Wikipedia photo by Junglecat
You sitting down?
Check out this article from the Idaho Statesman, which tells the tale of one of Boise's finest, performing what might be politely described as "enhanced compliance methods" upon a criminal suspect.
You know, that is awfully polite, since what seems to have happened is that "Officer #3" shoved a Taser up the suspect's south end and very carefully threatened to tase both there and on his genitalia, unless compliance was immediate. (The suspect was cuffed at the time, unable to breathe due to officers sitting on him.)
Oh, and then another officer at the scene seems to have erased an audio tape of a jail interview with the suspect.
Man, I hate when that happens!
Just in case anyone still does not believe that these people consider themselves above the law:
- After consulting with the Idaho State Police (i.e., brother Darryl) and the county prosecutor (i.e., other brother Darryl), charges against the officers...waait for it... "are not being pursued".
- The officers have been "disciplined", internally, for violating policy, and for conduct unbecoming an officer. (Yeah, you and I would be treated just the same, if we'd stuck a sparky stick up a cuffed cop's cornhole.)
- A little training on "positional asphyxia" will somehow fix the problem. (Presumably, this might include the revelation that if three people sit on the back of a cuffed man, he might not be able to breathe, and--how's this for a zinger--he just might resist.)
I learned of the article by way of David Codrea, who is about as incensed as I've ever seen him get.
"Policy and training recommendations" don't cut it. These are the actions of a sociopath. Every normal human with morals knows better and doesn't need a f...ing manual to tell them it's not OK. A normal person would never dream of doing something this perverted and evil.
Chances are probable that the suspect was not a very nice person either. This isn't about that. It has been said that you can tell how civilized a society is by how it treats its prisoners*, and stories like this are hardly unique any more. (Consider David's own Only Ones files, just for starters.)
There are still those among us who would insist that there is no systematic problem with police abuse--that it's "just a few bad apples". That the vast majority are "good cops" who are simply made to look bad by the actions of a handful of others.
Well, here's your chance, "good guys". Your chance to police your own. Prove to a public that no longer believes you, that there really are limits you will not stand to see crossed by those who call themselves your associates. Because as of right now, all we can see from our end is "no charges filed".
If you can't quite bring yourself to condemn forcible-sodomy-by-Taser, how about any of this short handful of examples from William Norman Grigg? Or, we could check in with JD Tuccille...
Do something. Do it now. People are watching.
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* The origin of this seems to be somewhat disputed--I recall first hearing it via Dostoevsky--but the point is the same.
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