The Omerta Culture Of The LAPD : A Culture Of Racism, Cronyism, Cover-up And Excessive Force?

Below is a link to a very interesting interview regarding the recent issues involving Chris Dorner and the larger culture of corruption in the LA police department.  We clearly know the LAPD has a history of excessive violence, police brutality and excessive shows of force.   No one is condoning the murder of anyone.  This was a horrible situation and Chris Dorner was clearly a very disturbed man who committed murder.  But, there certainly may be extenuating circumstances that helped destabilize him – that is corruption and its role in unfair or unlawful termination.   This former officer in the video brings up some very good points worthy of investigation.  If Dorner were to be brought in and have to stand trial, he might have exposed much of the LAPD’s massive corruption.  That could have clearly contributed to his death or murder.

I made comment recently on another blog that highlights this issue and I believe it is worth repeating.  That is, we have two hundred years of self-interest that has seriously tainted or even destroyed every institution in this nation.  Nothing represents this more than our justice system.  Good people are caught in a system of severe injustice, corruption, self-interest and exploitation.  Actual discovery, truth, reason and justice seems like it is often nothing more than an afterthought when it comes to the working of our justice system.  We see this in countless measurable outcomes.  A recent example includes wishing to arrest and charge a law-abiding man and woman in Indiana with an offense that includes possible jail time.  Their crime?  They nursed a baby deer back to health before releasing it back into the wild.  Why?  Because some statue doesn’t allow for it and there is no discretion used in the application of reason and justice by those enforcing it.   This is representative of the dumbing-down of society that has happened as bureaucrats seek to impose more of their illegitimate authority.  And, because those enforcing the law are being taught what to think rather than how to think.

Here is what needs to happen in some way, shape or form.   Policies of self-interest exist everywhere in our nation.  Red tape.  Nonsense.  Favors to pass ignorant statutes.  Bribery.  The list of reasons are wide, deep and all ego-motivated.   This is the culture Alan Greenspan supported in the 1990s when our banking system was deregulated by the Clinton-Gore regime and complicit Republicans.  

That our police departments self-regulate themselves through an “internal affairs”  operation is completely preposterous and based on the same protection racket and culture of the Omerta (the code of criminal silence) that exists on Wall Street and everywhere else there is self-regulation.  That includes hierarchical religious infraction such as pedophilia and sexual abuse.   In other words, no one ever snitches on their own unless it threatens to expose the entire criminal racket.  That perpetuates massive corruption.   That is exactly how Wall Street operated under its self-regulation. 

There needs to be a citizen-led investigative body aka democratic oversight of all law enforcement and internal secret investigations need to go.   Self-regulation of our law enforcement needs to go.  And, while we are at it, the bar associations are equally ludicrous as self-governing bodies that perpetuate corruption.  A California law professor wrote a book a decade ago and he surveyed a large pool of lawyers and found that about 70% of them admitted to cheating their clients.    The law profession is wildly corrupt across the board.  If democracy and a governing body of citizen-led investigations replaced the crony, clubby, Omerta legal bar associations, this most certainly would stop.  Ditto with the self-regulating medical boards and on and on.   Citizen-led boards can certainly receive advice from subject matter experts but the the concept of self-governing is ludicrous whether we are talking free market capitalism or lawyers or police officers or Wall Street or anyone else. 

The only place self-regulating authority exists is when willed by kings and queens and the mafia.  Well, and other self-interested authority seeking to hide corruption and wrong-doing.

We need to rid ourselves of self-interested authority and replace it with authority of We The People, with complete transparency and interest in the common good aka democracy.  

Video link here.