by Deb Cupples | Some people are addicted to crime shows, like CSI or Law and Order. Me, I'm a Justice Department junkie.
Cases involving physical abuse and dishonesty by law-enforcement officials are most chilling to me, because anyone could have one-too-many glasses of wine, put on a seat belt, and end up in jail. Anyone's curious teenager could end up in a police pat-down while the kid is carrying a zip-loc baggie stuffed with marijuana.
I understand that jail time isn't supposed to resemble a week at Disney World. At the same time, the human beings who get arrested or occupy our nation's jails have constitutional rights: I suspect that freedom from being slapped or punched or sodomized are among those rights.
If the three jail guards discussed below end up on the other side of the jail bars, they'll likely gain a new appreciation for constitutional rights. The Justice Department reported:
Mr. Tyree physically abused detainees and wrote false reports as a cover-up. Ms. Lafoe and Mr. Estep helped with the cover-ups.
I can't help thinking about the recent scandal over the Los Angeles policeman who got caught on video by a TV station's helicopter while the cop kicked the head of a suspect after the suspect had lain on the ground in surrender (see video here).
Abuse by law-enforcement officials seems common in this nation. I don't know how to solve the problem, but we taxpayers deserve a solution.
When I told Damozel about the head-kicking case, she said something like "The LAPD is famous for excessive force -- and they usually get away with it."
Here's the thing: it's not just the LAPD or other big cities' police forces. Here's part of a Justice Department report that I blogged about back in April:
"At his guilty plea hearing on Jan. 30, 2009, [Former Mendenhall, Mississippi Police Chief Jimmy] Sullivan admitted that he used excessive force on July 22, 2005, after joining other law enforcement officials in the apprehension of a man who led police on a car chase.
"At the end of the chase, Sullivan pulled the man from his car and repeatedly stomped on his head as the man lay face-down in the street. A local hospital treated the man for injuries sustained during the assault." (DoJ)
Anyone who gets pumped up by the tough-on-crime attitudes of fictional characters on CSI or Law and Order should take a breath, decompress, and remember: anyone's child or sibling or friend could end up pissing off a law-enforcement official -- should that loved one suffer a bruises, broken ribs, or a cracked skull?
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