.jpg)
(AP Photo/El Monte Police Department)
It all started out with a kick to the head. True, the suspect was not exactly one to elicit sympathy, but that's not the point. A free society cannot tolerate police acting outside the law to administer physical punishment.
Except Dean Scoville, "Associate Editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department," disagrees with that:
There was a time when post pursuit ass-kickings were obligatory. Cops knew it, suspects knew it, and there are enough old timers on both sides of the fence that will verify the assertion when I say that what this officer did was NOTHING compared to what would have happened in another place and time...
But frankly, I’m nostalgic for the days when the pursued feared the judicial system if for nothing but the inevitable ass-kicking and street justice.
Nostalgia indicates this former supervisor is recalling from experience. I wanted to find out, so I asked the Sheriff's department
and the LA Board of Supervisors.
A little over a week ago I had a cordial telephone chat with an attorney from the Office of Independent Review, a nice enough lady, who let me know the results of her investigation. Essentially, there were no use of force incidents on record to indicate Scoville's recollections of "street justice" were anything more than "puffery" (her word).
Here is the OIR's final resolution:
And the LASD has weighed in:
Here's their report, signed by Sheriff Lee Baca:
The findings--or lack of them--do not surprise me. After all, Mr. Scoville's "nostalgia" is not exactly sworn testimony. I appreciate the OIR and the LASD following up on this. Call me naive, but I believe they did what they could here, and frankly, they did more than I expected.
So what's the point? Just that a free society cannot tolerate "street justice" administered by government employees. Reports of abuse by those in authority are daily occurrences, and we, as citizen overseers of our employees, need to be alert and need to take action when they come to our attention.
What I did here should not be unique. Each of us should feel free to pursue similar inquiries whenever we deem them appropriate. It is a fact of modern life that our government is constantly watching us. It's past time we let them know that we are also watching them.
And we all can participate. Call it true "street justice".
------------
"Party in the Park" reminder
Members and supporters in Ohio and surrounding areas still have time to get tickets to Ohioans for Concealed Carry's picnic this Saturday.
When: Sat. July 11th
11am to 6pm
Where: Liberty Park
(corner of Liberty Rd. and Home Rd.)
in Powell, Delaware Co., Ohio$15/each
or
$14/multiple
Check out other Gun Rights Examiners:
- Atlanta: You bet it's personal!
- Austin: Patrick Burris: Are 5 people dead by government?
- Boston: Back door gun control
- Charlotte: Dangers of gun registration: 'The Belgian Corporal'
- Cleveland: Get Inside: Mountain Man Tradin Post
- DC: Sotomayor: latinas, guns, and werewolves
- Denver: The warrior code
- Los Angeles: Independence Day, 2009
- Minneapolis: Taking to the air in defense of open carry
- Seattle: Rasmussen poll confirms: People fear government that fears guns
- St. Louis: You, too, can be part of a 'hate group'
- Wisconsin: Gun rights advocates make progress
Comments
You're a good citizen. Thanks for investigating this. I grew up in New Orleans, where everyone feared the police. Everyone.
What a nice looking man!
The gun extremists want to arm terrorists, why wouldn't they also want to protect criminals from the police?
The "Republic" we'd have if people like Codrea had their way? Anarchy. People shooting it out in the streets to decide disputes of all levels
...just make stuff up, right, Charlie Lola?
You antis are such transparent liars. Thanks for once again proving that to anyone with open eyes.
No complaints were filed because, back in the day; "There was a time when post pursuit ass-kickings were obligatory. Cops knew it, suspects knew it"...
Today's scumbags are a bunch of cry-babies..
Now I'm an anarchist? Good grief, Charlie, just the other day, one of you anti-defense zealots was telling everyone here I'm a fascist. Which is it?
Bison--are you saying you're FOR cops administering punishment? Once you institutionalize brutality as an acceptable response don't be surprised when you find those so habituated don't particularly respect you and yours...
One would be better served to read my words in context. The period I was referring to was largely that preceding my employment with the LASD. I had friends who, having indulged more libertine philosophies, paid the attendent price for them. Their horror stories helped keep my ass out of trouble. After getting hired, I'd also heard enough stories about cops who did street justice and paid for it. But I also knew that much of the respect given me was due to the men who'd worn the uniform before me. If you'd really wanted to do your homework, you could have contacted me, or researched the Police magazine archives online. The point of the piece wasn't to glorify the occasional vigilantism associated with l.e., but to call the news media on the carpet for REPEATEDLY playing the same incident over and over. The fact that you're more concerned about the idiot that got thumped than the state of affairs in this country is less an indictment on me than your own sense of skewed priorities.
I read your words in context, Scoville. They're indefensible. If you want to now represent yourself as saying something other than what you said, that's fine by me. Your own department dismisses you as a noise-making blowhard. I'll take their word for it.
That you think this means I am more concerned with violent criminals shows you to be the one who does not read in context. Either that or you're a liar. I'm against ALL violent criminals, but am especially opposed to those drawing government paychecks.
"Respect given" you? Good God, man, get over yourself. Besides, I think you mean "fear."
Guess what--that's not working any more for a lot of us. And whatever good officers are left have the thugs-- and their cheerleaders like you-- to thank for it.
"Noise making blowhard"? Interesting. I guess that was why Sheriff Lee Baca bestowed the Medal of Valor on me; certainly, it accounts for the numerous other awards and commendations during my tenure with the department. But yours is one of those "have you stopped beating your wife" type appraisals. Care to make an attribution for it? My words in the article are defensible. Where you went wrong is in assuming I was a perpetrator of such doing's. I've news for you: I wish there were no such things as laws, for as it's been said, good men don't need them, and bad men won't abide by them. But the reality is that in the absence of those laws, anarchy would reign. And if you'd read the piece on working with bad cops, you'd realize that I don't want them working in law enforcement. But perhaps I give you too much credit - any reading impairment on your part wouldn't be without precedent, now would it? in a lingua franca of your understanding, "Good God, man, get over yourself."
well Mr. Scoville, when you were quoted with "There was a time when post pursuit ass-kickings were obligatory. Cops knew it, suspects knew it, and there are enough old timers on both sides of the fence that will verify the assertion when I say that what this officer did was NOTHING compared to what would have happened in another place and time...
But frankly, I’m nostalgic for the days when the pursued feared the judicial system if for nothing but the inevitable ass-kicking and street justice."
just what was it that you were trying to advocate? say it straight and plain on here so there can be no more ambiguity.
It was the OIR attorney I spoke with--who checked your record against your words-- who used the term "puffery" in regards to your post.
As for misunderstanding what you said, I hope it's just an oversight that my link to your piece produces a run time error? I've linked to the Google cache version over at WarOnGuns where people can read your column for themselves.
I can understand your nostalgia though, and your disdain for...what was it you said? "the f___g news media that's putting the boot to our collective heads because of it."
Nice turnaround. The aggressor becomes the victim. Your pals use real force, we use words and we're the brutes.
Readers: I also recommend William Norman Grigg's June 8 column "And We, Like Sheep" on LewRockwell.com --Examiner doesn't let us link in comments, so Google it.
As I pointed out in a recent column, LEOs tend to vastly overestimate their importance to regular people. And then they get hurt feelings when we don't worship them as the gods they think they are.
I would MUCH prefer anarchy to the chaos-by-government we have now. The "shooting it out in the streets" boogeyman is what the thugs want us to believe would happen if we finally get around to firing the government. Or maybe they are threatening us with what they intend to do if we fire them and their employer.
At some point, saturating the airwaves with such imagery becomes inflammatory, and fodder for those who would justify the murders of officers such as those of Oakland officers by Lovelle Mixon. It also plants the seed for potential riots as in the wake of the Rodney King incident. It would be intellectually and morally disningenuous not to acknowledge that whatever one's take of the use of force involved, the news media, self-proclaimed community activists, and clergy (!) fanned the flames that literally and figuratively consumed the lives of at least 57 people.
Admittedly, my points could have been made in a manner that would have been both more succinct and subtler. And in that regard, I did not rise above the media I was taking to task. But then, that's the chameleon in me asserting itself again.
As far as someone who has never worked with me appraising my career...?
In deference to character limitations herein, I am posting out of sequence so that my points may be read in a linear manner. And as your latest comment was temperate, I will extend you the same courtesy. But then, when it comes to the tone of an exchange, I'm a chameleon: I mirror my environment.
To some extent, you are bearing the brunt of some frustration I've had with others who have taken my words out of context. For instance, other blogs quoted me as saying that "the *only* thing he was guilty of..." Point in fact, I said *one" thing he was guilty of, thereby implicitly acknowledging that he might have been guilty of other transgressions. The catalyst for the piece was the incessant re-broading of the incident (something that at least did not reach the epochal levels seen with MJ coverage). Should the incident be covered? Yes. But over and over, for days on end? No.
I, for one, don't think that the coverage is the problem. Does anyone really think that this is the first time that this officer has engaged in this type of behavior? I don't. I just think that this is the first time it has been bone in full public view. How many other officers have been witness to this type of behavior and kept their mouths shut. All one has to do is to look at the number of officers that have taken to this thug's defense. Is this really a rare event? Or is reporting of this kind of incident what is rare?
<i>"While the comments made by the author of the artice are certainly inappropriate"</i>
May I gently remind you, Mr. Scoville, that Mr. Gennaco of the Los Angeles Office of Independent Review sides with Mr. Codrea and not yourself?
I, too, have read your writings in context, and I am appalled that you continue to defend them publicly. I haven't seen such outrageously thuggish behavior openly and proudly boasted about in quite some time, and I research this topic on a regular basis.
You would do well to quit while you're far behind, Mr. Scoville.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much...
Got something to say?
Examiner.com is looking for writers, photographers, and videographers to join the fastest growing group of local insiders. If you are interested in growing your online rep apply to be an Examiner today!