Friday, January 09, 2004
Technology:
Toshiba has come out with 2 to 4 Gig harddrive less than 1 square inch in size.Very cool.
Police Tactics and Investigation:
Dedicated to my friends Julie and Gilles Leclair and to the memory of Bev Leclair.
A significant percentage of persons charged by police and subsequently convicted have proven to be innocent. In today's world this is hard to understand, given the technology at their disposal. In the U.S. a large number of people have been executed only to later learn that they were innocent. How can this be.
While I'm sure the vast majority of officers are honest and have a great deal of integrity the are restricted by funding. This creates an environment were they are strongly motivated to come to some quick conclusions, often at the cost of accuracy. Investigations cost a great deal of money. Usually in life the simplest answer is in fact the right answer. But not always. Police must be allowed to spend the necessary time and money to conduct good investigations. Perhaps if they were to spend less money trying and jailing people for things such as petty pot possession this might free up the money to properly investigate major crimes. Considering the huge resources committed to minor drug crimes, this would seem a no-brainer.
Particularly stunning is the Saturday version of the show Cops. We regularly watch as cops sets up these little sting operations for possession. We watch as some fool approaches to buy one or two grams of pot. We then witness as a very big muscular cop comes flying in, tackling and slamming to guy to the ground often resulting in injury to the poor fool. I was under the impression that the officers were required to use reasonable force to make the arrest. From the police's actions you would think that they were stopping the biggest threat that the U.S. had ever known, rather than some completely harmless individual who could probably be arrested simply by walking up, putting your hand on them and telling them that they were under arrest. I have witnessed this so many times that I can only assume that the problem is systemic.
To treat someone in this fashion does not do the officers reputation any good whatsoever. When they abuse their power in this fashion they become worse than the criminals that they are supposed to be protecting us from. Abuse of power is criminal. Is it any wonder that the police have become so separated from the rest of us that they cannot foster any goodwill in the inner-city communities. They regularly broadcast these actions with total impunity. Am I the only one who sees these actions as criminal? Almost every week we see this and yet we never hear so much as a single complaint about their actions.
It's a sad state of affairs when the police, while making their arrest, are committing greater crimes than the criminals they are trying to arrest. Its even sadder when they do it on national television for all the world to see, and the rest of us watch without ever realizing that the police are in fact simply acting as bullies.
I am certain that there are many officers who feel as I do witnessing what we all have. Police have a sacred trust and they MUST learn to treat people with respect, as opposed to being bullies, in order for the rest of us to consider them our friends as opposed to the enemy.
Quote of the Day:
You can love me or you can hate me, but never forget me.
Unknown Author
Toshiba has come out with 2 to 4 Gig harddrive less than 1 square inch in size.Very cool.
Police Tactics and Investigation:
Dedicated to my friends Julie and Gilles Leclair and to the memory of Bev Leclair.
A significant percentage of persons charged by police and subsequently convicted have proven to be innocent. In today's world this is hard to understand, given the technology at their disposal. In the U.S. a large number of people have been executed only to later learn that they were innocent. How can this be.
While I'm sure the vast majority of officers are honest and have a great deal of integrity the are restricted by funding. This creates an environment were they are strongly motivated to come to some quick conclusions, often at the cost of accuracy. Investigations cost a great deal of money. Usually in life the simplest answer is in fact the right answer. But not always. Police must be allowed to spend the necessary time and money to conduct good investigations. Perhaps if they were to spend less money trying and jailing people for things such as petty pot possession this might free up the money to properly investigate major crimes. Considering the huge resources committed to minor drug crimes, this would seem a no-brainer.
Particularly stunning is the Saturday version of the show Cops. We regularly watch as cops sets up these little sting operations for possession. We watch as some fool approaches to buy one or two grams of pot. We then witness as a very big muscular cop comes flying in, tackling and slamming to guy to the ground often resulting in injury to the poor fool. I was under the impression that the officers were required to use reasonable force to make the arrest. From the police's actions you would think that they were stopping the biggest threat that the U.S. had ever known, rather than some completely harmless individual who could probably be arrested simply by walking up, putting your hand on them and telling them that they were under arrest. I have witnessed this so many times that I can only assume that the problem is systemic.
To treat someone in this fashion does not do the officers reputation any good whatsoever. When they abuse their power in this fashion they become worse than the criminals that they are supposed to be protecting us from. Abuse of power is criminal. Is it any wonder that the police have become so separated from the rest of us that they cannot foster any goodwill in the inner-city communities. They regularly broadcast these actions with total impunity. Am I the only one who sees these actions as criminal? Almost every week we see this and yet we never hear so much as a single complaint about their actions.
It's a sad state of affairs when the police, while making their arrest, are committing greater crimes than the criminals they are trying to arrest. Its even sadder when they do it on national television for all the world to see, and the rest of us watch without ever realizing that the police are in fact simply acting as bullies.
I am certain that there are many officers who feel as I do witnessing what we all have. Police have a sacred trust and they MUST learn to treat people with respect, as opposed to being bullies, in order for the rest of us to consider them our friends as opposed to the enemy.
Quote of the Day:
You can love me or you can hate me, but never forget me.
Unknown Author
# posted by Wil Smith : 4:07 p.m.
