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In 2006, a Pittsburgh police officer arrested a motorist who made a crude gesture to him. The man was arrested, convicted, and appealed. Attorneys for both sides have reached a tentative settlement in which the city will pay $50,000 to him and to train its officers to grasp the concept of civil rights. This raises a handful of issues. There is a critical problem with the civics education in our schools. Pittsburgh’s police recruit screening process, training, and supervision are laughable. The penalty is not nearly harsh enough.
As I’ve said before, we should demand a basic understanding of civics as a requirement for high school graduation. That starts with the US Constitution. If I know what the First Amendment says, then why don’t the police? Every police officer should know this before s/he is hired. Government touches on nearly every aspect of our lives. Our schools can’t prepare our children to be productive, competent adults without teaching them how the government works.
New police officers swear an oath to uphold our constitution. So why do we keep having these problems? There are three possibilities: 1. the officer hasn’t bothered to read the constitution at all, 2. s/he has read it but doesn’t understand it, and 3. they understand it but don’t care.
Police candidates face a psychological screening process. Obviously, there are some holes in that screen. What kind of a person takes an oath to uphold a document that they’ve never read? Doesn’t that indicate a character deficiency? They shouldn't graduate from the police academy until they can demonstrate that they do understand it. If they do understand, and take the oath voluntarily, then why do they violate it so easily? Whichever applies, we have a problem. We have to weed out the people who think that professional hypocrisy is acceptable. The public is not the enemy. Anyone who can’t or won’t recognize the concept of public civil and constitutional rights has no business being a police officer.
Pittsburgh is a recent example, but the problem is rampant across the country. The American Civil Liberties Union has been protecting our Bill of Rights from police abuse since 1920. A quick search for “police misconduct” on the ACLU website yielded 2,161 cases in the last decade. They covered most cities and states, including New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, Seattle, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Hartford Connecticut, Providence Rhode Island, Lincoln Nebraska, Reno Nevada, Newark New Jersey, Southaven Mississippi, Oceanside California, South Portland Maine, North Franklin Township Pennsylvania, Arizona, North Carolina, Indiana, Louisiana, and the FBI.
We have to change the way we hire our police officers. We have to stop hiring people who are so willing to abandon their oath of office and violate our Constitution just because they feel like it. We have to ELECT people who are willing to change this for us. This should be an issue in every election – mayor, council, governor, legislator, and president. The next time a candidate knocks on your door, ask her or him what they intend to do about it.
Just as civilians face criminal prosecution when they violate the law, so police officers should also face prosecution when they make false arrests and deliberately violate civil rights. It’s a matter of personal responsibility. Ideally, federal law should address the issue. However, until we can get Congress to act, every town, city, county, and state should make it a crime for any police officer to arrest someone on false pretenses, with enhanced penalties for civil rights violations. Mayors and police chiefs must insist that their officers obey the constitution and the laws that already exist.
For more information
I wanted to include the Pittsburgh Police oath here, but it’s not available online and I couldn’t reach anyone in the Mayor’s office, Public Safety Department, or Police Department who could tell me what it is or where to find it.
I guess that says something about how important it is to them.
For real information
Comments
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139
to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574
Keep spreading the truth!!
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