Popehat

A Group Complaint about Law, Liberty, and Leisure

A Backwards Tribal Society That Glorifies Violence And Personal Honor Over Due Process

by

2013:

nypost

A group of Al Qaeda-linked Syrian rebels beheaded a fighter then triumphantly waved his head in the air as a trophy — only to discover the poor guy was actually one of their own, London’s The Telegraph reports.

2009:

washingtonpost

On a dead-end street, police believed they had cornered one of the suspects. They pummeled him before he uttered a word, using a baton, fists, and boot-laden feet. The "suspect" spurted blood, dropped to the cold ground, tried to get up, only to be beaten more. His gurgling words were unintelligible through blood and pain.

The "suspect" was actually Michael Cox, a decorated undercover police officer who had himself been in pursuit of the suspects, had even been in the lead chase vehicle.

One only hopes the jihadis have good union lawyers.

boston.com

BOSTON POLICE Officer David Williams is carving out an interesting career path for himself: He gets fired for using excessive force or lying to investigators, takes a breather from police work, and then gets reinstated with back pay by a labor arbitrator. Nice work if you can get it…

This isn’t new territory for Williams. He was fired in 1999 during the fallout over the beating and abandonment of plainclothes officer Michael Cox, who was mistaken for a shooting suspect following a high-speed pursuit. In 2005, an arbitrator overturned that termination and awarded Williams about $550,000

(By the way, I really really promise to write some non-police-oriented blog posts soon. Forgive me – this snark is delicious; so sweet and so cold.)

Last 5 posts by Clark

Comments

  1. One can only hope that the arbitrator & the bad cop find themselves at the end of a dead-end street one day under the similar circumstances someday.

  2. What is the point of having punishments for misconduct when they are rarely ever applied to those with "power"?
    There is always a board or "impartial" group to poo poo the acts, that if they had been done by regular people would land them in jail for a very long time?
    Does sending someone to jail "forever" for having some narcotics, when police can act at executioners and face… loss of vacation days?

  3. I actually far prefer your posts poking fun at people more powerful than you (cops) to those poking fun at those less powerful than you (the poor). Please post about cops as much as you want.

  4. @Nathaniel: I wouldn't quite say this is "poking fun". My response here was not exactly a laugh.

  5. Perhaps by putting into power those who have been at the wrong end of misconduct, change will come. From the Washington Post article:

    Mike Cox, who declined to comment, is now 44 years old. He and his wife have three children. Cox returned to the police department. He is now assistant chief of the Bureau of Professional Standards. The Department of Internal Affairs, which failed to bring his abusers to justice, falls under his leadership.

  7. If I recall the Michael Cox case correctly, Williams was punished because he continued to follow the real suspect, climbed a fence, and continued the chase. In the investigation, he said he did not see other police officers beating Cox, although he would have had to pass them. He was punished for not seeing something, (he was charged with perjury), but the police who beat Cox walked and were not punished.

  8. nlp:

    I think it was Kenny Conley who was charged with perjury (and was convicted, but had his conviction overturned on appeal). But you are correct; none of the other cops, including Williams, were punished for beating Cox.

    There's a very good book by Dick Lehr, "The Fence" about the Michael Cox case.

    Also, I didn't know this until yesterday, but Michael Cox Jr., rookie running back for the NY Giants, is Michael Cox's son.

  9. Dwight, thanks for the clarification. I knew someone was punished for not seeing the beating (the "ball passing while a gorilla wanders by" test has confirmed that someone who is very focused doesn't always see something odd that is right in front of him) but I did remember that no one was punished for beating Cox.

  12. From reading The Whistleblower I got the impression that most of the people kicked out of the police force due to ethics violations or criminal misconduct moved on to work in various foreign countries telling the locals how to conduct themselves as LEOs..

  15. I don't think we should blame the labor law Arbitrator.
    If Williams had been properly convicted of a felony (or crime), the arbitrator would have found that a felon cannot serve in the police, and fired him.

  16. Its only when real heinous things occur to police officers that their departments and their unions leave them high and dry. See example of my cousin's husband who was hit by a car while directing traffic after a major storm and power outage.

    The department refused him workman's comp even though he was injured in the line of duty and then refused him long term disability, even though he suffered long term injuries including brain damage.

    He eventually got limited workman's comp restored to him after suing. He did not get long term disability on a technicality (apparently he was a few weeks short of having enough service with the department to qualify). He hasn't had a steady job (anywhere) in about 15 years now as a result.

    The union told him to go take a hike.

    As a note, it was a hit and run and no one ever found the driver; which was part of why the department told him "sucks to be you" as no witnessed stayed and they accused him of negligence. Which was their word against his and with no one to back him up. Union told him to screw off for the same reason. It was someone who came upon him 5 minutes after he was hit who bothered to call an ambulance.