Dunphy generally objects to the ridiculous accusations hurled at good law enforcement officers in the LAPD (the “O.J. was framed!” crowd was a big target). Okay, he and I might disagree on where the line between “good” and “bad” officers should be drawn, but even someone (like myself) who is very suspicious of over-reaching police powers has to acknowledge that that there is a cadre of anti-police activists who tend to regard any crime prevention as a gross violation of civil rights.

I want the police to come down hard on violent offenders; it’s the job they’re supposed to do. I don’t want the police to execute 3am, no-knock warrants against some guy with a couple of pot plants. But you know what? Cops have to enforce the laws they don’t agree with. It’s up to us to get the bad laws changed.

There’s balls and then there’s stupid. You went to the limit of balls. Stupid just get you screwed (read: arrested, shot, etc.)

Self-preservation doesn’t disqualify the balls-y-ness of this heroic act. Live to fight another day and all that.

Let me add some more highfives to the pile, and a few hip-hip-hoorays for good measure.

[The officer performing the "investigation"] told me that the cop (Torres) told a different story than mine and that his recommendation was to find the complaint “false” (or some thing equivalent to “false”- he could have recommended a finding of “unsupported” which would have meant there just wasn’t enough evidence to find the claim “supported). The investigator also told me that if he were the officer in question, he might well have arrested me for interfering with investigation/arrest of the pedestrian[....]

Just in case there was any doubt about the objectivity of these investigations or any hope that the investigator was a “good cop” who would be willing to stand against one of his fellows doing wrong.

Once again, you really don’t get far dealing with authority types unless you have video of the incident. Unless it is flat out obvious the officer is lying, the “official process” will take his word about his own wrongdoing over a normal citizen’s. (And, of course, even video isn’t a magic bullet when it comes to getting real accountability from the system, but at least it helps educate the general public about what really goes on.)

Are you sure it’s not Ignatius J. Reilly?

wriley@cityofno.com

designating or of forces working along with, or in place of, a regular military organization, often as a semiofficial or secret auxiliary.

I believe this reflects many cops’ mindset, and I believe it to be unacceptable. When you couple their eagerness to commit violence with their desire to conceal their identity, you have a disaster.

‘Paramedic’ is a reasonable parallel.

Referenced in comments for the previous Wexler article:
Rafael Goyeneche, president of the Metropolitan Crime Commission said that the police ARE a paramilitary organization.

A few days ago a baptist minister was gunned down by plain-clothes cops, very likely because he did not recognize them as cops.

Our commander-in-chief has said that combatants not in uniform are terrorists.

Shall we connect the dots?