During recent years, there have been many cases of police corruption and police abuse coming to light through the media. This year in Maryland, a police officer decided to snitch on his colleagues which has led to the discovery of gang like behavior within the police department.
Not long ago, it was reported that a group of officers from the Baltimore police department were busted with possession of toy guns. The officers carried around the toys in the case that they shot an unarmed civilian, their intentions were to plant the toy guns as evidence to excuse their trigger-happy behavior against the people they vowed to protect and serve. Once planted, the toy guns change the atmosphere of the crime scene.
With this toy gun in place, the civilian is no longer looked at as an upstanding member of society. They are now a threat to society, and a danger to the officer. The existence of the toy gun in the crime scene gives the officer the ability to use self-defense as an explanation for their use of lethal force.
Although the guns are replicas, they resemble a real weapon which still places a cop in danger. An officer’s title alone already gives them privilege in most unarmed shootings cases regardless of the situation because after all they are the “heroes in blue.” Why would they lie? This exposes how many police departments in the United States operate, thriving in corruption.
A member of the police department came across the fact that his peers were involved in corrupting crime scenes and essentially brutally assaulting and murdering unarmed members of the community. He decided that these unethical acts had to come to light and informed his superiors about what he witnessed. In doing so, he became an outcast in the department, and his colleagues harassed him verbally referring to him as a rat.
They bullied him into resignation, yet he is deviant because his actions diverted from the norm within the police department. When he didn’t cover for his peers he broke a sacred code amongst officers.
The cops involved have apparently committed more than a felony, they have violated a person’s human rights and the rights of all citizens by abusing their power. The officer who resigned loved working in Baltimore, because he felt it was there where he would be able to make the most change and help others.
Imagine if you were in the situation where you had to either lose your job or stand up for your own beliefs. What would have you done in this situation? In which generation do you think we’ll see change?