No Police Protection and No Protection From the Police

On the internet it’s easy to find videos and news articles, from reputable sources, showing policemen, here in the United States and in uniform, breaking the law. Not running red lights and parking illegally, but serious crimes. Police beating innocent and nearly helpless people, threatening violence against innocent citizens, and other evidence of corruption are commonplace. But are they legitimate? Are these incidents becoming more commonplace now that the Patriot Act has had time to erode our constitutional rights and given police what amounts to complete immunity from prosecution.

I wondered what I would do if I were the victim of some such crime. With our system of laws and the constitution to protect us, I assume I would report the incident to the proper authorities and the matter would be investigated and resolved.

A few days ago I had the misfortune to check the effectiveness of that system. I offer this incident and some detail only as an example to illustrate my point.

A township policeman walked right into my house carrying his hostile attitude with him. He said I had been driving on my neighbor’s lawn. I asked what made him think it was me, but got no answer. I was familiar with the tracks and know they are not in the neighbor’s lawn but in an access easement on another neighbor’s property. I offered to show the officer where the property line is but he angrily refused. He said if the neighbor called again he would assume I was guilty of whatever the neighbor claimed and take any action he deemed necessary. He opened the door.

I said I had another question he had to answer. He said he didn’t have to answer anything. I asked anyway. In a very belligerent tone he gave me his badge number and last name, then he was gone.

As it happens, I agree with Thomas Jefferson and Superman. This isn’t what I think of as the “American Way”. Now the question was what can I do?

Our new, megabucks, township police station is closed to the public, so I called the police and asked for the chief. The dispatcher at the county seat said the chief was gone for the day (it was 5:10 PM) and the only officer on duty was the one I had seen. He suggested I call again in the morning. I asked what I should do if my neighbor or this officer did something to me before then. He said to call 911 which of course would pass the message along to the cop I was complaining about.