A POLICE OFFICER SPEAKS
OUT!
I read with
interest some of the articles distributed by you regarding the LA Police
Rampart scandal. In particular, the "technicalities" mentioned by Mr. Lindner
in his article about the dysfunctional system have been ignored by police
everywhere as a matter of practice for many years. As
a former Orange County, California, police officer in the early '70's it
was encouraged and, therefore common, practice to write police reports
reflecting an arrest as it should have been made according to the textbook
"technicalities" and not as it actually occurred. Even back then, although
a far simpler era, police were NOT taught to NOT violate the public's Constitutionally
protected rights but to be efficient in police tactics at virtually any
cost. Then lie as much as necessary and write the arrest report so as to
secure a conviction in court. Especially
military-like was the LA Sheriff's academy , of which I was a graduate.
It was their method to first aggressively break you down mentally and physically
before beginning to restructure your thinking as well as your values. No
mention of respect for the public or peoples God given rights was ever
made. Recruits were reshaped mentally with the "it's them against us" style
of teaching. I
have no doubt that today's recruit, partially de-mented and anti-social
to begin with, usually of a military background, is molded into a pure
"enforcement" machine ignorant of common law or its history, but well versed
in statutes and the revenue-raising opportunities they provide. Also the
bar for qualifications has been lowered to virtually non existent requirements.
Today an overweight, short lesbian with a criminal record can become a
cop in many jurisdictions; what kind of bias could she have in "enforcing"
the "law"? In
earlier, more sane times, a city formed it's Department for Public Safety
which was truly charged with the safety and protection of the public. Today's
police departments and their "enforcement" officers are primarily revenue
raising tools. All of us have experienced a lack of attention to true crimes
while non-victim but revenue generating statutory violations mostly committed
by accidentally errant law abiding people are attacked with fierce vigor. Over
the years, the courts, instead of protecting the peoples right to have
justice for all, have merely capitulated to the demand to quash the people
and their rights in order to have ever more compliant public ever-ready
to be monetarily fleeced by a voracious bureaucracy. There is truly no
more justice or law in ANY court. And we, the People, have docily accepted
that metamorphosis. Police
Officer H. Johns (Ret.)