Make officers personally liable for civil and criminal penalties when they break laws or violate rights, even if acting on orders or in accordance with their departmental policies. Simple fix.
Haha! If only that were true, it took the riots during COVID (often regarded as BLM but was at it's core were really about rampant Police abused and corruption as seen erupt in France) and an immense amount of backlash on Gov. Poli-- he seriously risked not being re-elected--and having it's major cities (Denver, Boulder) be lit on fire like lots of the US before that happened [0].
As a person who wished that would have been retroactively applied to my own encounter with police misconduct, I can assure you it is far from simple and took a lot of effort that was paid in blood; but so far it is the only State in the US that has removed protected immunity and made police personally liable for any crimes/injries they commit while on duty. This is the only deterrent that works, I would go so far as to say that if they refuse to terminate them (as it's common to just remove them from their precinct to another) that after so many complaints their pension should be reduced for every infraction.
My experience is that Police and Sheriff's office are still as arrogant as ever but are notably more tame towards civilians than they were before COVID in my interactions with them since, they are not only being constantly recorded which can and will be used against them in court but they were humbled by being restrained and forced to utilize deescalation and communication after a long history of Police abuse being the default mode of operation in what is mainly a predominately White and Hispanic population.
This is a very controversial point to remark here for some reason, but it must be noted as the criminal justice system was not swayed by Black Lives at tall because they comprise a small number of the population (who are disproportional profiled for sure) but rather push back from the abuse that even white women were subject to while being illegally arrested and then repeatedly tased whil ebeing forced and restrained to a chair (viewer warning: its pretty grim) and somehow still had to go to the Supreme Court for it to be properly judicated (settlement reached for the plaintiff with some token reform that just added another footnote to a long list of police misconduct in CO) because Colorado Law exempted police from obvious wrong doing [1]. And I know from personal experience that at least 2 of those officers present in that footage were still kept on the force.
The US is in major needs of a re-vamp to it's criminal justice system and how police should operate (starting by de-militarizing them) and we in Colorado led the way in that regard but it's still not enough, and most importantly is far from a 'simple fix' given the entrenched relationship between Police and politics as well as the strong might of the Police Lobby/Unions that protect 'their own' at all costs in what is still a rather rural and mainly conservative State.
Melting_Harps|2 years ago
Haha! If only that were true, it took the riots during COVID (often regarded as BLM but was at it's core were really about rampant Police abused and corruption as seen erupt in France) and an immense amount of backlash on Gov. Poli-- he seriously risked not being re-elected--and having it's major cities (Denver, Boulder) be lit on fire like lots of the US before that happened [0].
As a person who wished that would have been retroactively applied to my own encounter with police misconduct, I can assure you it is far from simple and took a lot of effort that was paid in blood; but so far it is the only State in the US that has removed protected immunity and made police personally liable for any crimes/injries they commit while on duty. This is the only deterrent that works, I would go so far as to say that if they refuse to terminate them (as it's common to just remove them from their precinct to another) that after so many complaints their pension should be reduced for every infraction.
My experience is that Police and Sheriff's office are still as arrogant as ever but are notably more tame towards civilians than they were before COVID in my interactions with them since, they are not only being constantly recorded which can and will be used against them in court but they were humbled by being restrained and forced to utilize deescalation and communication after a long history of Police abuse being the default mode of operation in what is mainly a predominately White and Hispanic population.
This is a very controversial point to remark here for some reason, but it must be noted as the criminal justice system was not swayed by Black Lives at tall because they comprise a small number of the population (who are disproportional profiled for sure) but rather push back from the abuse that even white women were subject to while being illegally arrested and then repeatedly tased whil ebeing forced and restrained to a chair (viewer warning: its pretty grim) and somehow still had to go to the Supreme Court for it to be properly judicated (settlement reached for the plaintiff with some token reform that just added another footnote to a long list of police misconduct in CO) because Colorado Law exempted police from obvious wrong doing [1]. And I know from personal experience that at least 2 of those officers present in that footage were still kept on the force.
The US is in major needs of a re-vamp to it's criminal justice system and how police should operate (starting by de-militarizing them) and we in Colorado led the way in that regard but it's still not enough, and most importantly is far from a 'simple fix' given the entrenched relationship between Police and politics as well as the strong might of the Police Lobby/Unions that protect 'their own' at all costs in what is still a rather rural and mainly conservative State.
0: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-colora...
1: https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/boulder-county-sett...