Majority Polled Believe Cops Unaccountable For Their Wrongdoing

Reason-Rupe Poll: Half of Americans Think Cops Not Held Accountable

 

 

 

 

 

” The April 2014 Reason-Rupe poll found that half of Americans think law enforcement officers are not held accountable for misconduct. That number rises to 64 percent for Hispanics and 66 percent for African Americans.

Do you think police officers are generally held accountable for misconduct, or not?

• Yes: 46 percent

• No: 50 percent

• Don’t know: 4 percent

  Police misconduct is reviewed through internal affairs investigations, a process that has officers investigating other officers. In February 2013, Los Angeles Police Department officer Sunil Dutta wrote in the Washington Post about his time working as an internal affairs investigator. Dutta criticized the process, saying that it didn’t help a community’s perception of the police and didn’t help officers either:

  [When] I interviewed community members who had filed complaints against officers, I was disappointed to learn that, despite my reassurances and best efforts to conduct impartial inquiries, many complainants believed that a fair investigation was simply not possible. Nor do misconduct investigations satisfy a skeptical public. If an officer is exonerated, the community often believes that malfeasance is being covered up.

 

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Airsoft Playing Teens Know Rights Better Than Cops But Get Arrested Anyway

Taped Confrontation Between Teens, Police Leads To Arrest, Questions About First Amendment Rights

 

 

 

 

” A video taped confrontation between teenagers and police led to an arrest and questions about a person’s first amendment rights.

  It all started when a group of teenagers were on a field in Radcliff playing a military style game of airsoft.

  A neighbor called the Radcliff Police Department, “I didn’t hear no weapons fire or anything like that,” the caller is heard telling the operator. “They may have been paintball rifles, I don’t know but it seemed odd,” she said.

” The officers they came out of the trees with their assault rifles and I was right over there,” Anderson recalled.

  A GoPro camera was recording, when an officer noticed it he asked them to shut it off.

  Seaman, who was next to the camera, told Anderson, “You don’t have to.”

  The officer is then heard in the video saying to Seaman, “You want to go to jail friend?”

  When Seaman did not give the officer his name, he was arrested.

” It sounds like a possible retaliation by police, retaliation is a strong word, but that’s what it is,” First Amendment expert Attorney Jon Fleischaker said.”

 

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