Cop Rot

June 15, 2024 9:25 AM

A Washington Post investigation found hundreds of law enforcement officers in the United States have sexually exploited kids. Many avoid prison time. From the various LinkMe requests over here, because there are a lot of bad cop stories this week. Sigh.

WaPo: WaPo: "An officer sexually abused a teen in his police car. How will he be punished?" I think we all know the answer to this before even opening it, amirite?

NYT: NYT: How an Officer’s Social Media Posts About Work Harassment Led to Her Firing. Yeah, nothing happens to the harassers, of course.

Phoenix section:
Phoenix is a Vision of America's Future (The Atlantic gift)
Phoenix police use excessive force and racially discriminate, Justice Dept. says (WaPo gift)
DOJ: Phoenix police systematically used illegal excessive force. Reaction ranges from outrage to caution (Arizona Republic)

posted by jenfullmoon (14 comments total)

Previously, Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas
posted by eustatic at 10:22 AM on June 15 [1 favorite]

In Boston, Patrolman Patrick Rose was charged in 1995 with raping a child, he was suspended and had his gun taken away, an internal investigation supported the allegations, but then the union threatened to file a grievance and he was reinstated two years later (the case never went to trial because the victim wouldn't testify).

He eventually got elected as president of the police union and kept on raping children, at least some of them his own relatives.

Finally, in 2020, one of his victims went to police, saying he'd been raping her for five years (after she turned 7), the DA re-opened the case and in 2022, Rose pleaded guilty to raping six children over 27 years (including one girl who was the daughter of one of his earlier victims). He was sentenced to 10 to 13 years in prison.

Before the allegations surfaced in 2020, he lost re-election as union president - to a guy who later pleaded guilty to participation in an overtime scam at the department's evidence warehouse.
posted by adamg at 3:25 PM on June 15 [23 favorites]

Who watches the watchmen?
posted by njohnson23 at 3:44 PM on June 15

At some point we need to start facing up to the fact that the system seems to be working as designed. If we want to replace it with a better system, we need to first deal with the fact that for at least some significant blocs of existing influence, things are going as the powerful incumbents prefer them.

I am never not horrified by such stories but I have long since stopped being greatly surprised.
posted by Nerd of the North at 4:59 PM on June 15 [17 favorites]

A friend of mine has a saying: "Every cop is a rapist with a badge. Every rapist is a cop without a badge." Rape, including and especially the rape of children, is an inherent and essential component of the enforcement of cisheteropatriarchy.
posted by adrienneleigh at 8:10 PM on June 15 [17 favorites]

Abolition is the only way forward.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:45 PM on June 15 [10 favorites]

After the Freddie Gray protests in Baltimore, the Baltimore PD engaged in a work stoppage that has basically lasted a decade.


I know plenty of people who wish the Baltimore PD would get serious again.

I'm actually quite enthusiastic about it; it's made them less relevant.
posted by constraint at 11:25 PM on June 15 [3 favorites]

This is the kind of thread that it's difficult for me to comment on, because it all seems so hopeless. Yet I personally know multiple people who have pushed back against the ACAB rhetoric, probably because they themselves have never been affected. But these stories keep surfacing. I'm not quite sure how to respond to them.
posted by JHarris at 11:26 PM on June 15 [8 favorites]

Portland Police Bureau, like Baltimore PD, is another force that is pretty much mired with a permanent case of 'Blue Flu' these days. Everybody knows they're doing everything they can to sabotage every other aspect of Portland and Multnomah county government.
posted by LeRoienJaune at 12:37 AM on June 16 [8 favorites]

Yeah my liberal city is in full "tough on crime" backlash mode after making a few faint rhetorical gestures in the "maybe we should try to kill less people" direction, it's pretty depressing.

The frustrating part is that there's no way to tell if there's a deliberate work stoppage or what; it feels like there's no accountability or transparency.
posted by ropeladder at 8:44 AM on June 16 [4 favorites]

Cop Cities, USA
Cop Cities and the Militarization of Vulnerable Populations
Cop Cities in a Militarized World
The Criminalization of Solidarity: The Stop Cop City Prosecutions
'Cop City' Prosecutions Hinge on a New Definition of Domestic Terrorism

Paramilitary occupying forces, concerned first with self-preservation, wired to see the world as themselves vs. the general public. What could go wrong?
posted by box at 9:18 AM on June 16 [10 favorites]

Adamg- don’t forget about the Stoughton MA cops who started raping a 15 year old girl in their police explorers program, eventually getting her pregnant and driving her to suicide! 3 Ex-Stoughton Officers Had ‘Deeply Troubling' Relationships With Woman Who Later Died
posted by youthenrage at 9:30 AM on June 16 [1 favorite]

“Cruel Luxuries,” A.R. Moxon, The Reframe, 16 June 2024
posted by ob1quixote at 6:35 PM on June 16 [2 favorites]

Absolutely unsurprising, except only finding 100s means they stopped looking:

"From 2001 to 2010, the Holy See examined sex abuse cases involving about 3,000 priests"

In this, they examined priest cases over a long time scale, but we'd expact vastly more abusive behavior from cops, so I'd guess 1 in 10 cops commits sexual abuse, meaning this should be 100k cases of abuse by cops, not 100s.
posted by jeffburdges at 10:09 AM on June 17 [1 favorite]