Maryland Union cops shot down reform bill

[packman]

"At a hearing in Annapolis in March, Sgt. Robert Cherry, testifying on behalf of Baltimore police union Lodge 3, called for a continuation of Maryland’s long-standing law requiring that police misconduct investigations be conducted only by fellow officers. “Involve your local leadership, your local unions, your local police departments, and let them determine what’s best for them,” Cherry said, calling for the defeat of “all of these bills.”

There were a series of bills proposed in Maryland just a few short weeks prior to the Baltimore incident. Presenting a unified front, chiefs and union officials decried all the citizen review suggestions and expressing strong opinions about having the state prosecutors investigate police killings. So, despite the new measures (body cameras-liability caps-data collection), procedures for prosecuting police misconduct in Maryland will remain the same - cops will investigate cops.

video at site:


https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/28/balltimore-freddie-gray-prosecute/

[avebury]

1. Police Misconduct Investigations

should be handled only be independent third parties who have no personal stake in the outcome of the investigations. Allowing a police department or union anywhere near the investigation is like allowing the fox to guard the henhouse.

[Dawson Leery]

2. Break em' up! Break em' up! Break em' up! Break em' up! Break em' up!

Police "unions" have been one of the greatest impediment towards reform of the system.

Coolidge and FDR understood that law enforcement should not have the power to determine what
should be legal and what should not be.