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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Flashing lights pierced the black of night, and the big white letters made clear it was the police. The woman pulled over was a daycare worker in her 50s headed home after playing dominoes with friends. She felt she had nothing to hide, so when the Oklahoma City officer accused her of erratic driving, she did as directed.
She would later tell a judge she was splayed outside the patrol car for a pat-down, made to lift her shirt to prove she wasn't hiding anything, then to pull down her pants when the officer still wasn't convinced. He shined his flashlight between her legs, she said, then ordered her to sit in the squad car and face him as he towered above. His gun in sight, she said she pleaded "No, sir" as he unzipped his fly and exposed himself with a hurried directive.
"Come on," the woman, identified in police reports as J.L., said she was told before she began giving him oral sex. "I don't have all night."
The accusations are undoubtedly jolting, and yet they reflect a betrayal of the badge that has been repeated time and again across the country.
_________________"It's happening probably in every law enforcement agency across the country," said Chief Bernadette DiPino of the Sarasota Police Department in Florida, who helped study the problem for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "It's so underreported and people are scared that if they call and complain about a police officer, they think every other police officer is going to be then out to get them."
Even as cases around the country have sparked a national conversation about excessive force by police, sexual misconduct by officers has largely escaped widespread notice due to a patchwork of laws, piecemeal reporting and victims frequently reluctant to come forward because of their vulnerabilities — they often are young, poor, struggling with addiction or plagued by their own checkered pasts.
In interviews, lawyers and even police chiefs told the AP that some departments also stay quiet about improprieties to limit liability, allowing bad officers to quietly resign, keep their certification and sometimes jump to other jobs.
___________________
[More After the Break]
On a checkerboard of sessions on everything from electronic surveillance to speed enforcement, police chiefs who gathered for an annual meeting in 2007 saw a discussion on sex offenses by officers added to the agenda. More than 70 chiefs packed into a room, and when asked if they had dealt with an officer accused of sexual misdeeds, nearly every attendee raised a hand. A task force was formed and federal dollars were pumped into training.
Eight years later, a simple question — how many law enforcement officers are accused of sexual misconduct — has no definitive answer. The federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, which collects police data from around the country, doesn't track officer arrests, and states aren't required to collect or share that information.
To measure the problem, the AP obtained records from 41 states on police decertification, an administrative process in which an officer's law enforcement license is revoked. Cases from 2009 through 2014 were then reviewed to determine whether they stemmed from misconduct meeting the Department of Justice standard for sexual assault — sexual contact that happens without consent, including intercourse, sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling and attempted rape.
___________________Milwaukee Police Officer Ladmarald Cates was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2012 for raping a woman he was dispatched to help. Despite screaming "He raped me!" repeatedly to other officers present, she was accused of assaulting an officer and jailed for four days, her lawyer said. The district attorney, citing a lack of evidence, declined to prosecute Cates. Only after a federal investigation was he tried and convicted.
It's a story that doesn't surprise Penny Harrington, a former police chief in Portland, Oregon, who co-founded the National Center for Women in Policing and has served as an expert witness in officer misconduct cases. She said officers sometimes avoid charges or can beat a conviction because they are so steeped in the system.
"They knew the DAs. They knew the judges. They knew the safe houses. They knew how to testify in court. They knew how to make her look like a nut," she said. "How are you going to get anything to happen when he's part of the system and when he threatens you and when you know he has a gun and ... you know he can find you wherever you go?"
First found on RT - https://www.rt.com/usa/320437-police-officers-sexual-misconduct/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=RSS
A search for verification found this - http://bigstory.ap.org/article/fd1d4d05e561462a85abe50e7eaed4ec/ap-hundreds-officers-lose-licenses-over-sex-misconduct
RT is a short read, the AP story is a wall of text. The WOT is worth reading because it is eye opening, and because it helps to justify statements that I've made about cops in the past.
Again - probably 85% of all cops are "good guys". But, the system attracts the bad guys. And, the good guys, being indoctrinated into the system, tend to want to protect their "brothers".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by PocketSizeSUn on Tuesday November 10 2015, @03:55AM
Again - probably 85% of all cops are "good guys". But, the system attracts the bad guys. And, the good guys, being indoctrinated into the system, tend to want to protect their "brothers".
Bullshit.
Probably 5-10% of all cops are good cops.
There is an open secret in law enforcement. It is a high stress job. Just about everyone you encounter doesn't trust you, can't be trusted, is a crook .. etc. Pretty soon you come to the realization that everyone is guilty of something and they deserve whats coming to them. You wake up one day and realize that you don't have any friends that aren't cops.
For the vast majority in law enforcement this story plays out within 2 years. Sure there is that small percentage the doesn't get lazy, or discouraged and continues to protect and serve the community. But make no mistake, it is a small percentage that doesn't go along with the group. Just like any group any where.
If you think 85% are good good, either you are a rare and decent officer, or perhaps you have friend who is such.
Most likely you just *want* most cops to be good.
The fact is that the way policing is practiced today is a big part of the problem.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:09AM
It is a high stress job. Just about everyone you encounter doesn't trust you, can't be trusted, is a crook .. etc. Pretty soon you come to the realization that everyone is guilty of something and they deserve whats coming to them. You wake up one day and realize that you don't have any friends that aren't cops.
Well, it seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy as you would seem to indicate. Allow me to illustrate the danger the average cop faces day-to-day.
Forbes.com [forbes.com] relates:
Each year thousands of U.S. workers die from injuries on the job. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics‘ National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries shows a preliminary total of 4,383 fatal work injuries in 2012, down slightly from the final count of 4,693 in 2011.
Yadayada, here we are!
The 10 Deadliest Jobs:
Hmm… that's odd. I didn't see police work anywhere in that list as I was reformatting it!
Your point that
The fact is that the way policing is practiced today is a big part of the problem.
is the key.
We can't trust cops because they engage in the shit mentioned in TFS and TFA. I share your outrage. How dare they use that mistrust to attempt to garner sympathy?!
Perhaps I'll need to recuse myself from this discussion, since my hatred of the treason of the feminist movement towards women is about equal to my hatred of the treason of the government against Americans. TPP, TTIP, and TISA have historical precedents as do false rape accusations. The difference is that TPP, TTIP, and TISA will rape us all.
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Tuesday November 10 2015, @06:03AM
Is this only injuries, or does it already include STDs attracted on the job?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 1) by Kawumpa on Tuesday November 10 2015, @07:24AM
does it already include STDs attracted on the job?
So STDs is what they mean when they talk about an attractive job... Good to know. ;-)
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday November 10 2015, @03:33PM
Stop. When did high stress suddenly equal danger?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:43PM
I'm a coward too, but at least I don't pretend to be a cop.
The other people in more dangerous occupations like cab drivers just learn to accept the risks of their job (some random customer might rob or even kill them, or some idiot driver might kill them). Of course if many cab drivers kept getting away with shooting "uncooperative" or "dangerous" customers in the back in "self defense" the way cops do, you'd start to see more killings by cab drivers.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by CirclesInSand on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:50AM
Suppose someone says "don't drive down this street, or I'll kill you" and meant it. Sure, you could take another route home, but would you really consider such homicidal intent justified?
Suppose a police officer says "don't grow a marijuana garden or I'll arrest you" then "don't resist arrest or I'll kill you". Sure, you could avoid this peaceful practice, or submit to an unjustified arrest if you don't want to get killed. But this is also homicidal intent.
Every time a cop puts on a badge, they are threatening to kill otherwise peaceful people. Every cop, 100%, is a "bad guy" and should be treated with extreme prejudice. There is no limit of examples, from drugs to civil forfeiture to taking children from their parents. Victimless crimes = murdering cops.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday November 10 2015, @04:59AM
I'm repeating myself, but if you 85 "good" cops who turn a blind eye to 15 bad cops, what you really have is 100 bad cops.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday November 10 2015, @02:45PM
"It is a high stress job."
kurenai.tsubasa already addressed that nonsense. I've had higher stress level jobs than cops for much of my life. Cops do NOT risk their lives every day, as they wish to portray. And, much of the supposed risk is brought on by their own actions. How 'bout that "stop and frisk" bullshit? We don't think that they cause one HELL of a lot of resentment with that? And, it's not JUST the stopping and frisking - how often do they take the opportunity to feel some chick up, or beat the crap out of some neighborhood "punk" that they have a grudge against?
I think that if I were a cop, I'd be doing everything within my power to defuse those high stress situations. Little things, like simply not noticing that some kid just stuffed a joint in his pocket when he saw me. Or, maybe not throwing a twelve year old kid on the ground because he was "disrespectful". Or, maybe even not shooting some little kid at the park because he has a toy gun.
The system is broken, and it's long past time we got it under control. "Stress" is not an excuse, or even a reason.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday November 10 2015, @03:30PM
You hit the nail on the head. I know two people: one who is a cop and one who is an ex-cop.
From what I have heard from the ex-cop, what we hear about on the news is only a fraction of what goes on. In his words: "If you heard the conversations I heard in the locker room, you'd never trust a single cop ever again". But he won't go into details (I'm sure he fears retribution). He was fired and he was only too happy to leave. He also stated that the atmosphere is that of a toxic environment of backstabbing and dishonesty between officers as they vie for higher positions and pay grades. So added to the us-vs-them mentality, they are stepping on each other to get ahead.
My friend who is presently a cop drank the koolaid and pretty much did a 180. Every facebook post is either right wing or pro-cop propaganda. Talking to him in person tells a different story, he is still the same guy but took on a different personality to cope with working in a toxic environment. I still see him every now and then and I feel bad for him. He isn't a bad person. But being a cop makes you a bad person as the entire system is so fucked that you have little choice.