The Terrible Costs of Police Misconduct: Lives and dollars lost

I happened upon a website that shocked me. I have always had a deep and abiding interest in preserving and defending our precious Constitutional Rights, and as anyone knows that studies the issue, there is an epidemic of abuse, neglect , murder and deprivation of rights, well documented and undeniable.

Let us take a look at the COSTS of police misconduct, first from the financial side and then from the human side.

Multi-millions of dollars are paid out every year to settle claims against the police. When you look at the statistics, there are a few cities and police departments that generate a disporportionate number of claims, usually larger cities, but abuse can be found all across the nation.

Also, in many cases it is a few cops in particular that account for many complaints, and studies show that most police brass tend to dismiss complaints outright or fail to properly discipline their officers unless the case is so outrageous that the media gets involved.

Take a look at this site: it is just one of many, but documents the horros that occur daily across this nation:

www.totalinjury.com...

Think for a moment of all the money being spent to try cases in court or settle for damages, and what it could be spent for to help society.If the insurance companies and local governments that are writing the checks could bank the money and use it to help the People, we would all benefit. As it is, all taxpayers and citizens are getting screwed, as usual, but it need not be that way. If the police brass demanded that their officers stop brutailinz people and acting outside the law, we would see far fewer cases of this type, and reap vast savings in associated costs.

Can you imagine what it costs to keep someone in a hospital and give him operations? Then the therapy and drugs, and care..and then the court and lawyer costs, and all the public servants that have to be paid as part of using the system...the costs are staggering in a monetary sense.

Here are a few stomach turning examples from that list:

$8 Million Awarded in Largest Police Misconduct Verdict
September 16, 2008

"A Superior Court jury ordered the city of San Diego to pay $8 million in damages to Pablo Gomez, who fell into a coma after allegedly being knocked to the ground by a San Diego police officer. During an altercation in January of 2006, Officer Joseph De Veaux pushed the San Diego resident backwards, causing him to hit his head on the pavement. Gomez suffered a five-inch skull fracture and fell into a coma for about a month after the incident. Although the courtroom found that Gomez suffered $11.5 million in damages, the panel found both the city and Gomez negligent. The officer was never disciplined and has since left the department to work as a private contractor in Iraq."

And: "$16 Million Awarded to Man Falsely Convicted for Child Molestation
September 9, 2008

A jury awarded a Missouri man who spent more than five years in prison $14 million in actual damages and $2 million in punitive damages. The man was imprisoned on child molestation charges, for which he was acquitted from in 2005.

The court ruled that the man's ex-wife and a police officer, who were planning to marry each other, conspired to violate his fair-trial rights. His lawyers argued that the police officer read but intentionally neglected to seize the alleged molestation victim's diary, which could have been critical in the man's defense.

The police officer, who is still actively working for a Kansas police department, could be responsible for paying most of the judgment, but the city he works for will wind up with the bill after it settled its part of the case by agreeing to cover any judgment against the cop."

And:

"$1.7 Million to Brothers Wrongfully Arrested for Videotaping Drug Raid
April 3, 2008

Two brothers in Harris County, Texas, settled a lawsuit for $1.7 million against the county for alleged violations of civil rights. Their lawsuit claimed that they were wrongfully arrested for videotaping a drug raid by the county sheriff's department at a neighbor's home. Officers arrested the two, breaking into their home and destroying the film in their camera. In addition to the compensation money, the county will be responsible for legal fees and court costs. In the investigation, news sources indicate, racially and sexually explicit e-mails were discovered on the computer of the district attorney involved in the case."


and:

"$20 Million to Former Inmates Tortured by Chicago Police

Former death row inmates Stanley Howard, Madison Hobley, Leroy Orange and Aaron Patterson settled a lawsuit for $19.8 million alleging that former police commander Jon Burge supervised their torture in order to gain confessions of a murder. The torture alleged by the lawsuit included beatings and electric shocks. The four men were pardoned by former Illinois Governor George Ryan in 2003, and now they will split the nearly $20 million for their victimization at the hands of Burge and his men. This settlement comes at time when the Chicago Police Department has been under heavy scrutiny for its dramatically high number of complaints for abuse and brutality."

and:

"Man Wins $4 Million from Chicago Police for Search Violation

A Chicago man reached a $4 million settlement with the City of Chicago over violations that took place during a run-in with Chicago Police 3 years ago. Coprez Coffie, a grocery store employee who was searched by police officers, alleged in the suit that police inserted a screwdriver into his buttocks while searching for drugs. The jury found after three days of deliberation that the accused officers had indeed committed the violation, and lawyers had agreed beforehand that if the jury found in favor of Coffie, he would receive $4 million. The trial came at the same time as news that Chicago will disband its elite drug and gang squad because of repeated misconduct including recent charges ranging from armed violence and home invasion to kidnapping and plotting a murder-for-hire."

The list is so long and the abuses so egregious that you get the idea: read it yourself to see even more MILLIONS of dollars wasted.

Now imagine the HUMAN costs, the suffering of torture, the broken bones, the dead loved ones..and try and put a dollar figure on that. Good luck.



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Just a very quick observation as to who initiates and drives up many of these costs. The very people whose website this is.

reply to post by richierich

If the insurance companies and local governments that are writing the checks could bank the money and use it to help the People, we would all benefit.

If the Police would just go and disappear, insurance companies and local govts would be able to help the people like they've always wanted to.

Criminals wouldn't face persecution from the law and be allowed to make a living without being hassled by 'the Man.' People forget that criminals have families too...they're all somebody's sons or daughters.

Until you raised the point, I thought it was local govts and insurance companies that were driving up the cost of living and generating new laws to criminalise Joe and Jane Public.

reply to post by Kandinsky


Rather than ' disppear ' , why not just say " If police would do their jobs correctly and not abuse their positions, we would all benefit in many ways"? To take the silliest and most radical response and propose it seems to be a bit ridiculous, doesn't it?

The POINT is that is costs ALL of us when cop go bad, which is often. Now do you care to make a mature obervation?