Two-Tiered Justice System Operating in Milwaukee

In his new book Liberty and Justice for Some, which I do not have the money to buy or the time to read at the moment, Glenn Greenwald writes about what he calls "Two-Tiered Justice System" of America.  At the higher tier, inhabited by political and financial elites, promises scant if any charges or prosecutions relating to serious and damaging crimes, such as the creation of the Bush Torture Regime and the events that led up to the Financial Collapse of 2008.  Most other people, including me and everyone else I know, fall into the lower tier of the Justice System.   If most people are charged with a crime, they have the largest, most well-funded criminal justice system in the world bearing down on them; which includes district attorneys who can and do break the law and violate constitutional rights with few, if any, legal ramifications, a brutal punishment-oriented prison system, juries that assume a defendant's guilt before the trial begins, and a broken, underfunded public defense system.

For people who read up on issues like criminal justice, Greenwald's point is not news.  And from the reviews I've read, his focus on elites, both political and financial, misses what is one of the worst routine miscarriages of justice in the country: the relative immunity of police officers.  Unless the crime is particularly violent and heinous, such as the shooting death of Kathyrn Johnston or the New Orleans Police murders on the Danziger Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, police officers almost never face criminal prosecution for the crimes they commit, which often include assault and battery, false arrest, and depriving citizens of their constitutional rights.

Close to home, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently finished a two year long investigation into Milwaukee police who commit crimes.  And the picture the investigation paints is not pretty:

At least 93 Milwaukee police officers - ranking from street cop to captain - have been disciplined for violating the laws and ordinances they were sworn to uphold, a Journal Sentinel investigation found.

Their offenses range from sexual assault and domestic violence to drunken driving and shoplifting, according to internal affairs records. All still work for the Police Department, where they have the authority to make arrests, testify in court and patrol neighborhoods.

Officers who run afoul of the law often aren't fired or prosecuted, the newspaper found.

Consider:

At least six officers disciplined by the department for illegal behavior suffered no legal consequences whatsoever. One was Reginald Hampton, accused of sexually assaulting two women he met on duty. Another was Mark Kapusta, suspended after a woman said he pointed a gun at her head during a drunken road-rage incident. Neither officer was charged or ticketed.

Twenty-three officers got breaks from prosecutors that allowed them to avoid being convicted of serious charges - or any charges at all - as long as they didn't commit more crimes and followed prosecutors' instructions. One was Patrick Fuhrman, originally charged with a felony for a beating that sent his wife to the hospital and, according to a witness, left blood in every room of their house. A conviction on that charge could have gotten him fired from the department, banned from carrying a gun for life and imprisoned for 3½ years. Instead, he ended up with two tickets for disorderly conduct.

Nine of the 93 officers were convicted of crimes. Some even spent time behind bars. Yet when their criminal cases were concluded, they went back to their careers with the Milwaukee police. At least one, John P. Corbett, was a police sergeant by day and an inmate by night. Convicted of driving drunk with a child in the car, Corbett did his job at the police station while on work release from jail. His 13-year-old daughter told authorities Corbett took the wheel after she got lost driving back from a tavern.

The Police Department, district attorney's office and Fire and Police Commission share responsibility for keeping officers in line.

All three fall short.

If I was caught beating a girlfriend or wife so badly that the attack "left blood in every room of [my] house" I doubt I the DA would strike me a deal, even though I've never been tried or convicted of anything more serious than a speeding ticket.  But as the article points out, Officer Patrick Fuhrman was able to duck any serious charges and still works for the Milwaukee Police Department, where he is liable to handle other domestic abuse cases. 

Yes, not all police are bad people.  But the culture in many police departments around the country is cancerous and insulates criminals from meaningful prosecution, which allows them to keep committing crimes and abusing citizens, which sometimes include members of their own families.  And officers who don't commit crimes often help to either cover for their criminal co-workers, or excuse their behavior. 

If you have time, go to the news portion of the PoliceOne website and read the comments.  Whenever a cop is caught in an illegal act, commenters often excuse it, or hope the officer receives mental health therapy, and some of them even go so far to propose that when an officer is charged with a crime, the jury should only be composed of fellow law enforcement officers.  But if a person like you or me who is not an officer, which many of the commenters love to call "sheep" or "sheeple," then they are simply badguys, thugs, pieces of trash, or what have you. 

Unfortunately, government agencies tasked with holding police officers responsible often fail to do so, but the criminal justice system rarely fails to meet out harsh justice against us powerless "sheeple."