Police aren’t bad people. There is nothing wrong with being involved in law enforcement, but when something happens (say, if you get a speeding ticket), we tend to blame the officer without really considering that maybe we did something wrong (like we were actually speeding). I think that we like to look down upon officers, and consequently blame them, because they are in a special position – they are the front line of enforcement. They are the face of the law and these people restrict us from doing what we would otherwise do. They are in a power-position over just about everybody on the street and are authorized to use muscle to enforce the law.
I think that this is important to keep in mind, because it is a clear example of how the law works. That is, without a threat to back it up, the law is just words. Imagine two people come into court and are suing each other (a quick detour into the civil realm). When two people come into court, they are submitting to an authority to sort things out between them. If we did not have this authority to settle these disputes what would happen? I think there would be blood. Without some power to backup that authority, whatever the judge decreed would merely be words without any affect.
To broaden the perspective, this is important because without the threat of muscle behind those words (the law), our society could not work as it does. Generally speaking, our system works pretty well. I think that there might be problems, but there are problems with any system.
Police officers enforce the law – they are the muscle behind the words. Because of this, they should be lauded for keeping the streets as sane as they are. However, sometimes officers act outside the law, and when they do this, they tarnishes the entire legal system. When the front lines of the law, act outside of the law based upon their own preferences or dislikes, they call into question the legitimacy of the law. This has repeatedly been seen in police brutality cases like the Rodney King case, etc.
I’m bringing this up because I think police are good people and I don’t like when a few bad cops to tarnish the entire system. But that being the case, or despite of that, it is important to acknowledge individuals who call into question the efficacy of our governance regime.
This post ties in two things that I’m fairly passionate about: biking and when police act outside the law. Here’s the background:
Critical Mass was a biking movement that started in San Francisco that was originally meant to celebrate bike riding in large cities, but also draw attention to how cyclists were treated in cities. (For those of you who are interested a federal judge has recently ruled against Critical Mass in a lawsuit brought by them against police for arresting their members for not having a parade permit. The judge was found that members of Critical Mass’ Constitutional rights were not restricted, which, I think, will mean that Critical Mass gatherings, at least in NYC will continue to become more violent. My thinking is that the idea behind Critical Mass is some sort of civil disobedience, so they are not going to file for parade permits (what type of disobedience is that?), so police officers will start to arrest them, so bikers will resist, so force will be used, etc.) In July, 2008 something similar is ostensibly what happened. Christopher Long was participating in a Critical Mass ride in NYC. He was arrested for resisting arrest, assault, and disorderly conduct. So at this point, a reasonable person (or so I think I’m reasonable) will think that Christopher Long probably did something to antagonize the police, they told him to do something, he resisted and it boiled down to force. Right? Well, no. Not even close. The charges were dropped because of a video that surfaced that alleged shows the arresting officer Patrick Pogan shoving Christopher Long off his bike. Watch the video.
Since this video has surfaced, the charges were dropped against Christopher Long and Patrick Pogan was indicted by a grand jury for his actions. He is still awaiting trial. In fact, his trial has been pending for over a year – he has been “released on recognizance” since December 16, 2008. What this means is that because he has promised to come back to for trial, and this has happened many times, there is no need for bail. If you want to follow what is happening, you can go to this page and enter these numbers, 06416-2008, in the docket area then hit "get the case" button to find what is happening in the case.
It seems like part of the system has worked: an innocent person has not been jailed, which is perhaps the most meritorious aspect of our system. However, the other part, the criminal case against Partick Pogan, is taking a while to materialize. Sometimes it takes a while to get criminal trials going so the delay is not too unexpected. Yet, when it is all over and done with (assuming this does go to trial and he is found innocent), the system will be validated, because this shows that when officers act outside of the law, or especially when they act outside the purview of their power, they become subject to it (so long as there is a home-made video put on youtube).