Let's stop saying bad police officers are rare. Fact is they're plentiful from coast to coast. [View all]

[damnedifIknow]

A regular refrain from politicians who speak on the issue of police brutality is that bad police officers, be they corrupt or brutal or racist or sexist, are rare. If by rare, we mean that it is rare for a police officer to be convicted for brutality or corruption or anything else, then yes, you are right, convictions are outrageously rare. Only about 1% of police officers who kill someone are ever convicted for misconduct of any kind, even though the evidence routinely and overwhelmingly shows that police misconduct far outpaces convictions.

I'd like to suggest three new ways for you to consider just how widespread police brutality and corruption and ugliness truly are in the United States.

1. The ugliness knows no geographical or political boundaries. It's truly nationwide.

Not including police departments that are currently being investigated, such as the Baltimore Police Department, the Justice Department currently has enforced agreements in which it was forced to intervene in widespread problems with police departments and jails and juvenile detention centers in almost every state in the country.

Often thought to be the most liberal big city in America, the San Francisco Police Department, while being investigated for corruption, was also found to have a deep and horrendous problem with racism.

The same thing happened in Ft. Lauderdale.

And in Miami.

And Ohio.

And Baton Rouge.

And New Jersey.

And Georgia.

And, of course, Ferguson.

*For millions of Americans, this issue is the most important issue in our nation. It's time we act like it."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/15/1384993/-Let-s-stop-saying-bad-police-officers-are-rare-Fact-is-they-re-plentiful-from-coast-to-coast