Changing My Mind

I am a woman and a Gemini, and sometimes I plan something and simply change my mind in the middle of it. In this case I have changed my mind about the focus on police misconduct. Previously when I searched for books on the topic I found few; however, recently I found many great books that contain extensive research on various forms of police, prosecutor, and judicial misconduct in the U.S. criminal justice system. That's all that I ever wanted – the information available to interested parties.


My first subject for my spotlight on misconduct was an officer known to many in Brevard County, Florida. His name is Frank Carter and he was arrested by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at the end of January 2010. Carter is a controversial officer in that many claim his abusive police practices have helped to bring crime under control in Melbourne, Florida. There are many that consider him a racist as most of his victims are African-American, but I am not so sure about that part. Perhaps most of the victims are not white as Carter's area is a predominantly black area.

When an officer must violate law in order to uphold law the entire point is defeated. I have no doubt that Frank Carter has many victims in the course of his 21-year career with the Melbourne Police Department as I have spoken to several and could offer a list of cases here. No matter what happens with Carter's criminal case, one thing is sure, and that is his life will be forever changed, not unlike the lives of his many victims.

If Carter wanted to pull you over on a traffic stop he did exactly that, regardless of his lack of reasons for the initial traffic stop. It all went downhill from that point. It was Carter's town and he ran it his way – to hell with the damned Constitution. Victims have been shot running away from his traffic stops; unarmed victims that feared Carter.

For all of the stated reasons, I do hope that Carter gets what he has coming. It is time to pay the piper officer. One reason that I have decided not to dig-in here is that he is also entitled to his day in court. Have I already decided guilt or innocence? Yes, but only due to the fact that I've met some of his victims.

While I initially considered my spotlight on abusive cops to be a great idea, I would be no better than they are for deciding their guilt based on what I have read in the news or in court documents. Instead I shall let each have that day in court, and then I'll talk about them one by one. In the meantime I intend to resume writing my usual articles here while I wait and see if Jon Burge ever actually has a trial.