QUIS CUSTODIET IPSOS CUSTODES
Means "Who Polices the Police?"

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Former sheriff's arrest 'a blow'

Former Sheriff Conrado Cantu is accused of receiving payments from known drug traffickers in exchange for releasing sensitive law enforcement information between January 2001 and December 2004, his term in office. He also is accused of using his official powers to protect and assist the drug traffickers.

"It is a blow to honest law enforcement when one of its own is accused of corrupting his office and abusing the public's trust," FBI San Antonio Special Agent in Charge Patrick A. Patterson said in a statement.

Four others, including two who worked for Cantu in the Cameron County Sheriff's Department, face similar charges in a 10-count indictment that was unsealed Thursday after the last of the five was arrested.

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I remember reading a comic book story at least a decade ago, some Batman book, or maybe the Spectre--I don't recall. In the story, there is a moment where the hero confronts a clever criminal who, instead of the usual fisticuffs, uses reason and persuasion in order to escape. The bad guy, not a supervillian, rather some well dressed gangster type, observes that the psychological profile for criminals is startlingly similar to that of law-enforcement types: authoritarian, violent, distrustful, posessing a sense of superiority, feelings of being on the outside of society. His statement causes a brief moment of doubt in the hero; the bad guy gets away.

I don't know if this character's understanding of the minds of both cops and criminals actually reflects real psychology or if the writer was using dramatic license to spice up the story, but I think it's a really good point one way or the other. Like they say about the difference between genius and insanity, I wonder if the line between cop and criminal is also razor thin. The abundance of material about police corruption and abuse that just falls into my lap on an almost daily basis leads me to think so.

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