Veracity of the Official Police Version and Public Confidence in Justice

From the always excellent Rich Lord in the Post-Gazette:

A 2010 incident that pitted police against police is now the subject of a lawsuit in which an Allegheny County officer said that Springdale Borough officers roughed him up, baselessly charged him and lied about it all.

The complaint, filed today in U.S. District Court by county Officer Ray Hrabos, said that Springdale Officer Mark Thom pulled a gun on him and pushed him into a snow bank during a brief dispute over a blocked street. Another Springdale officer later filed charges against Officer Hrabos, most of which were dismissed at the district judge level. The last charge -- disorderly conduct -- was thrown out and mocked by a judge on appeal.

"If this can happen to Officer Hrabos, then who among us is safe from police officers who are willing to lie?" asked attorney Timothy P. O'Brien, who is representing the officer. "Any citizen can be in the same context as Officer Hrabos, where two or three police officers or public officials can fabricate charges if they're willing to state something that wasn't true."

Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Robert Gallo dismissed the disorderly conduct charge on appeal, telling both sides the matter "should have been settled that night. ... This is insane to come down here on this case. Just insane to even bring it here, this far."

Officer Hrabos said he was not worried about being ostracized for suing other officers. "Wrong is wrong, and this needs to be righted," he said.

The Jordan Miles case is about the same thing: integrity of the official version, a citizen's rights, and the (public servant vs military) police orientation.

Increasingly, people are being mistreated by police in the same shameful way that blacks have been mistreated for a long time. Now they're even treating cops like they mistreat black people. I've said it before; in today's environment, increasingly we are all black Palestinians, and maybe we're going to discover what all that noise was about.

Are we all Black and Palestinian Now?

Maybe this happens to hipsters as they grow up age - you think you've encountered something new and obscure, you're really on to a new niche here, and then you learn that all those old people down at the senior center have known about this since like forever. Sort of like my Dad drinking PBR.

Say you're a privileged mainstreamer - you're the norm, plus/minus one standard deviation. Bad things are happening to another, smaller group in society. Do you respond? Do you resist? Or, if it doesn't affect you directly and you're busy, do you move along?



These bad patterns persist for decades. The malefactors become more rigid in their behavior, and as they train the successive generations those habits become dogma. Sheriff Jim Clark trains Deputy Inspector Tony Bologna in the way things really work, and they themselves are dehumanized by the experience.



Is it possible that after 50 years, the abuse of the minority becomes so accepted that, under stress, the power structure extends it to the majority? Does the military training, equipment, and mindset given to once-civilian police departments after 9/11 accelerate the trend?

... this sort of abusive behavior is reported routinely by people of color and by people of lower economic status. Yet their complaints are routinely dismissed or ignored in the media. Sometimes it takes middle and upper class white people getting hurt to get the media moving (Fallows)

Congratulations. Post 9/11, now we're all Black. And Palestinian.

Not to say that we're familiar with their issues, understand their culture, and can converse with them - nowhere near that.

But that cop/soldier, who's been treating Black people and Palestinian people that way for a long time, has reached a place where he's going to start treating you that way. Not all cops/soldiers, just the fringe. The Tony Bolognas and the John Pikes see you that way.

You think you've discovered a new problem, but "some people" have been dealing with it for a long time. Kind of educational, isn't it?

Gosh. If "we" had known back in the day, maybe we could have avoided this.

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A Countdown of Sorts: 7 Days and a WakeUp