They occasionally get it right...

Sometimes bad things happen to innocent people at the hands of the law.

Sometimes those innocents receive justice.  It seems to be a rare occurance but, it does happen.

Here is the story.

I wish I could just say that I'm happy this turned out the way it did and be done with it.  I can't do that.  I have to give my opinion, right or wrong :)

The cops were wrong from the very start in this situation.  Trying to cover their asses has cost the city of Des Moines at least $140,000 in legal fees up to this point.  There will be a settlement to the victims of $500,000 on top of that.  That's taxpayer money to pay for willful police misconduct.  And they knew they were wrong from the beginning.  An honest and objective internal investigation would have (did?) proven this.  This crap happens someplace in Amerika every single day. 

The taxpayers of Des Moines should be pissed off about this.

The victims of this crime at the hands of law enforcement didn't just "roll over" and let the law bully them into submission.  I hope it sends a message to other police forces.  I hope the families or victims of every instance of excessive force at the hands of law enforcement pursue justice and I hope they win. 

I realize that the odds are stacked against anyone bringing a case against "the law".  When you do that you are going up against the entire legal system.  That has to be terrifying and must seem futile.  I realize that it's probaly easier to just walk away with your life and feel lucky that you are still breathing.  Walk away and try to forget about it.  Hope that it never happens to anyone else.

But you know in the back of your mind that it will.  It will happen to somebody else.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.  I think that most cops are good people who want to do the right thing.  Some cops are bad.  Some are very bad.  There are bad people in every profession but there are some professions that should not ever tolerate bad people in their midst.  The worst part is when the good cops knowingly and willingly protect the bad ones.  And the system that protects bad cops simply because they are cops.  That is evil.

It seems to me, as an outsider, that something has changed in law enforcement in the last 20 or 30 years.  There was a time when the police were respected by most everyone but the criminals.  I don't think thats the case anymore.  I would love to hear about it from people currently involved in law enforcement or retired from law enforcement. 

I realize that any group is made up of individuals and that every individual is different.  I also spent quite a few years in the Army and I do understand how individuals come to think as a group.  Sometimes its necesssary for survival.  I spent some time in an MP company at Fort Hood in the mid seventies.  I had friends there whom I respected and I knew others whom I wouldn't give the sweat off my balls if they were dying of thirst in the desert.  I had close friends in Germany who were MPs and CID.  We're all different.  I have friends in law enforcement today with whom I ride bicycles and others with whom I played hockey for several years.

Anyway....  This post is deteriorating.  Is it the war on drugs?  The looseness of society?  The entitlement mentality?  What has changed?

Feel free to chime in.

Stay safe.