"Free Pass" Clan Systems and Un Constitutional Perspectives of Policing in American Society

What I find most interesting about this local system of justice is that they are slow to act on what appears to be crimes against others. Whether elderly, children, the sick, minorities, or anything else they seem to have signed up for the Code Blue "free pass" for what looks like cleansing behaviors. I believe they do not want to investigate these behaviors because they have officers involved and they don't want them to have their lives ruined (I do not want to ruin their lives either, however we have to protect the public and correct obvious dangerous deficiencies and misalignment of values/loyalties. There will be differences between mistakes and intentional mistakes and I believe stakeholders want to know those differences. You have to start with accountability.). 

As a side thought. If these department heads are aware their officers are committing crimes and they are aware that they are giving free pass to other crimes because of marriage and close relationships we have a major problem on our hands. While its possible they have been doing this for years, no one ever challenged them and the ones that did may have received retaliatory justice (i.e. the rumor of an underaged intoxicated girl having sex in the back of a cop car that was then stalked by a number officers until she killed herself and named one or more officers in her suicide note. There was kind of another pattern that formed in another situation where officers might have been afraid to get in trouble and used the same stalking/targeting behaviors which might be an indication of the potential truthfulness of that rumor). 

It makes you wonder whether these officers and their departments are willing to stand up for our most basic American principles and ensure they are doing things fairly and in the best interest of the public in mind. Some of these officers appear to have chosen their homogenous clan over the principles of our people and in turn were allowed to continue to commit these crimes with awareness of other officers (immunity), the department heads and I suspect higher (It may be possible to build a case all the way up the chain)

Keep in mind that when officials know a crime has been committed and/or is occurring they have a responsibility to investigate and come to an impartial conclusion (Which I do not believe anyone locally is able to make decisions over these issues anymore. As an example a lack of reporting hate crimes). If they fail because they don't want their fellow clan members to be held to account, but are willing to put the outcomes of such crimes minorities and victims of our society, then their role as officers in society has become confused. They have in effect broke an important social contract that ties to our Constitution and core as a nation. It is incumbent on the rest of the system to hold them to account. 

Likewise, if there are rogue networks of officers and their clan associates are unconcerned about the Constitution and its protection (I think some of these officers mock civil liberties and rights in their extremist leaning perspectives. Some of their friends have made jokes about my "nigga baby" children and even yelled out "Your father is a bitch" or something similar to my kids. There have been other behaviors that lack of human dignity and devaluing of life. Intentional acts of cruelty that like came from psychopath origins. None of these seem to count in the local system.) they are in the wrong line of business and constitute an unchecked and unmitigated risk. The worst thing we can go do is give officers who don't respect our laws a badge and a gun. Seriously, think about the type of person and personality we need policing. If true, I don't believe we need their kind (There have been other complaints of rudeness and aggressiveness during traffic stops against locals; doesn't appear related to minorities alone. There os a lack of mechanisms for managing the "magical badge" syndrome where weaker personalities and poor values use the badge as a way to project power without respecting where that symbolic power comes from. These are often the root behaviors that lead to clan based corruption we may be seeing here. We need better mechanisms of reporting and ensuring they follow up. Foot dragging and protecting ones social networks seem to take more precedence in some instances than the needs of the community and nation. Thus, because of a lack of meaningful addressing such issues these complaints should be formal and public even if the specific names are redacted. There should be some reporting requirement of officer complaints and determination of any patterns of poor behavior. i.e. multiple complaints about similar thing.)

Without account it is a statement about the what kind of nation and people we are and what kind of leadership we have. Its not the peoples fault we struggle to see the benefit of fair and impartial treatment and/or the universal application of justice within our systems. The people have the right to be protected against those who willfully violate the law. That becomes even more important for public servants. Throw the symbolism of the badge in there and they misuse the respect that is inherent from actions of the hundreds of thousands of officers who care about their communities and actually believe in "protect and serve". Its a good will symbol (We have to make an assumption here that crimes were committed. I believe they were and I would suspect they would say no. However, I think if you say no and it ends up being a big crime later, and they knew it, then I think the penalties should be higher.)

Good officers that care about their communities are an asset and in an noble profession. Extremist leaning and corrupt officers are a liability and should be removed promptly before they damage more innocent people. The system should be capable of recognizing the behavior, acting on it, and removing the risk.  That same logic applies to their clan associates and the one's who started the problem. We cannot allow criminal behavior to be unchecked just because of social networks.

Sometimes department heads and local systems don't correct these deficiencies on their own without additional prompting. This is why its not justice to allow department heads to be aware of problems and fail to correct to protect the public. I put together this little chart that is one way to ramp up the pressure moving from no/low crime awareness elements into the more core members of the group to create avenues by which they can report these networks that eventually leads to awareness, leverage and correction. 

Btw I support police 100% and Civil Rights 110%. I'm their best friend because unlike their leadership I will tell them when their wrong and have a problem (Like an alcoholic drunk off the feeling of misuse of community given power). I will help them correct like I would with my best friends. We are having a frank discussion and then I'm moving down the path of ensuring OUR American principles and the Constitution are followed wholeheartedly. 

A Few Ideas:

Transparency Improvement: Encourage people to report poor acting officers and appreciate good officers so as to encourage appropriate protect and serve perspective. That may also include posting the details of complaints on officers and using that as one metric of encouraging officers to act in good faith. Good or bad officers may also be highlighted in such systems. 

Lying and Leadership: If people are lying and if leadership is aware then I think this moves beyond simple criminality because they have in effect accepted that the inherent rights of the American populace is based on their ethnic homogenous clan membership. In other words, they have sworn a loyalty to something else. Reward those who tell the truth and throw out those who lie. 

Places to Check for Information:

1. Review arrest records and prior complaints. Look for disparities, patterns, issues of improper coordination, etc. It will depend on whether they are already transparent or they hide this information. Poor departments hide this information while good departments may adjust the information but also ensure the public is well aware of crime stats 

2. Check Promotions within Departments. Ensure promotion isn't related to clan membership, race/religion/ethnicity and social affiliation versus actual performance. 

3. Determine if they have underreported hate crime stats or if they failed to report hate crimes when it was obvious they should have. 

4. Internal complaints, investigations and results of those complaints. 

5. Social media critical of officers and see if others felt their rights were violated. I heard there were a number of videos up there. Saw a few about a month ago around Good Friday (It was a day they appeared to have used official government resources to enforce what appeared to be an indication of what religions the local law enforcement system will allow in the area. Something about their values was the impression I got. The ethnic-religious cleansing kind It appeared.)

6. Many many more. We just have to wait and see how this turns out. 

A Strategic Thought:

Getting other researchers involved in making an example case out of this might help sort of discover the "truth" behind the situation. Its a risk to do nothing and there should be a way to do this so it can help local police become batter at their jobs, reward those who do well, and remove those elements that are no longer constructive to the modern era (i.e. extremist leaning officers and clan affiliated members. Clan as defined as ethnically homogeneous affiliated group that coordinated in each other's best interested group. While that might be normal such clans can take a dark step when they view others of different races and religions as ultimately dangerous and of lower value then they see themselves. It makes it easy to exploit hate for destructive self gain through one's social networks.)

Two Studies and Their Implications:

The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States: The study helps us understand how important it is for police to work with integrity. The best way to combat corruption is a holistic approach and use of outside interview/investigations. Improvements might include increases in pay, officer rotations, and other behaviors that increase loyalty to the country. The study is more about volatile environments but might be similar to time pressure and risk of also being caught for such behaviors. (In this case perhaps our Constitution and its essential values. We have to assume that they are more interested in taking care of their own and their fellow clan members then they are in protecting the public. If undeterred it may mean certain members are acting in their own self interest and have a formalizable group with boundaries. I can almost sketch some of the potential connections for future review.). 

A couple of concerns came up. If there is decisions being made to support one's group, clan, etc. as based in federal violations we might see markers of that in the public. It is possible if there is corruption involved. 

I took the following as a quote from the publication. 

-Corruption of authority—attaining perks without contravening the law, such as receiving free meals, beverages, and services.

-Kickbacks—money, services, or goods obtained for business referrals promoting a company or individual.

-Opportunistic theft—stealing from people who have been arrested, engaged in accidents, or from victims or deceased persons.

Turning a blind eye—bribes undertaken for omitting a felony, arrest, or seizure of property.

Protection of illegal activities—protecting criminal groups or individuals engaged in illegal practices, such as protection rackets (drugs, gambling, and prostitution rings) in vice areas.

Fixing—undermining criminal investigation or deliberately losing traffic or speeding tickets.

Direct criminal activities—engaging in a crime against an individual or property to attain individual advantage.

Internal payoffs—when promotions, annual leave, and shift allocations are bought, traded, and vended.
Adding or planting of evidence—when evidence is planted to frame an individual or group, which is usually within drug cases

Police Corruption: An Analytical Look into Police Ethics  The article discusses some of the causes of police corruption and the need to develop officers with character. However, without actually enforcing and expecting that character within their departments, promotions and activities one can say that they are likely to get the opposite. There is a reason why these rouge officers have been doing this for some time, a reason why they have not been held to account, and a reason they participated and/or stood by when different people were victimized. 

1. Prudence: the ability to discern between conflicting virtues and decide the best action to take
Trust: loyalty and truthfulness in relationships between officers and citizens, fellow officers, and supervisors

2. Effacement of self-interests: without this, officers may exploit their authority to further themselves

3. Courage: the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness

4. Intellectual honesty: not knowing something and being humble and courageous enough to admit it

5.Justice: not in its normal context, but, rather, adjusting what is owed to a particular citizen even when it may contradict what is strictly owed

6. Responsibility: intending to do the right thing, clearly understanding what the right thing is, and being fully aware of other alternatives that may exist; taking responsibility, rather than finding excuses for mistakes or poor judgment