Posted: Wednesday, 26 August 2009 10:58AM
Scared Cops Can Kill
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Once again, cops are investigating cops.
Pennsylvania State Police in Luzerne County are looking into excessive force allegations against several members of the Wilkes-Barre Police Department who witnesses say brutally pummeled a young mentally disturbed man Tuesday morning.
At least 10 witnesses claim police went wild in their attack against an unarmed man.
State police in Lackawanna County recently investigated members of the Scranton Police Department who shot and killed Brenda Williams, a 52-year-old naked and mentally ill woman holding a knife who died on the floor of her own apartment
The probe exonerated Scranton cops and a mayoral committee is now reviewing ways to help police feel confident enough so they don’t choose to gun down sick people.
The true victims of violence are not the only people who need help in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The official perpetrators of violence need help as well.
As much as anything, serving the public trust is about honor. Whether you’re a judge, a social worker or a cop, serving the public trust places demands on you that might otherwise not come your way.
The best judges, cops and other public employees rise to the challenger. They sometimes suffer as a result of their calling, but honor helps them rise above the day-to-day insults and abuse that sometimes come their way.
The best among these public servants become even better.
Too often, though, the worst prevail and, left unchecked, these rogues sometimes even rise to the top of their profession. And when chaos arrives as it always does, they cover-up and defend the actions of the thugs who walk among us.
Although some outright criminals populate the ranks of public service, some of the worst public servants are simply not up to the job. They are neither trained nor inclined to help people in the community who truly need help and depend on the system to protect them.
Training is everything.
Some brutal cops are sadistic, but most of these bullies also are terribly insecure.
Fear overcomes any hope of honor and a confrontation that might end peacefully can erupt in assaults and even gunfire.
I would not have pulled the trigger on the late Brenda Williams.
And I know with all my heart that my late father – a tough, fair hero cop – also would not have shot her. My father Shamus taught me and the officers with whom he served that sick people need help.
Police must be willing to be severely injured and even die while protecting and serving those who need help.
And mentally ill people need help.
But during his career, my father likely should have been reprimanded on more than one occasion for resorting to his fists both on duty and off. He cracked the landlord when I was six. Shamus got out of a sick bed when he heard the patent leather shoes of this businessman of wealth slapping their way to the apartment complex boiler room to turn down the heat in the dead of winter.
We had new baby in the house and Shamus figured the landlord needed a lesson in child-rearing.
Actually my father was officially punished for that one.
Still, he knew the difference between a violent criminal and somebody who was sick. Shamus also knew the difference between a fair fight and one where police piled on like drunken outlaw bikers in a barroom brawl.
His partner almost broke his arm once when the partner raised his heavy lead-filled black jack and tried to bring it down on the head of a suspect. Shamus raised his right arm to protect the suspect because he knew the suspect didn’t deserve to get his head split open.
Nobody protected Luis Cruz, 23, in Wilkes-Barre yesterday morning.
The test of a city is how its leaders respond to criticism – fair and otherwise. And Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton has shown himself during his tenure to be as insecure as a cop with an attitude and a billy club.
I expect little from Leighton in his reaction to this scandal. I expect little from the Wilkes-Barre police chief. And I expect little from leaders in the police union. They will likely close ranks and prepare whatever defense it takes to justify the vicious assault.
We know that no honor exists among thieves.
But honor must exist among police and all others sworn to uphold the public trust.
If not, we’re doomed.
And that’s a beating that no law-abiding man or woman should be willing to take.
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