Excaliber, what an excellent post!Excaliber wrote: As with any organization, what takes place at the level of execution is a direct reflection of the competence, principles and integrity of the person at its head.
I do not believe that LE organizations exist in a vacuum. The point that I quoted from you post covers all of governmental agencies and the impact is similar across them. Not all agencies have the power over life and death that LE groups do but can affect us in many other ways. The problem is the same. LE exists within multiple levels of government and each host organization can have an influence over LE in principals and integrity - positively or negatively.
The fundamental truth is that larger organizations either actively work at serving their constituencies or the power that they have corrupts them to believe that people serve them. How many for-profit companies get to the point where they exist for themselves, not their customers? In a truly free market (not propped up by corruption and governmental intervention) the customers of the company would correct that self-serving flaw. In governmental agencies, there is no customer correction and corrections through the ballot box are too diffused to be of much use. Outside of that, a citizen uprising has to be of significant size before any changes are made and often those are done on a token or appeasement basis even then.
There is more at work than problems with LE in the Erik Scott matter. Our "free press" should have helped the citizens to demand a full accounting of the situation but has been woefully lacking in the duty. I had high hopes with the demise of the major print media to a secondary role that Internet reporting would help to shine the spotlight on questionable police situations. That may happen but it hasn't yet and that removes a check and balance with LE activity. Someone from the outside needs to be constantly looking and asking questions. I place a large part of the blame for the overuse of SWAT with the news media.
Our daughter has been a police dispatcher for quite a few years and often sees the inside of stories that are otherwise poorly represented to the citizens of her town. Even with a well intentioned chief who, from all outward appearances, is a principled man, it is all too easy for the vast array of rookie officers that he commands to mis-step. While I understand need to keep personnel matters an internal issue, the failure to actively pursue them internally reinforces for those involved that they can get away with more than they should. Of course, the same could be said for doctors and the medical profession.
Many blame the citizens for not being more involved and, to some extent, that is probably true. Citizens can only act upon the information that they have and there appears to be a loose conspiracy to prevent them from having that information. How many besides those on this forum have even heard about this event let alone the possible LE abuse overtones that it has?
Thanks again for your insight on this matter.
Chas