Re: OJ Simpson and t...

Cal Eastman (shiva@FREENET.SCRI.FSU.EDU)
Sat, 9 Jul 1994 08:53:48 18000

>
> OK---I'm just bein' cranky, anyway. (besides, caroline brettell is in my anth
> dept at smu---it was a tribal thing...)
> However, in all seriousness, in those cases where police abuse is
> astoundingly apparent (i.e., R. King, esq) even the cops can be beneficiaries
> of the oft-bemoaned "criminal-centered" focus of our CJ system...i suppose,
> as the man said, all things are relative.
> Privately I can tell you that as a retired 18-year municipal cop (now
> anthropolog-izing grad student) the True abuses of police power are seldom
> addressed....honestly, the rough stuff seldom goes on these days, R. King,
> esq notwithstanding---primarily because it's a one-way ticket to the fed slam
> double-quick when the FBI suits come out to "visit" about alledged civil
> rights violations. Speaking from a decidedly emic perspective, I can assure
> you that those folks mean business and they do not subscribe to the old
> "brotherhood 'o the badge" line. Neither do most Internal Affairs Units.
> Which is as it should be.
> The real problem comes when a 21 year old superhero/ crimefighter finds out
> that policing is a social service job and has remarkably little to do
> (usually) with catching bad guys and making the world safe for democracy, and
> the psychic conflict resulting. Frankly, most guys NEVER figure out that you
> ain't Eliot Ness but a 24-hour social- worker-with-a-gun jonesing on donuts
> and stale coffee. The reality conflicts with what our hypothetical rookie
> thought he was going to do and lots of cops develop this patented crappy *-ck
> the public attitude. THAT is our (or I guess "their"...) problem. The Nazi
> stuff dimishes with each passing year, but we really expect very little from
> our police---and "we" oblige, thank you very much.
> ...and retire to grouse about ill-advised uses of bandwidth. Like this.
> Please ignore the tone of the original...we gotta have Shiva's to Make Sure
> It Can't Happen Here!
> Bob Holleman
>
>
thanks for a kind well thought out reply bob-
did u see the results of teh mollen commision here in NY?
I was dissapointed about one thing.. although they did root oiut some
deep and scary corruption they glossed over what might have been the
most serious charge.. that not just these 30 or so cops were corrupt,
but that the department practices what s called testalying (as opposed
to testafying)not the departmnent rather widespread in teh
department... this involves police willingly lying on teh stand in
court to protect one another and to insure conviction...
*shudder)
peace

--

Boom shiva

mahalinga nataraj

:)

(puffiness 4evah)