As it stands, unless a government employee is convicted of a felony against a citizen, the citizen may well be unable to get compensation for his injuries.
In the case of a cop who has exceeded his authority, as some have done with warrantless home invasions, the dead victim is out of luck. Just another death by cop.
Now, most cops are decent guys. They work within the law. They do no use their guns without a reasonable cause - like being fired upon.
The few who do are too often in those units that treat the average citizen as a likely perp. These would, often, be the drug units. I'm generally skeptical of legalization, as my former profession as a teacher leads me to be suspicious that the outcome would result in massive increase in drugs in schools.
However, one beneficial outcome of the end of the drug war would be disbanding these units, and likely reducing the number of shooting incidents.
So, how would that change work?
Cops would have to get insurance that pays the victims of an unjustified shooting. Those cops that have a higher number of incidents would be rated to pay more. It's a use of market forces to rein in those cowboy cops.
Many professionals already do this - dentists, teachers, doctors, attorneys. With the union and county-wide or state-wide government entities working to get group coverage, the cost shouldn't be prohibitive.
Sorry Linda I beg to differ with your statement "Now, most cops are decent guys.". As far as I can tell from all of the stories seen on the net 'The Blue Line' stands firm. It is still seen as 'US' against 'them' and the them is any non-law enforcement. The problem is that they see themselves as 'Law Enforcement Officers' not as Peace Officers. As long as they are given 'Qualified Immunity' they are untouchable and will do as they please within or without the law. My belief is that they should be held to a higher standard than regular citizens not lower protected status, but, after the Supreme Court decisions that police have no duty to protect a citizen and that 'officer safety' trumps citizen safety, let alone the Conn. decision that police with over IQ of 85 are unsuitable to become officers, what other decision could a regular guy come to?
ReplyDeleteI do agree my experience is not that of most peoples - in that regard, I have been privileged. I have lived in relatively low-crime areas, and my recent connections with cops is the SROs - the School Resource Officers.
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