[quote=scaredyclassic][quote=CA renter][quote=FlyerInHi]It’s all a question of incentives.
Cops will lie and the department will back up the cops because the incentives are to sustain a corrupt system, usually from the top on down. The incentives are self-preservation. It’s up to the leadership to not tolerate lies.
Defense attorney don’t have incentives other than winning a case, which in itself is powerful. But there is no personal investment on the part of the attorney.
Attorney may win cases on technicalities. But that’s due to inept prosecutors and cops who failed to follow the law.[/quote]
Cops back each other up because they are the only ones who truly understand what they are dealing with, day in and day out. They often have to make life-or-death decisions in split seconds. Decisions that will have lasting impacts on many people.
Sometimes, mistakes are made. But cops are judged by people who have absolutely no concept, whatsoever, of what they have to deal with every day. Cops have seen the ugliest underbelly of human society, and they have their hands in it every single day. They see dead husbands, wives, babies, unidentified girls or boys who look like their own kids, etc. They see torture, the extremes of mental insanity, and they see pure evil. They know, on a very personal level, how evil people can be…how people can have a total disregard for human lives. They deal with psychopaths and sociopaths on a regular basis. Sometimes, it’s not easy to tell the difference between an evil psychopath and a violent (but innocent, for the moment) punk when that decision has to be made in less than a second or two.
Cops back each other up because they know that their coworkers might be the only thing that keeps them from losing everything they’ve worked for in their lives — their families, homes, jobs, and freedom — if they make a single mistake during the course of their job. Just one single mistake is all it takes for them to lose everything, and they are all keenly aware of it.
I agree that some cops deserve to be fired, even jailed, and I agree that we need to do everything possible to keep innocent people out of jail; but most cops are just trying to do their job…an insanely difficult, stressful job.[/quote]
and therefore…
(a) we should believe them?
(b) we should not be surprised when they become as ugly as what they fight?
(c) we should not think that police officers routinely lie?
(d) other…[/quote]
(d) other
We should listen to what they have to say, look at the evidence, and try to make a determination while also acknowledging that they are human and will probably make some mistakes along the way. We should also know that if we punish them too harshly for making a genuine mistake, then they will sometimes lie and back each other up when these mistakes are made. The problem, IMHO, is trying to distinguish a genuine mistake from a malicious act.
If we act like we want to burn them at the stake every time they slip up, then you can bet all your money that they will lie on a rather consistent basis.
