The title is a quote from “Cato’s letter” which warns us in one section “The only security which we can have that men will be honest, is to make it their interest to be honest; and the best defence which we can have against their being knaves, is to make it terrible to them to be knaves.”
There’s often a temptation to go easy on people because they’re our allies or they’re supposedly the good guys or we owe them a favor or because they’re respected members of the cops/legislature/clergy/business community. We shouldn’t. That’s what allows groomers to flourish in churches. Here’s another example. Not that secular abusers and harassers and those who cover up for them are better. E.g., Colorado Republican Ken Buck, who many years back refused to prosecute a rape on the grounds it looked like buyer’s remorse to him (as it does to lots of misogynists).
What makes it worse that people in certain positions get extra trust. To lots of people cops are awesome, priests are trustworthy; I’m sure that helped Eli Regalado, a Colorado pastor who sold bogus cryptocurrency to Denver’s Christian community. His defense: God told him to do it. It definitely helped the New Orleans cop who answered a 17-year-old’s rape report, groomed her, then raped her.
Cops? Slacktivist has an excellent round-up of cops behaving very badly. Like how Houston avoided investigating 264,000 reports, for example sexual assault reports. The DA whose anti-drug ad lied about a schoolgirl who died from touching fentanyl. The death row inmate freed after 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit. The FBI ripping off innocent people in a large score. Plus the depressing reality that kids and teachers get more active shooter training than most cops.
This iss why the Supreme Court helping keep Trump out of jail until after the election is troubling — even if they don’t sign off on his claim of absolute presidential immunity they’re doing their best to keep him safe in his station and make it acceptable for him to be a rogue. The same can be said of Trump’s promises to give immunity to cops to rough up migrants.
This iss why the Supreme Court helping keep Trump out of jail until after the election is troubling — even if they don’t sign off on his claim of absolute presidential immunity they’re doing their best to keep him safe in his station and make it acceptable for him to be a rogue. The same can be said of Trump’s promises to give immunity to cop who rough up immigrants.
Unchanged: Or consider Minneapolis, where settling lawsuits over bad behavior is draining the city of cash. Making it unsafe for cops to be crooks or killers would be better. Mississippi state government just turns a blind eye to cops behaving like criminals.
