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

These things are just falling in my lap lately. Today's Houston Chronicle had three stories of note.

Officer accused of sexually abusing transsexual

From the AP:

Dean Gutierrez, 45, was indicted Tuesday on a charge of deprivation of civil rights by committing aggravated sexual abuse while on duty. The 16-year veteran of the police force was arrested Thursday.

Gutierrez is accused of forcing Gabriel Bernal, 22, who prefers to be called Starlight and a woman, to perform sex acts the night of June 10. Police reports and court documents allege Gutierrez forced Bernal into his police car after picking her up.

Click here for the rest.

Yet another in the creepy-pervy cop category. This reminds me of rumors I used to hear when I was a teenager about how the Harris County Constables, who were contracted to patrol Kingwood before it was annexed by Houston in the mid 90s, would offer to not give tickets to teenage girls for MIP's or speeding in exchange for sexual favors. Of course, these were just rumors, but some of those Constable guys were in Willem Dafoe or Christopher Walken territory with their sense of sexual creepiness: I wouldn't at all be surprised if such things actually happened.

2 police officers indicted over use of force

Two police officers accused of using excessive force on a Spring man while arresting him at the scene of a minor motor vehicle accident last month now face criminal charges.

A Montgomery County grand jury indicted Shenandoah Police Officer Jeremy Klammer on charges of aggravated assault and official oppression and his partner Officer Heath Romeril on a charge of official oppression, said Shenandoah Police Chief John Chancellor.

A videotape of the Sept. 25 incident shows Klammer striking a man with his fist and then tackling him from behind and forcing him to the ground to be handcuffed. The video also shows Romeril pepper-spraying the man, Chancellor said.

Click here for the rest.

This sounds like your garden variety police brutality case, which is just plain wrong and unacceptable in a civilized society, but I must give credit where it's due:

Petersen did not file a complaint against the officers. The department initiated it's own investigation based on information from a supervisor called to the scene to investigate use of force, a department policy.

After command staff reviewed the videotape, both officers were placed on administrative leave and the case was turned over to the Texas Rangers to investigate because of possible criminal wrongdoing, Chancellor said.

This doesn't sound like a police department trying to cover it's own ass; rather, this strikes me as a situation where the people in charge are trying to do the right thing. Good for them. Really, I think the vast majority of police brutality could be a thing of the past if police chiefs and commissioners throughout the nation made it a major priority to do so, which means that, ultimately, police corruption is a political problem: mayors and city councils have to get the right people, and then continually insist that they do their jobs.

Officer who stole from vending machine reinstated

Firing was too harsh a punishment for a police officer who stole two 50-cent bags of snack chips by shaking a vending machine, city civil service commissioners said.

The commission on Wednesday overruled police Chief Danny Castillo's decision to fire Officer Randy Reyna, recommending he instead be suspended for 90 days.

During a hearing with the commission, police department attorney Mark Sossi showed a videotape of Reyna lifting and shaking the machine. Sossi said Reyna committed a crime of "moral turpitude."

"He's expected to know the law," Sossi said. "He's expected to set an example."

Click here for the rest.

Hmmm. Two bags of chips, huh? Not enough to amount to a firing offense? This strikes me as absurd: two bags of chips is enough to lose a restaurant or convenience store job, and the people in those positions aren't the ones who are supposed to enforce the law. That is, cops should be held to at least as high of a standard as the lowliest McJob worker is held to. Sorry, if a cop rips off anything, especially while at work, he needs to be fired. Period.

Along the same lines, cops who turn on their lights in order to run a red light they're too impatient to deal with should be ticketed for it. Period.

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