Reading the article made me so angry I'm having a hard time even expressing my anger in words.
Police officers who behave like this should be in prison and banned from ever getting a job as a cop again. The bosses who authorize and cover for them should be in prison as well. Behavior like this should be absolutely unacceptable. Instead it's encouraged and praised by the people who should be holding them accountable.
I'm sure there are a few cops out there who would never behave this way, but the bad ones seem to be increasing in number rapidly. A lot of it undoubtedly has to do with the fact that their power keeps increasing, and that attracts the wrong sort of person to the job. And peer pressure and isolation from the rest of society due to their us-vs-them mentality doesn't help for the rest of them. When faced with their friends abusing power, it's easier to ignore it and let it slide rather than make waves.
A key solution is to end the War on Drugs, which is the fodder for this madness. That can only happen when the population realizes that it is a failure and that a different approach is needed.
Otherwise reasonable people will say "but these drugs are dangerous and we must protect people from their harm" -- help them understand that is a fallacy and you will have made a difference.
It was "the fodder for this madness", but it is now so beyond just the Drug War ending the latter wouldn't change this problem.
The actual result would be way worse for those of us who aren't part of the drug culture as the police-judicial complex would struggle to avoid layoffs. Which is also part of our problem, real crime is way down (certain parts of the country excepted), yet the authorities haven't downsized in response.
Good luck getting the DA to actually press charges. If the DA says it's not a crime, you don't have any standing to go to a judge for criminal proceedings. You can only sue for civil.
With how corrupt things seem to be in some places, that's a definite loophole.
It is easy to feel powerless, but we have to remember that we have direct access to the most powerful system ever invented for information transfer. Time to use for something other than looking at cats!
