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

From CBS News via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Florida Police Dump Quadriplegic Man From His Wheelchair

In Hillsborough County, Florida, police were caught, by their own surveillance cameras, dumping a quadriplegic man from his wheelchair and onto the ground. Apparently they were trying to determine whether or not he actually needed the chair.

Click here to see this comment, which I've excerpted in its entirety, in its original context.

What's really worth seeing is the video:



Did you catch the other cop walking by and laughing at the end of the video? That just about encapsulates the entire problem: not all cops do bad things, but lots of them know what's happening, and do nothing, or worse, egg the bad cops on, thereby perpetuating the nationwide police culture of self-righteousness, elitism, and hypermasculinity which ensures that such incidents are inevitable.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department is now in bigtime damage control mode.

From the AP, again via the Huffington Post, again courtesy of AlterNet:

Police Suspended for Wheelchair Dumping

Jones has been suspended without pay, and Sgt. Gary Hinson, 51, Cpl. Steven Dickey, 45 and Cpl. Decondra Williams, 36 have also been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation, sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter said.

"The actions are indefensible at every level," Chief Deputy Jose Docobo said. "Based on what I saw, anything short of dismissal would be inappropriate."

He said the officers' actions were an aberration.

A woman who answered Jones' telephone said Jones was unavailable. A message left at a telephone number listed for a Steven Dickey in Tampa was not immediately returned Tuesday night. Listings for Hinson and Williams could not be located.

"That none of the supervisors acted upon what they saw is of great concern," Docobo said. "This is not the norm at the sheriff's office."

More here.

Ah, but the video very much makes it look like this is the norm at the sheriff's office. That is, the incident took place in what appears to be plain sight of everybody in the room, six individuals, including the cop who did the pushing and the cop who laughed at it, and there may have been even more witnesses off camera. I'd say this looks very normal for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department. I would also assert that not filing any report on the incident, which is really a euphemism because what we're talking about here is a pretty gross violation of civil rights, is also very normal for these guys, but that's just an assumption based on what I know about the cop code of silence.

They always call it an "isolated incident" or anything along those lines, whatever it takes to make it look like it has nothing to do with how we conceptualize policing, and everything to do with "a few bad apples." But of course, they're wrong. Cops in the US are deeply entrenched in a police culture that makes this kind of thing very, very likely. I'm of the opinion that organizational cultures are definitely changeable, but it takes a great deal of effort and willpower to make this kind of change happen. Until the various establishment powers recognize that there's a problem, however, such effort and willpower won't exist.

Look for many more police brutalities in the future.

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