Grits had this post up the other day about that
"Blue Wall of Silence" that exists when police officers go to extremes in the performance of their jobs.
There's a classic "Blue Wall of Silence" episode playing out at Houston PD after a officers beat up a 15-year old boy in front of several compatriots and all of them failed the report the incident until an employee of a nearby business came forward with video footage.
Scott later notes :
Seven officers were fired and four of them indicted, but as is often the case, firings in the incident so far haven't all stuck. In the 70 or so cities opted-in to the Texas civil service code, arbitrators routinely reinstate officers in such cases, making it terribly hard even for well-intentioned administrators to bust apart that Blue Wall of Silence. (Indeed, once they're reinstated, under the civil service code their past misconduct in most cases can't even be used to justify passing them over for a promotion.)
Apparently, it's not all that hard for even a "bad cop" to maintain employment in law enforcement in Texas.
0 comments:
Post a Comment