Recommendations of the Community and Local Law Enforcement Task Force formed after the Andy Lopez shooting reflect the thoughtful hard work of dedicated citizens and law enforcement, and they should be implemented quickly. But why do they remind us of Rodney King’s forlorn plea: “Can’t we all just get along?”
Perhaps because nothing much has changed since four L.A. cops savagely beat Rodney in a 1992 traffic stop. The Feds later found civil rights violations and two went to prison. An officer testifying against them lost his job.
Today, smartphones document a “George Zimmerman approach” to law enforcement that is more common than many imagined. One can fully support local police yet be stunned to discover that some of their public servants casually shoot unarmed men to death; beat or kill women, the mentally ill and homeless; strangle people; or are callously indifferent to the suffering of those in their custody. Such brutality becomes incomprehensible when the transgressions that attracted police attention in the first place were often trivial.
‘Cops Gone Wild’ has become a national concern. Zimmerman at least stood trial for a killing for which few officers would even be charged.
Absent incriminating video, such charges are rare because often the only surviving witness is the officer and perhaps a partner. In the exculpatory, “I felt my life was threatened,” the wink is sometimes hard to miss. A San Diego officer invoked it to justify shooting a man’s service dog to death. A service dog.
Locally, Deputy Gelhaus is back on the street after the DA and Sheriff concluded his killing of 13-yr. old Andy Lopez was neither criminal nor a violation of department policy. Just ‘a tragic incident.’
One might think that job performance which kills someone one is sworn to protect and serve (i.e., a customer); triggers massive protests; costs countless hours and untold dollars in investigation expense; and exposes taxpayers to millions in civil damages would be against ‘department policy.’ Apparently not.
And that’s a problem: The Task Force was powerless to effect changes that might do the most good; namely, in sheriff department policy and in how investigations of officer-involved killings are handled.
Though commendable, neither body cameras nor an Office of Independent Auditor to audit (but not conduct) investigations into such matters will reassure the public so long as law enforcement investigates itself and there are no independent prosecutors.
That’s because few professions are, by the nature of the work, as incestuous as law enforcement, within and between jurisdictions. Sheriffs and District attorneys depend on deputies and officers to investigate crimes, be witnesses at trial and – not incidentally – help them get re-elected. Their offices are constitutional fiefdoms controlling who gets investigated, when and how. As the Task Force acknowledged, “implementation of an audit system can only be successful with the cooperation of the Sheriff.”
Ultimately, in cases of officer-involved killings only independent investigators and prosecutors – from the state or federal government – can reassure citizens that local law enforcement is not above the law.
That would be a fitting tribute to Andy and a vote of confidence in dedicated officers everywhere who daily risk their lives for us all. Sadly, it won’t happen soon, if at all, and certainly not before the next ‘tragic incident.’
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