The Gantt Report
Every single African American living in the United States of America has a family member, a coworker, a friend or a neighbor that has been the victim of law enforcement misconduct.
They may have been wrongfully arrested, they could have been over-charged, their comments and statements may have been misquoted, twisted or changed and used against them or they may have been verbally abused when they were referred to as an N-word, a thug, a drunk or a trouble maker.
Policemen, prosecutors, judges and other law enforcers are rarely questioned. People love to point to police reports as absolute truths but cops will and can lie like everybody else.
Poor people, disabled people or mentally handicapped citizens probably are victimized more than others. The people who need the most protection by law enforcers are usually the ones that are beaten the most, jailed the most and hurt the most by people paid by tax payers to comfort, protect and save us.
No one will believe a Black person that says they were mistreated by law enforcers. Even if you have video or audio evidence that proves misconduct the governing bodies and government lawyers that oversee law enforcement departments will seek to cover up misconduct problems rather than to see how misconduct issues can be resolved.
“Internal Affairs” offices are a bad joke. Citizens are told to file law enforcement complaints about misconduct with Internal Affairs. That is where law enforcers get together to devise the cover up.
In most, if not all, cases about misconduct, phone records disappear, video evidence is somehow lost, documents are shredded and testimony is fabricated in order to fit the cover up scheme.
But guess what, when a white woman, or man, gets brutalized by police, misquoted by police or over charged by police then the misconduct story is flashed all over the front pages of the towns major daily newspapers and become lead stories on television and radio news.
If it is true that white law enforcers will cause serious injury to a white woman what in the hell do you think those kinds of cops will do to non-whites?
I think every police department or sheriff’s department should have an independent ombudsman that will take a look at police complaints. This person should not be hired by the law enforcement agency. Perhaps they could be hired by a community governmental advisory group.
You have to have independent eyes to see what is really going on in law enforcement disputes. If all you have to say is “I beat him or her half to death because they resisted” then everyone stopped by a cop can be considered for a beating.
Also, officers that get multiple complaints time after time should be dismissed. When you cover up misconduct by bad cops all you do is empower someone with devilish intent to do more misconduct.
Twenty years ago when I was accused of felony assault on a law enforcement officer, I testified in US Federal Court that elected officials should be held liable when law enforcers that work for them abuse their power and mistreat citizens whose taxes pay their salaries.
Today, no matter how much campaign money you contribute, no matter how many times you vote, if a politician has to choose between helping you and covering up misconduct the choice is not going to be to help you.
Citizen victimization by bad cops is not just a Rodney King thing or a Black community problem. It is a problem for the whole community and white kids and white women that live n the suburbs can get beat up just like the people who live in the ghettos and barrios.
Don’t get me wrong. The overwhelming majority of people in law enforcement are good guys and good cops. Their only problem is adhering to the “code of silence” where they ignore bad deeds by their coworkers.
I love and support good law enforcers but I hate beasts with badges!
