US Justice – Cops

Clearly Marshall Frank's knowledge of police department structure, including hiring and promotions, is far beyond my own. Frank dedicates a chapter to the topic of "Cops" in his recent book, Criminal Injustice in America: Essays by a Career Cop. I will be the first to admit that cops often live under a microscope and their lives are dedicated to the career, and are not their own to live as they see fit; on duty or off duty. The reason for this is the level of power that comes with the badge. It is a shame, but a few bad apples can spoil it for the entire barrel in this case. Most people have individual encounters with cops at one point or another in their lifetime, and if those encounters are negative, we can easily carry that baggage for the remainder of our lives and in every new brush with the system. One bad experience can weigh like a ton of bricks as is evident in my recent article, Surviving a Police Encounter.

Marshall Frank states: "A police officer is the most powerful human being in the United States. Not the president, not Bill Gates, not the Olympic strong man. A cop is the only person in the nation empowered to physically take your freedom away, on the spot."

To me, the citizen with negative encounters with cops, the statement is in itself scary. Too much power corrupts. Marshall Frank barely addresses this controversial subject though, and instead chooses to discuss departmental structures, which is not surprising to me. I consider the chapter to be the thin blue line, and the proof that even good cops like him just do not talk about bad cops; regardless, bad cops and overzealous cops certainly do exist. I suppose that it was a topic that he couldn't address more thoroughly, as obviously he is aware of many from his own department. He does state that when cops are abusive or corrupt everyone loses, and I must give him credit for asserting his thoughts that far. I lived in Miami in the 80s and I knew bad cops – a list of them.

One of the solutions that Marshall Frank has for the community is to "do away with elected sheriffs," and it's one that I wholeheartedly agree with. I considered Sheriff Kevin Beary from Orange County, Florida to be one of the worst. Beary had no concern with his officers' misconduct, unless it happened to be a publicly popular cause; then, and only then, did he care. Other than this it was a free for all. I know because I lived it for a decade and my complaints of serious misconduct were completely ignored. It was as if they forgot that I was also a citizen, and one that had never been convicted of anything.

Overall I consider Frank Marshall to be one of the best in his field and grounded in reality in respect to almost all issues important in our society in relation to cops, law, and the US criminal justice system. This was an excellent and enlightening book that I would recommend to anyone.