The War On The American People

Why American cops are evil:

Our Bill of Rights has been torn to shreds, and the cops have replaced it with their own Bill of Rights: the Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights (LEOBoR), which protects them from being subjected to the kinds of debilitating indignities heaped upon the average citizen.

I stole the title for my post from a book by John Whitehead linked at the bottom of his article: Battlefield America: The War On The American People

The LEOBoR was new news to me. It goes a long way in explaining why American cops have near total immunity for first degree homicide. The Counterpunch article also includes a number of examples of cops escaping punishment for being depraved predators.

Incredibly, while our own protections against government abuses continue to be dismantled, a growing number of states are adopting LEOBoRs—written by police unions—which provides police officers accused of a crime with special due process rights and privileges not afforded to the average citizen.

Without further ado, here are the special legal protections cops accused of crimes or misconduct are entitled to:

+ If a department decides to pursue a complaint against an officer, the department must notify the officer and his union.

+ The officer must be informed of the complainants, and their testimony against him, before he is questioned.

+ During questioning, investigators may not harass, threaten, or promise rewards to the officer, as interrogators not infrequently do to civilian suspects.

+ Bathroom breaks are assured during questioning.

+ In Maryland, the officer may appeal his case to a “hearing board,” whose decision is binding, before a final decision has been made by his superiors about his discipline. The hearing board consists of three of the suspected offender’s fellow officers.

+ In some jurisdictions, the officer may not be disciplined if more than a certain number of days (often 100) have passed since his alleged misconduct, which limits the time for investigation.

+ Even if the officer is suspended, the department must continue to pay salary and benefits, as well as the cost of the officer’s attorney.

+ These LEOBoRs epitomize everything that is wrong with America today.

Lots more here:

https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/08/09/anything-goes-when-youre-a-cop-i...

John Whitehead's article links to an Huff post articles written in 2015:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7153106

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If the politicians and oligarchs piss off the cops, who will lock up and beat the citizenry?

A good cop is worth his weight in gold. A bad cop can sink ten of them. Unfortunately for us, bad cops are the rule and not the exception.

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"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Meteor Man's picture

@dkmich Or so they say. What they forget to mention is that those few bad apples ruin the whole barrel.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn