...or Uncorrupt Police at Least...

For those that have not heard, there was a leaked video the other day of a bunch of abusive cops beating the eff out of a 15-year old robbery suspect.  If you have not seen the video, please don't.  It will only piss you off and hopefully make you sick as it did for me.

This is one of the major problems with positions of power.  It is because of crap like this that people have lost respect for police officers as a whole.  The police are supposed to love and know their community along with trying to keep the peace.  Even if you are the worst of the worst suspect for the worst of the worst crime, you still have Constitutional and Human rights.

Not all police are bad, but not all police are good either.  There is a song that this reminded me of called "Williamsburg Will Oldham Horror" by Jeffrey Lewis.  Jeffrey is one of my favorite singer/songwriters and when I am constantly amazed with how much insight he can put into a song.  In this particular song he is writing about his feelings of failure as a musician along with insight of other good things to do for the world.  There is a line where he says that we should strive to better humanity through a variety of professions, one of which is being "uncorrupt police at least".

That is the key there.  Uncorrupt police...at least.  As a bear minimum.  The police departments tend to hate the officers that work in internal security because they tend to believe that the ISS officers are after them.  They are just trying to do their job in keeping the police as honest as possible.  This is a noble cause and one of the hardest jobs out there I believe.  These officers are under attack and internally threatened by the people that are supposed to be protecting society.  It is a sad state of affairs when police get so power hungry that they will do anything to hold on to their status.  I recommend an episode of This American Life where they talked about a police officer in Chicago that was under attack by his own unit for trying to keep people in line.

I have known a lot of police officers and most of them were good, or at least were trying to be, but I also know of a long drawn out story about corrupt police in my home town.  These police were being fed by the dealers to overlook things.  Not one, but three separate privet investigations have told everyone the same thing and even police from other counties have said that they will not work with my home town sheriffs because they are in line with the dealers.  This went as far as not to bring justice for the death of a young man, ruled an "accidental death" when all evidence pointed to a savage beating and manslaughter.  Those people were never brought to justice because of local law enforcement.

These issues are what cause disdain at power and government.  Whether or not it is true, the story lives on and the people due nothing to try to discount it.  They just ignore the feelings and will of the people because they have no real obligation to do otherwise.

I am getting upset now and I think it is time for me to stop with this line of thought.  Below is the video for the song I was mentioning.  Please take note, listen to the words, and hopefully you are as amazed as I am at the amount of, well, just stuff he fits into one song.

  

EDIT:  As you may have seen in the previous post, we here have a new writer from the Northern Nevada area named Justin Mason.  I want to thank Justin for joining us and he will be posting on a normal basis.  Everyone, please take the time to read his works and comment on them.  Thanks Justin and I hope you have a good time here with us!