Ray Lewis: The major problem with policing in the United States begins before an officer is hired

[Fumesucker]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/Ex-Philly_police_captain_blasts_American_policing.html

A retired Philadelphia police captain is blasting U.S. policing, calling it “an oppressive organization now controlled by the one-percent of corporate America.”

Former Capt. Ray Lewis was in Ferguson, Mo., this week, demonstrating in uniform against the decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.

<snip>

The major problem with policing in the United States begins before an officer is hired, he said. Every recruit is put through a battery of tests, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test which is supposed to assess psychological fitness.

"One of the aspects of a personality is a degree of sensitivity and compassion," he said. "Unfortunately, they do not hire those people that score high on sensitivity. They reject them believing those people will quit because they can't handle the blood and guts on the street. They view that as wasted training money.

"What they don't realize is that hiring the insensitive individual is going to result in brutality cases, and when those cases go to court, that's where they lose millions," Lewis said. "It's pennywise and pound foolish."

[JonLP24]

1. I agree with that for the most part

I think the biggest problem is "nobel cause corruption"

Police corruption, traditionally, has been defined as the following:

"a misuse of authority by a police officer for personal gain,"4

"accepting money or money's worth to provide a service they are duty bound to provide,"5 or

"physical, psychological or legal abuse used by police."6

A recent survey demonstrated that officers felt corruption for personal gain was a much more serious charge than engaging in corrupt behavior that appears "to benefit society at large."7 This sub cultural value system rationalizes constitutional rights violations.

Officers do not normally define "a bending of the rules for a greater good" as misconduct or as corruption; rather, they rationalize that such behavior is part of the job description, in a utilitarian sense, to get the criminals off the streets, regardless of the means.8

When this passion for a safer society goes unchecked, it often leads to police crime and civil rights violation. This passion-laudable in itself-can cause good officers to overzealously execute their duties, ignore the basic constitutional guidelines their profession legally demands, and expose their agency to legal liability.

Officers rationalize this misconduct because cynicism has built up, the department lacks morale and leadership, and the individual lacks faith in the criminal justice system. In their attempts to make charges stick, officers may resort to "massaging" facts in order to get a felony warrant. For example, a department's sub cultural values may dictate always arresting "the driver" in a possession of stolen motor vehicle case, with anything less considered poor police work.

This example shows how overzealous officers rationalize: Several teens are driving around in a stolen motor vehicle, and the officers stop them. The young men jump out and run away, the officers chase them, and arrest only two passengers. Unfortunately, for the officers, neither of them was driving the vehicle. The officers file a report identifying one of the teens as driving and the other as possessing contraband found on the floorboard. The officers chalk up felony arrests and call it a productive night.

As written, supervisors would have no reason to question the officers' veracity and, indeed, would applaud the arrests. Ostensibly, this appears to be good police work: a recovered stolen auto, drug dealers or users off the street, and society better off for it. However, the lies in the police report, and subsequent perjured testimony in court, are both felonies and, as such, are crimes unique to the police. When uncovered, these lies will taint previous-and valid-legal arrests made by the same officers or any assisting officers involved in the foot chase and apprehension.

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display&article_id=1025&issue_id=102006

Even sensitive people may be tempted to an "ends justify the means" approach to where they lie on the stand because their "6th sense" believes the perp is guilty.

[Fumesucker]

2. All criminals are equal under the law but some are more equal than others

[Kalidurga]

3. I saw him during OWS

I was very afraid he was going to become a victim of police brutality. Not in NY when I was watching streaming at OWS in the Twin Cities.

[FarPoint]

4. He is on the right path with a progressive attitude.

We need him to evolve into leadership.

[Scuba]

5. +1

[Cryptoad]

6. Staying at home on Election day

has consequences that extend even to the quality of people who are hired as law enforcement officers and the people who hold them accountable for Justice.

[Fumesucker]

9. The prosecutor who just carefully guided the Wilson GJ to no true bill is a Democrat

Your one note samba grows tiresome, the problem is bipartisan in nature.

[Cryptoad]

13. In the South.

there are still alot of elected Democrats who are Republicans,,,,,, Democrats have primaries , too! Your uncalled for insults grow tiresome.

[woo me with science]

7. Huge K&R

[DallasNE]

8. I Have Been Saying That For Years

They are hiring those least fit to "protect and serve", as the motto goes, and rejecting those that could. This leads to a force that is trigger happy and looking for things to break. Just look at the Cleveland case where a 12 year old boy was dead within 5-6 seconds of the police car stopping. These same people that are so cold-blooded also have no problem with lying to cover up their huge mistakes. Simply said, they are not trustworthy. In Ferguson several witnesses refused to step forward and testify because they knew the personal consequences of doing just that. They saw how the police smeared Michael Brown and feared the same would happen to them. And the 1% make them so politically powerful that nobody can correct the problem. Just look at how the Mayor and Governor cowered at their feet.

[Derek V]

10. Okay

You fooled me!

[MineralMan]

11. The MMP is a poor way to recruit and hire cops.

The problem is that the hiring agency can screen for authoritarian types and hire them as a preference. That is a sure way to create and extend a culture of "arrest first and figure out how to convict later." It also leads to police brutality in many cases, and the common enough attitude that says, "Well, this thug may not be guilty of this, but he's surely guilty of something else, so it's OK to misstate the facts."

[Faryn Balyncd]

12. "Unfortunately, they do not hire those people that score high on sensitivity. They reject them...

..."Unfortunately, they do not hire those people that score high on sensitivity. They reject them believing those people will quit because they can't handle the blood and guts on the street. They view that as wasted training money."




By that logic medical schools should reject sensitive applicants, instead of operating under the premise that physicians require sensitivity in handling blood and guts situations, which INCREASES in importance the bloodier and gutsier it gets.


Sensitive law enforcement officers are exactly what is needed if we want to enforce order without killing/brutalizing people (as most countries of the free world do).


Insensitive personalities are what one should seek if one wants to emulate the oppressive police states of history.

[Faryn Balyncd]

14. Typical (Newport Beach PD) Police Recruiting Video:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017228980

[TheKentuckian]

15. Correct yet skimming the surface still. The culture is rotted from the root, which is why such

preferences are there. The plant must be dug up roots and all and burned to fine ash and a new one planted in it's place, no "reforms" will ever work otherwise. Here we cannot be content enter to sand down the roughest edges.

[ScreamingMeemie]

16. Kick

[johnnyreb]

17. Captain Ray Lewis, occupier.