There is just so much wrong with this...

[Fn-P9]

I like the tv show COPS







I wonder if COPS compensate the people they show on TV. To my knowledege they have to. Anytime the camera focuses the viewer to your image, be it your face or store-front sign, money is paid. Did the TV producers try to pay her too little?

 

[jpk1md]

Hypothetical situation.

Above mentioned dynamic entry happens in the middle of the night on the WRONG LOCATION.....property owner I believe has reasonably cause to fear for life (yes/no) and acts to protect self and family.....in process LEO's are injured/killed.

Its a situation where even if they ID selves in this day/age it may not be unreasonable to believe that they are thugs posing as police....it has certainly happened before.

What do you see as the outcome both short and long term, criminal and civil.

 

[pacodelahoya]

Depends on the state. Happened in Florida, guy was aquitted. Happened in Jew jersey, guy's on death row. I'm sure someone here will provide a link to the particulars.

 

[JCF]

I'd agree with you - if this wasn't already a circus.
Everything I know about the police, I learned from the police.
Here, I learned that the police are for sale.
That puts any commission of error in a very different perspective for me.

Television programs such as the one referenced would indicate that some police departments have indeed put themselves up for sale. It's a very sad thing. It is hardly shocking however considering how far entertainment media has permeated into previously forbidden territory.

As far as accuracy is concerned however, police departments have no mystical exemption from the commission of errors or misconduct. Mistakes such as this one happen. This particular one simply occurred within a broader context of distatsteful behavior and was publicized.

The mistake is unacceptable as far as I am concerned... but it is not surprising. Certainly no more acceptable nor surprising than a surgical error or the like. What truly iritates me more than the error is the Muncie PD's decision to participate in the television program. That, in my opinion, defies reasonable explanation.

 

[Beatnik]

It is hardly shocking however considering how far entertainment media has permeated into previously forbidden territory.

Perhaps, but you're missing what I implied to be the truly shocking part of all of this.

At no point in my life have I heard a law enforcement officer decry any of these shows. Wait, I take that back on a technicality. My father declared COPS to be crap when he first saw it, but he was in the Coast Guard and most people don't know they're LEO's.

Just as when gun owners sit back and allow people like Christian Trejbal to equate gun owners with sex offenders they implicitly agree with his position, so do silent law enforcement officers implicitly agree with other departments selling their services to TV.

Maybe honest cops make honest mistakes. But I'll tell you what - I haven't heard any kind of uproar from honest cops saying how these shows make them all look like complete buffoons or thugs for sale to whoever has a TV camera and a checkbook.

Then again, maybe if they stopped spending all their free time getting telemarketers to sell me bumper stickers they could concentrate on making the public a little more understanding of how tough their job really is.

Honest cops are wrapped up in a negative image created by the ones for sale. That image is here to stay until the honest cops say something about it. If they want to go back to getting kittens out of trees, they could start by doing something other than defending these slimeballs.

 

[Geno]

Was there not a recent case of errant address recently, in which an elderly woman (93ish years) fired on the what-she-believed-theives (SWAT). Of course, she was wrong...they were not thieves. They too were wrong...in the wrong address. As I recall, they shot and killed her, correct?

Errors will happen. SWATs will enter errant addresses. Homeowners will defend themselves against perceived intruders. Gangs are purchasing police attire to and fake badges imitating police. This is all a recipe for trouble. Perhaps we should all vote to abolish the 2nd so that such agencies can abuse innocent people without fear.

By the way, the sole excuse (not reason) for errors of this nature are negligence. Reason means reasonable. There is nothing reasonable about failing to identify one's target in a SWAT-raid, anymore than there is reason for not identifying one's target in the field while hunting. Thank-God for juries.

 

[JCF]

At no point in my life have I heard a law enforcement officer decry any of these shows.

Well… I don’t know how many law enforcement officers you associate with. I can assure you that there are plenty who do not approve.

Just as when gun owners sit back and allow people like Christian Trejbal to equate gun owners with sex offenders they implicitly agree with his position, so do silent law enforcement officers implicitly agree with other departments selling their services to TV.

Police culture tends not to be effusive; certainly not in the same way as gun culture. There are some psychological and sociological factors surrounding this.

Further, silence no more implies agreement among police officers than it does amongst any other profession. It is an asinine assertion. I do not hear a rush of dissent from the medical professions regarding the barbary perpetrated by the surgeons creating freakish breast augmentation for the porn industry. I do not hear any tremendous expressions of affront from the behavioral sciences field regarding the degradation of humanity inflicted daily by Dr. Phil. Yet I am going to suggest very strongly that neither the AMA nor the APA condone this behavior, nor do the overwhelming majority of psychologists and physicians around the country.

Maybe honest cops make honest mistakes.

No maybes about it. Honest, dishonest, brilliant and dull police officers make mistakes. Just like everyone else. Some mistakes are less acceptable than others. They happen regardless.

Then again, maybe if they stopped spending all their free time getting telemarketers to sell me bumper stickers they could concentrate on making the public a little more understanding of how tough their job really is.

Yeah. Ok.

Honest cops are wrapped up in a negative image created by the ones for sale. That image is here to stay until the honest cops say something about it. If they want to go back to getting kittens out of trees, they could start by doing something other than defending these slimeballs.

I don’t see any major defenses being launched. And I don't hear any excuses. Just a lot of rocks being launched at the wind.

 

[Henry Bowman]

COPS (not the Armed and Famous thing) asked the Cincinnati Police Department to allow them to ride along and film. CPD said "no, we're above such showbiz." The local minority [self-declared] leadership made an uproar saying that Cincinnati was trying to hide its racist ways from public viewing.


You can't win. You can't break even. And you can't get out of the game.

 

[xd9fan]

Zero tolerance for a 6 year old using his fingers in the shape of a gun..........but this country tolerates this crap.....

 

[Speer]

Errors will happen. SWATs will enter errant addresses. Homeowners will defend themselves against perceived intruders. Gangs are purchasing police attire to and fake badges imitating police. This is all a recipe for trouble.

Right. It's what makes botched raids so devastating, and why those behind them to need to be severly punished.

Someone kicks in your door in the middle of the night, and you do the right thing and unleash the buckshot....and the intruder is a badge. You either end up dead or in prison. Yeah, that sounds like justice.

 

[Spreadfire Arms]

wait a minute here. we've all assumed that the police raided the wrong house. this is simply only what the lawsuit alleges.

did the police actually say they were at the wrong house, or is this just someone alleging the police were at the wrong house when in fact they were at the correct house? i really doubt if the police made such a blatant error that it would have aired in an episode?

i just didnt see anywhere where it said that the police actually were at the incorrect address....if someone could post a source cite stating that the police actually were at the incorrect address.

for example, the warrant paperwork said 123 Main St. and the cops raided 321 Main St., etc.

thanks.

 

[Liberal Gun Nut]

Yeah, why aren't these SWAT officers charged with terrorism charges? Seems like they tack terrorism charges onto a whole bunch of non-terrorism-related things these days, so why not do it here also?

 

[Lucky]

Doc, to be honest in that case the officers, and those whose circles they hung out in were lowlife lying scum. They'd been caught conspiring and perjuring before, and got away with it, even though they put a citizen in the hospital. Then they lied to a judge, lied on a warrant, shot an old lady, then tried to frame a snitch for giving them a bad tip. The snitch didn't want to take the rap, and told on them. God only knows how often they'd been lieing, and simply got away with it. Even the 'small amount of marijuana' they found at the scene is EXTREMELY suspect now. To sum it up, these guys were absolute scum. They are the textbook case of why gov't power should be constrained, but there are no systemic changes coming.

 

[Geno]

Thanks Lucky. Yes, that is the one I heard. Shocking...just shocking.