America is a country of tradition and pageantry, You stand for the pledge, you never let the flag touch the ground. You always respect and thank the military, firefighters and police. It's the way it's always been, and with good reason. I remember 9/11, and more recently Pulse. I remember seeing the images of police offices and firefighters carrying out the injured and running into danger. I remember watching thousands of brave souls perish in seconds when the towers came down. We should all be thankful that we have people that are willing to risk everything to protect and serve us. But that does not make those people invulnerable to scrutiny, or to consequence. When it comes to our police force, it's becoming more and more apparent everyday that those consequences and accountability has been sorely lacking, and it's coming at the cost of the lives they swore to protect.
On January 22nd, 2018, the trial of Detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor began in U.S. District Court. Detectives Hersl and Taylor were members of Baltimore's Gun Trace Task Force. They along with six other members were federally indited on charges of racketeering conspiracy, robbery and possession of a firearm in a crime of violence. Allegedly, the former task force members engaged in extreme abuses of power between the years 2014-2016. They would target people and take money from them, which they would keep.
In the biggest incident, they pulled over and seized $6500 dollars from a man, then went to his home, entered without a warrant, and took $100,000 from the man's safe. Detective Taylor is said to have created a fake cell phone video on Taylor's phone that shows them "discovering" the money when in reality they had already taken over half of the money for themselves. They would interview suspects and gain information on potential targets, then head to their homes and enter and seize funds and drugs illegally, which again they would keep for themselves. Arguably most troubling, officers have gone on record as saying that they were instructed by their supervisors to keep toy guns with them at all times, just in case they have to justify shooting someone who is unarmed.
What happened in Baltimore, while shocking, isn't something that really surprises anyone especially the people the department is said to serve. In an interview with "The Baltimore Sun", Christopher Ervin, who runs the re-entry group The Lazusus Rite, said that when he spoke to people in the black community in Baltimore, they weren't shocked but he heard "a chorus of, ‘We’ve been saying that.’" This isn't "news" to anyone there. In 2011, Baltimore was again in the news as 17 officers were initially indicted in a extortion scheme involving a tow truck company. But it isn't only Baltimore's problem. In December of 2017 3 officers in Detroit were charged with assault. In Utah, four jail officers and the former county sheriff were charged with criminal misconduct, allegedly using tasers on inmates as apart of initiation and using them to teach K9's for the field.
A study was conducted by researchers at Bowling Green State University and funded by the National Institute of Justice to look into just how many officers are arrested for crimes they are supposed to enforce. Researchers found that 5,545 sworn officers nationwide had been arrested between 2005 and 2011, with a staggering 41% of them being charged for crimes committed while on duty. 2,586 of those officers were arrested in regards to charges labeled as "violence based crimes" by the study, which was the highest among the groups. The second highest was "profit based crimes."
Now, I know what you may be thinking. "But that's such a small piece of the pie" or " Well there are plenty of officers out there who do the right thing and our heroes!" I agree with you 100%, and if you truly believe in what you are saying, this should outrage you the most. Because every one of those officers in the 41% I mentioned above, every detective in the Baltimore scandal is making the job more thankless, and more dangerous for the good guys. For the police officers that take pride in their work, and don't abuse their power at the expense of others. In Baltimore and similar areas where police scandals have gone hand in hand with gang violence and high crime areas, and that's a recipe for disaster for all involved. The only difference? The good guys should be putting people in handcuffs, not being placed in them themselves.
There is no easy answer to this problem. How do you stop bad people from becoming police officers? How do you regulate everyone all the time? How do you properly police the police while also making sure all of their protocols do everything they can to protect the officers from harm?
These are questions that are difficult to answer but desperately need to be. The reasonable people on both sides of this issue can agree on one thing though, the lives and safety of good upstanding police officers and innocent citizens should be our top priority. Police corruption and misconduct is a direct detriment to both. We need to come together on these issues and work things out.
Saying "All these people are criminals anyway, they deserve what they get" is not the answer. Neither is "All cops are bad people, we shouldn't trust any of them." Those are both stupid, childish answers that have led us to this point in the world.
We are allowed to question are heroes. We SHOULD be questioning our heroes. Because that is the only way to PROTECT our heroues.