Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

David Bernstein at His Best

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David bernstein does a great job on his blog today giving a cliff notes version of the police culture and testilying.

A lot of this stems from the very difficulty of the job. Many falsehoods begin as retroactive attempts to make an arrest, or other action, conform to proper procedure so that evidence won’t be thrown out on procedural grounds. Often in the stress or perceived danger of an investigation or an encounter with a suspect, an officer breaks the ground rules. So, they write their report, or provide testimony, in a way that paints an untruthful picture of the officer conforming to the rules. (A little of this may have happened in the Crowley-Gates affair, BTW.)

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  2. …it was somewhat astonishing, a must read for anyone who cares about Boston, law enforcement, the rule of law, or civil rights.  I certainly hope Davis goes through with what he says he is going to do.  However, I do wonder if he’s just saying this now to distract from/make up for the humiliation and horrible press confronting the BPD as a result of the Officer Jungle Monkey email fiasco.

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    p>This is that part that was most revealing:

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    “You need to set the rules of engagement first,” he says. It’s only fair. “But from here on in, we are going to deal with lying in a clear and forceful way.”

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    p>Ummm…are not filing a false report and perjury already crimes, never mind against internal department policies? The fact that the Commissioner thinks he needs to fair warning to start punishing officers who break the law and abuse the public trust is incredibly disturbing and is basically an admission that Bernstein is correct when he writes, “The problem is that routine, casual dishonesty has been engrained in the BPD culture and practices for so long, its like the entire departmental biosystem has grown around it.”

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    p>The media, both old and new, need to monitor this with great vigilance.  It was mentioned in the Globe article that similar promises or accountability were made in 1997 (following another PR disaster for the BPD) but four years later the Globe reported that none had been kept.  We don’t need to wait that long to see if this is real, or just lip service paid at a difficult time for the department.

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