CRIME STOPPERS!

CRIME STOPPERS!

(New York Times, Benjamin Weiser, Joe Holly)

(David Thibodeau, U.S. Department of Justice, Inspector General)

(Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

(John Diedrich, Raquel Rutledge, Lori Gliba, Evan Puschak, Chris W. Cox, Frazer Chronicle)

An overused axiom, “crime stoppers” U.S. taxpayers pay, and pay, and pay…..and what do we get for a dough ray me, ballooning crime: don’t walk in this neighborhood after dark and lock your doors, many inner city areas in the United States look like  demilitarized zones.

There are 80 different federal law enforcement agencies, from the F.B.I. to the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA) to the U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement and Investigation. Each of these agencies has the authority to launch investigations, arrest people, and if necessary…..they can shoot you. And these figures don’t even address city, county, township, village, or state law enforcement agencies.

We’re law enforced out, it would seem like every fifth or sixth person, male or female, is connected in some way, shape, or manner to law enforcement at some level. And then there’s private security that almost every business employs or so it seems. These people may not have the authority to shoot you, but they can kick your butt all over the place until you’re hoping for a bullet to put you out of your misery.

In a watchdog report, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s John Diedrich and Raquel Rutledge reported about botched investigations that were carried on by the ATF in Milwaukee. The caper cost taxpayers thousands of dollars and netted very few results. The most serious result of the investigation was the fact that hundreds of dollars worth of guns are missing.

I won’t go into the obvious that usually is associated with shoddy law enforcement work, like bullying and harassment or unpaid bills. Everybody who’s anybody knows about these bad actors…..and they justify themselves under the guise of protecting citizens.

The bad part of the equation is the fact that the miscues that happened in Milwaukee last year are wide-spread, and of course, we don’t know about it. Throughout the country federal agencies (remember there are 80) botch all manner of investigative work…..remember that Whitey Bolger fiasco thing up in Boston and the F.B.I. people died in that screw-up.

It happens all over our nation, Detroit, Wichita, Kansas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Los Angeles, California, and Pensacola, Florida. And many of these court cases aren’t tough to defend, how do you spell entrapment. There’s even been a brand new defense lodged by defense attorneys, its call outrageous, that’s right, these guilty guys and their mouth pieces simply cite outrageous conduct by law enforcement, even though these guys are guilty as hell. 

 

IT GETS TO A POINT WHERE THE CRIMINALS AND THE GOOD GUYS BLEND TOGETHER

We are, as a nation, desensitized to the pile of cash that we fork over every year so that law enforcement can continue an almost study in futility. There was a case…..in point, here in Green Bay back in the middle 1990’s where some workers at a local paper mill were supposed to have killed a fellow working by tying a cement block to him and then throwing him into a pulp vat.

There were five or six guys that the cops and D.A. said were in on the crime, and they all went to trial, were convicted, and with the exception of one guy, they’re all still serving time. They have all maintained their innocence to the crime…..yet not one of those fellows still in jail has ratted out any of the others…..isn’t that strange? Today the prosecutor…..the former prosecutor is now a judge…..surprise, surprise, surprise!

Using informants, snitches or rats by police agencies has been around forever, and I assume that the practice is a necessary evil of law enforcement and plays a vital role in the apprehension and incarceration of the criminal element throughout the country. However it would seem to me that the practice needs to be done in a responsible manner…..like murders, child molesters, rapists and habitual criminals aren’t used because of the manner in which they lead their lives, as well as their transgressions against society.

Physically and mentally challenged people, no matter their usefulness should also be off limits for the obvious reason, believability in court. People aren’t stupid, they know when a person is being taken advantage of because of their disabilities, or station in life.

Money for bribes or law enforcement supplying inducements for testimony is usually pretty easy to identify, and would seem a one way ticket for dismissal of whatever charges are pending against a perpetrator who suddenly turns into a victim.

THERE IS AN ATTITUDE OUT THERE LIKE MIAMI VICE

Today we’ve got ourselves an attitude on the law enforcement landscape, a segment of law enforcement figure that they are auditioning for a part in Miami Vice. Somebody needs to tell law enforcement agencies that the series has been in re-runs for the past 26 years, and both Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas have moved on to other of life’s roles.

And the chung, chung of Law and Order isn’t real, and parts of the series has been cancelled, so prosecuting attorneys and judges can also quite their primping for possible roles that might open up next season.

To a large degree the entire spectrum of law enforcement, policing work, and the jurisprudence that is carried on by attorneys and judges can both worry more about carrying out investigations and then court proceedings, and not worrying about how they look, or how people might react to their decisions…..after all, they are all in the positions that they occupy for one purpose, to administer the laws of the land.

The thousands of people that earn their livelihood from law enforcement have a responsibility to do the best job that they can each and every day…..nobody can slip through the cracks in our jurisprudence system, the consequences can be catastrophic. Whenever people’s freedom, and in some cases, their lives can be held in the balance of law…..everybody needs to give the process their level best shot.

HAVE A NICE DAY!