Right here.
Fortunately for the woman who announced that she was going to make a complaint, her husband -- the judge -- was standing right next to her.

Hmm... I wonder if, should the cops, Officers Casper and Meith, involved in this fib about their own behavior in this isolated incident, if they appear in front of that judge or his brother/sister judges, they should recuse themselves.

Another good piece by Demko, of course.

from the article:


Must be going back to the 1800's and the Indian Treaties. More than two constitutes a 'war-party' and can be shot on sight.

Sad, sad situation.

Again I will say, the only way to get it thru these officer's heads is if the cost of the payouts comes from their retirement fund and their operating budget for the precinct. The good cops will toss out the bad ones when they start finding they will get no raises or retirement because of morons like these too.

His Honor the Judge does workmans comp hearings and he's supposed to be a stand up guy from my quick research.

Good for them. I don't really know how to say this without saying too much, but the best I can come up with is a lot of people would be really surprised as to the goings on in the MPD. Those that are aware of my position understand my issue with being more forthcoming.

You'd have to wonder about the training officers receive.

People have a right to reclaim their cars, and it's not happening. Wouldn't the officer first pressure the impound people to get moving? Call the boss and tell them of the problem?

I'd bet that if the officers were waiting for a refund at a store, or their paycheck were late, or somebody's truck blocked their car in for over an hour, and they were told to just Shut Up and Sit Down and wait, they'd scream bloody murder, and threaten to arrest somebody.

The problem was obviously not the people, it was the impound lot.

Heck of a thought, I like it

Well, that's part of it, but not the whole. I've gone through the POST Skills requirements and I am still POST eligible to be a cop. They get some pretty damn good practical and theoretical training in Skills.

The issue is, IMHO, primarily on the MPD, all the way up through the ranks, starting with the rookies, and likely actually starting with the CSOs and the Meter Maids. Even with my training, morals, and values, I could see the temptation were I to get hired by MPD as a cop to follow suit of how the cops are now.

Well, the police were called to settle things down. The impound lot was stiring up trouble by not getting the cars out in a reasonable time. The longer it goes the more people show and the worse it gets.

The cops seemed to grasp that tapping on the glass was not right but not that keeping peoples cars after they showed up to redeem them was improper.

Instead, police just automatically supported the impound lot, and threatened the people.

I think they should have told the impound clerk to call their bosses, because there was a real problem, provoked by the impound lot.

The impound lot is under the Department of Public Works, A former Director of that Department used to take public relations and an understand that people who show up there are already pissed off and had training in diffusing tension, customer relations etc in place, his replacement, A Rybak appointee, cut all that as wasted and ineffectual, which has led to a sharp increase in incidents down there.