the whole department needs to be re-started from scratch.
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Check them all for secret Scientology tattoos too.
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So the FBI can catch some rando corrupt deputy, but the chicago PD (or was it detroit?) goes years running a torture site without being “caught”.
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Both have common enemy though - “drugs”.
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“I make a lot of things go away.”
Including his own freedom…
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Oops
Torture is A-Ok though. If the president allows it who’s going to complain?
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“I fix problems,” Collins said, according to the indictment. “I make a lot of things go away.”
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Only his freedom. Otherwise, Winston Wolf this guy is not.
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Many cops are now just another Gang with the legal right to Kill with impunity. The good cops get weeded out of the system early. The Dirty Cops get promoted.
TQQdles™
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just sayin…
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Well, for starters, Officer Collins’ contract means he’s sitting at home, temporarily unpaid, and might lose his job.
A civilian, on the other hand, would have lost his job immediately, and would be behind bars with no bail and looking forward to decades of prison.
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Given that Collins is apparently behind bars with no bail and looking forward to decades in prison, I think the union/civil service factor is irrelevant.
From the LA Times story:
In court Thursday afternoon, Collins was denied bail despite his attorney’s argument that he posed no risk to the community and that his wife and mother-in-law would put up $115,000 as assurance he would not flee. Except for a drunk driving conviction in 1999, the attorney said, Collins had no criminal past.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Lindsay Greer Dotson rebuffed the idea of bail, repeatedly calling Collins “the mastermind” of the alleged drug operation and saying the deputy had indicated in conversations with agents that he had family in Cuba and had recently traveled to the country.
One of the other guys got bail set at $110,000 and the others didn’t even bother to ask for bail.
As for the rest - looking at what information I can find on what the laws/requirements for interviewing/disciplining police officers are, I can only say that they appear to be what I would consider minimum requirements for disciplining/sacking any employee.
Perhaps the US could consider treating all employees fairly rather than whinging about union protections?
The narrative that employees lucky enough to have been able to negotiate and enforce decent working conditions are somehow getting one over everyone else and that it is totally impossible to fix today’s problem of choice because “unions” is specifically designed to ensure that no other employees obtain the same (quite basic) rights.
And BTW, police officers are civilians.
Pedantry aside, it is an important point. Every time the police and politicians are allowed to get away with making a distinction between police officers and the rest of the population, they make it easier to create/enlarge just such a distinction and entrench the idea that ‘they’ are different from ‘us’ with special powers, abilities and rights.
They are not. They are ordinary citizens granted certain powers and subject to certain responsibilities in accordance with the law.
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Otherwise, Winston Wolf this guy is not.
Indeed. Now this guy, he is Winston Wolf:
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In court Thursday afternoon, Collins was denied bail despite his attorney’s argument that he posed no risk to the community and that his wife and mother-in-law would put up $115,000 as assurance he would not flee. Except for a drunk driving conviction in 1999, the attorney said, Collins had no criminal past.
Except he doesn’t show up in the LASD Inmate Locator. Which makes it difficult to trust that he’s actually in jail instead of say, in “protective custody” at the Beverly Hilton or at home. Or maybe, he’s just in jail and getting special treatment, but without transparency it’s hard to believe that he’s actually being held.
As for the rest - looking at what information I can find on what the laws/requirements for interviewing/disciplining police officers are, I can only say that they appear to be what I would consider minimum requirements for disciplining/sacking any employee.
As a non-represented civilian, if I were arrested, I would be fired as soon as my employer found out. For drug charges like this, they would black-list me from any further job in my current industry.
And while the law may say that employers can’t ask if you’ve been arrested before they make a job offer, that’s not how it works in the real world.
And as I said, maybe the answer is not to try and drag police officers, teachers, etc. down to that level but lift everyone up to the higher level of protections.
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