Heavy toll, light penalties for police who drive drunk

[Liberal_in_LA]

Simpkins, 41, admitted that he started drinking beer after a softball tournament, went to a bar and drank some more, then went to another tavern and kept drinking before heading to the Wendy’s in Stoughton, where he was found asleep at the wheel, according to the arrest report.

He was so groggy that when a state trooper asked him for his driver’s license, he handed over his Visa card instead.

But the Massachusetts State Police kept Simpkins, who earns roughly $130,000 a year, on paid administrative duty even after he lost his license for a year for refusing a breath test and couldn’t go out on patrol. And with no alcohol test results, a judge acquitted him of the criminal charges after tossing much of the other evidence on legal technicalities. Now, he’s back on patrol out of the Boston barraSimpkins is one of at least 30 Massachusetts law enforcement officials who have been charged with drunken driving while off-duty since the start of 2012, a Globe review has found. The crashes collectively killed three people and injured more than a half-dozen others.

Though some officers resigned or were placed on unpaid leave after the charges, a majority kept their jobs, sometimes after a short suspension.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/12/06/off-duty-police-face-drunken-driving-charges-and-lenient-treatment-with-surprising-frequency/KaH7EiTyoWx88dsLZpIaHM/story.html

[99th_Monkey]

1. Talk about a sense of "entitlement"

This really speaks to how deeply entrenched this stuff is, in the collective psyche.

This needs to be deconstructed as it were, to show how it got this way, the origins of
the rise of domestic police forces in the US, and the corresponding Rise of the Corporatist
Oligarchy.

Like Jay Gould (19th Century union-busting RR baron) is famously quoted as saying,
"I can hire 1/2 the workers to kill the other 1/2".

The police are pawns of the 1%, plain and simple. They are the armed goon squad of the
rich. There are some "good' pawns and there are quite a few really bad ones for sure;
but pawns they ALL are.

[Logical]

2. This is a bunch of fucking shit. And the judges are part of that you can tell. Nt