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

From the AP via the Houston Chronicle:

Wisconsin Officers Stand Trial in Beating Case

Black residents were incensed when four months went by before charges were filed against white police officers accused of punching, kicking and choking a biracial man outside a house party.

The 2004 incident intensified racial tensions in this city that is 37 percent black and has some of the nation's most segregated neighborhoods.

With the trial of three officers accused of the beating set to start Monday, some say the animosity has eased. And the defendants and nine other officers have been fired.

And

In October 2004, Frank Jude Jr., two white women and a black friend went to a party at the home of police officer Andrew Spengler in a mostly white, working-class neighborhood on the city's south side.

One officer at the party accused Jude of stealing a badge. The four left, but prosecutors say a group of off-duty officers followed them out to the street and some of the officers beat Jude severely while using a racial slur. Defense lawyers say Jude fought when confronted outside.

Click here for the rest.

This is a classic Quis Custodiet story: arrogant cops, believing that their authority has been somehow disrespected, beat the crap out of somebody, showing that, for many of them, their elite status is far more important than the laws they are sworn to protect. Stories like this are pretty much why I do these kinds of posts. As I've said many times, there are countless good cops who take their roles seriously, but the police culture in which they operate creates circumstances, again and again, where they end up either helping bad cops do bad things or helping to cover up their brethren's misdeeds. Cop culture is corrupt and out of control. It is ruled by a sense of us-versus-them, where pretty much anybody, especially people of color, might qualify as "them." Furthermore, cop culture posesses a sense of arrogance born of the belief that putting on a badge clearly makes one a good guy; with arrogance comes a sense of infallibility, which is why so many officers think it's okay to break the law. They're cops--they are the law. I readily admit that we need police, but not like this. Cops are supposed to protect us, not prey on us.

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