“When the ax came into the woods, many of the trees
said, “At least the handle is one of us.”
Only in the Washington DC area
would local government decide that the best way to solve a government created problem
is to bring in more government.
That’s exactly what Sharon
Bulova is doing in creating a toothless tiger-publicity stunt called the Police
Commission which Bulova and the Board of Supervisors slapped together after the
John Geer killing became yet another
international black eye for Fairfax County. (Yep…the Geer killing made the news in Europe,
Asia and Australia)
Sadly, the investigation into
the killing began only after a United States Senator from a different state forced
the Board of Supervisors County to investigate the killing…..and they did……they
leaped into action by ASKING the cops if they would
consider investigating themselves and then, essentially, apologized for asking.
In the real world when you
don’t do your job you get fired. In the real world when you kill people,
there’s an investigation. In the real world when a man dies, somebody pays
hell….but not in Fairfax County where the politicians elected to serve and
protect the people instead fear, protect
and serve the cops and the cops kill innocent every twenty to twenty five
months….and get away with it.
We need to start firing people
and should start with the Board of Supervisors because we elect and pay the
Supervisors to keep things in check and they haven’t done
that….repeatedly. Instead
of governing correctly, when the arrogant occupation force that is the Fairfax
County Police kills unarmed citizens, the Supervisors write a massive seven
figure check from public and no one is fired and no one goes to jail. And now as the election grows closer and the
bodies pile up, we suddenly have a massive police committee we don’t need that
is empowered to do nothing.
To justify their needless
committee the Supervisors claim they’re using the committee to examine use of
force. Creating a panel on use-of-force
by the Fairfax County Police isn’t needed largely because, although the problem
exists, it just barely exists. The Fairfax County Police killing innocent and
unarmed citizens is an anomaly and always will be. The department handles
thousands of calls a year and rarely gets involved in gun play and when they
do, it’s almost always the bad guys who start shooting first.
Factually, the Fairfax County
Police are, comparative to other forces of the same size, a sparkling example
of what urban policing should be. (To see
a bad example of urban policing look at San Diego, San Jose, Baltimore,
Cleveland and Chicago which will pay out HALF- BILLION this year in
police brutality suits.
The Fairfax Police department seems to oversee
itself well enough and when it doesn’t, it gets in trouble. (See the Polsi
killings, the Sean Lanigan frame up, the Geer killing and the guy they shot to
death for stealing a fake tree……yeah, that actually happened)
As for transparency, what
freedom of information doesn’t get released, the courts will order released.
The Geer case has proven that. And again, the Geer case is an abnormal
occurrence in the day to day activity of the Fairfax County Police, which, for
the most part, does a better than average job of staying in touch with
citizenry.
The cop’s near artistic
stonewalling is generally done in high profile court cases under the advice of
legal counsel because it’s an ugly but legitimate legal tactic used regularly
in the justice system and especially helpful when dealing with a department
instead of an individual. We can’t take that ploy from the cops because I want
the right to stonewall in court. I don’t want that taken away from me. We can’t
have one set of laws for the cops and one for the rest of us. ……although, if
you think about it, it’s sorta what we have now anyway isn’t it?
But overall, the cops don’t get
away with much. It’s a fact in some part due to the power of the press. Most of
the local media has done an admirable job reporting the recent abuses by the
Fairfax County Police.
On that subject, there are also several members of the media on the Bulova’s
idiotic committee ….well, one of them is an television news representative
which is sort of like a news organization but with attention-deficit issues,….but
anyway, is it ethical for members of the media to be part of a board
like this?
If it isn’t ethical it’s certainly
uncomfortable and a little dangerious too. Nobody wants the press having coffee
and donuts with the cops on a committee formed to keep anything bad from
happening to the cops…the only ones who benefit from stuff like that are the cops.
Look, America doesn’t expect a damn
thing out of the press except this; when the reporters show up, the politicians
and bureaucrats should get nervous. As long as that happens, the free press is
doing its job and right now, that doesn’t look like what’s happening here in
Fairfax County.
There are 12 cops
and/or retired cops on this useless committee. In fact, half of the committee,
fifteen members, are presently employed by the Fairfax County government or
retired from the Fairfax County government ……do really you think they’re going
bite the hand that feeds them or change anything at all?
And look where this thing is
going…..….I mean putting Hairy Raorererer-er-er on the committee? Wasn’t he one of the primary architects of
the insular arrogance that has brought the Fairfax County Police to the wrong
kind of international attention?
Come on people…..a vampire IS NOT going to solve a robbery
at the blood bank.
Look, we DO have solvable
problems within the Fairfax County Police Department but we DON’T
have systematic problems within the Fairfax County Police Department. Corruption
within the ranks is virtually none existent and always has been. Brutality
against citizens, entrapment and theft…… although they no doubt happen…..are rare.
So why do we need….God help us…yet
another powerless window dressing committee?
In a way it doesn’t really
matter. This committee, whose true purpose is to save Sharon Bulova’s career,
will rubber a stamp a lot of things, take photos, eat a lot of donuts at our
expense and eventually disappear. A few
months later a cop will gun down another unarmed citizen, the Board of
Supervisors will cut another massive check to the family, we’ll make
international news again and then the citizens will demand Police oversight.
And while police oversight is a
grand idea, factually it doesn’t work. Check the national stats. There are
about 200 civilian oversight committees around the US. Most are a joke and many others have been disbanded because they are
ineffective and highly politicized like this monster incubating in Fairfax
County.
Police
oversight simply hasn’t worked nor does helicopter-intrusive committee work
either.
You know what does work?
Body cameras work.
They are the kryptonite of punk
cops everywhere.
Put cameras on them and be done
with it.
We need to do this….we need to
force every hood on the force to wear a camera. It’s a simple choice that boils
down to this; keep on dolling out multi-million dollar checks to the dead guys
family or spend a hell of a lot less the money on body cameras.
The concept of body cameras is
simple. Stop the cops from saying or doing something stupid BEFORE
they do it.
Forming a committee to talk
about what stupid things the cops did AFTER they did it is just
dumb, well it’s government worker-think ,which I suppose is basically the same
thing.
Body cameras will put a quick
end to the arrogance killing by the Fairfax County cops and it will put even a
quicker end to the common perception that the FCP is staffed by a bunch of lazy
punks with an attitude problem.
As I said before, the other way
to solve this issue is to fire the people who hire the cops, the “I wasn’t
aware there was a police problem” members of the board of supervisors….like
Sharon Bulova. The fact is that had the Board of Supervisors acted on the issue
of the cops shooting unarmed citizens several years ago, this wouldn’t be a
problem today.
Fire the people who hire the
cops and watch how quickly things change.
Bring in competent leaders FROM OUTSIDE THE DC AREA to run the
department.
We predicted several years ago
that under chief what’s-his-face…the bald guy who loves wearing that ridicules
hat, that nothing would change but we were wrong.
Things did change.
They got worse.
Bring in a new police chief and
new public safety director from outside the Fairfax County government Lifers
club.
Bring in a police chief from
the outside who is honest and relentless in seeking true attitude change. Create
an office of internal affairs whose goal is not to protect the police
department at all costs…that’s what we have now…..but one that will protect
both the police department from unreasonable complaints and protect the
citizens from unreasonable policing practices.
When a complaint is filed
against a cop the complaint should not be removed from the cops file after 60
days as it is now. Rather the complaint should stay there for the length of the
cop’s employment with the county.
Do we really need the expense
of a Royal Fairfax County Police Navy for the Potomac? How about the Royal Fairfax County Police Air
Force? Which is better for the
county…..more roads, less traffic, smaller class room sizes and more teachers
or the cops having a fleet of helicopters and boats to toy around with?
Disempower. Do the cops really
have to go around scanning thousands license plates? Cut back the cop’s
remarkably generous budget of $217 million dollars. If we’re going to pay the
cops that kind of money at least require them to get an AA degree in criminal
Justice.
Transform
the cops from an occupation force…….87% of the cops live outside
the county, hence the punk attitude….and turn them into a local police force by
forcing them to live in Fairfax County. It’s
a good idea because when there’s a chance one of these punk cops could run into
the civilians they smart-mouthed at the local Safeway, the transformation from
thug to police officer will be swift.
The excuse that cops can’t afford to live in Fairfax County is a bald
faced lie.
Back to Bulova’s pointless
committee.
Who are these civilians on the
committee? Are they qualified to judge whether a cop followed a
department's rules governing use of force? Do civilians have any training to
understand what the cop faces? Do they have any real world insights into an Officers
split-second decision involving life or death?
The
answer is no. Only cops have that ability and there comes a time when we
simply have to trust the police to police themselves. So let the cops watch over the cops and allow the judicial
system, a free press and the unflinching eye of a body camera watch over
everyone else. That will work. That will correct the problem.
What
won’t work, what won’t correct the problem, are a group of publicity seeking panjandrums
in need of an ego boast and well-meaning citizens poking around in complex area
they don’t fully understand. Policing IS
NOT a part time gig and while we need to keep an eye on the Fairfax
County Police that doesn’t mean we need to
create a pointless babysitting committee so Sharon Bulova can keep her
job.
