The boot on your neck

I recommend reading this Seattle PI special report, Conduct Unbecoming Taxpayers Foot the Bill in small doses. I just started reading it, and I'm angry. I'm angry that these people were kept in their leo jobs and their transgressions were conveniently swept under the rug with "slap on the wrist" reprimands. I'm livid that these officers have been allowed to continue to harass and endanger people because of their falsely elevated stature in the community.

This isn't new, of course. We've seen it in other parts of the country. Look at the tragic events effecting Cory Maye, Salvatore Culosi and Lester Eugene Siler, among 100s of others (link and link); letting alleged police misconduct go uninvestigated, or underinvestigated, is a regular practice. No-knock raids, police brutality, raid deaths and potentially innocent people sentenced to death will continue to happen until the real criminals, these renegade officers, are made accountable for their crimes. I should rephrase that-- renegade is to good of a word to describe these types of folks--individuals that see themselves as the law and above the law at the same time. Hypocrites. The fact we're also shelling out copious amounts of money for their "service to the community" is a whole shaker of salt abrasively rubbed into the public's wound.

Another PI special report Conduct Unbecoming Citizens Take the Heat details several local cases of alleged retaliation against citizens who reported police misconduct. Three of the cases investigated involve the same deputy sheriff. Does this make you mad? I am upset and immersed in a huge sea of powerlessness. It's not right that these people continue to get the green light to make other people's-- people who had the audacity to say no to them--lives hell.