From Comments | "This statement is shockingly ignorant: ignorant of basic human rights, of police training and ethics, of the necessity of moral response, AND of the fact that, if you really do care about police officers and their lives and careers, you would care about this: A police officer who FAILS TO INTERVENE in a basic violation of constitutional rights (excessive use of force is one; no probable cause for arrest is another) is JUST AS GUILTY as those committing the crimes.
Do you doubt that police can be convicted as criminals for these violations? They CAN. Can they be sued personally to their last penny? They CAN. That's why Local 1 of the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association, which represents state troopers and inspectors, "requested that the state Department of Transportation defend its members in the event of lawsuits in response to the restriction of Capitol grounds to the public." Daily Kos, March 10; "The Wisconsin State Troopers Union is alarmed by Governor Walker’s order to deploy them in what may have be an illegal mission to restrict access to the Wisconsin Capitol. They are concerned that the deployment may wreak financial havoc on the individual troopers in the event that lawsuits are filed against them," PoliticsUSA, May 13.
As a retired member of the Wisconsin State Patrol and an instructor in constitutitonal law to federal law enforcement officers, I'm heatsick and shocked that you condone excessive police actions under "serious stress." You do the police no favors. What you--and all of us--need to do is rise up in MORAL OUTRAGE that Gov Walker is using the State Patrol illegally; that State Patrol Superintendent Fitzgerald (yes, the Fitzgerald brothers' daddy) is willingly putting them in this situation every day, and that NO ONE in the State Patrol apparently has the guts to put a leash on the few who act wrongly."
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