Philadelphia Daily News reporter William Bender has yet another example of the Philadelphia Police not being properly trained in what the law is, as they harass yet another person open carrying legally. After the Fiorino settlement, the PPD promised to step up training for its officers on the carry laws in Pennsylvania. Apparently whatever they are doing isn’t enough to help. Is it going to take a big civil rights judgement to finally fix this?
12 thoughts on “Training: It’s What’s For Dinner”
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Wiretapping charges in 3..2..1..
Mike, if you’re suggesting the carrier was breaking the law by recording the officers, you clearly don’t have an understanding of the statute AND PA case law on the matter.
Greg, if that’s what you think I’m suggesting, then you didn’t watch the whole video.
Promises get broken without repercussions. Fiorino settled far too soon and get less money than the PPD spends to feed it’s K9 unit. There was nothing in that settlement that held the PPD accountable for anything.
Note, the police offer says “I just had training on this, Im allowed to stop you because your license could be suspended.”
I thought the Ohio vs Terry decided that officer… not you, not Philly… By that logic, they could stop and search every driver on the street.
Someone (Milton Mayer?) once said “The constitution means whatever the cop on the beat says it means.”
If police do not know the law, it’s because they have no need to know it. Except in the rare instances when they’re challenged, they are the law, and there are seldom any serious repercussions for them when they get it wrong.
The first time I was ever arrested, it was under a municipal ordinance of a kind that had been declared generally unconstitutional in the state the year before. I told the cop that, and of course he could not have cared less. When I told the municipal judge that, he said “Shut the f–k up, you’re guilty.” It cost a lot of money to get to the level of court that cared that I was right. There were no repercussions for anyone in the loop, but least of all for the cop who made the arrest. And cops continued making similar arrests, for at least two more decades. I suspect some still do.
I see no prospect for that ever changing, and if it doesn’t, well, continue to whine all you want, but don’t expect different outcomes.
The harrassment will continue until someone pierces the sheild of Qualified Immunity and forces the offending officer to pay out of their own pocket!
“pierces the sheild of Qualified Immunity”
Yup.
This was a thug cop, being a bully and bringing in his fellow cops to openly harass a person committing no crime. It is the bully method of “I don’t like it, so I am going to use my bully pulpit to teach you what I want you to do”! If you talk, you are resisting, if you are respectful and call me officer I will jump down your throat and tell you to shut up.
I keep thinking the greatest invention may be our video enabled phones and lots of video storage. It seems to constantly be the source of truth to the abuse that law abiding folks have to deal with.
I’ve been thinking that ubiquitous video phones and security cameras may eventually have the effect of penetrating one of our greatest cultural myths, that of Officer Friendly, and that our police forces aren’t permeated with bullies and sociopaths that we’d prefer not to know about. It is one more thing that, until acknowledged, can never be cured.
Andy B. Right on.
I have a few LEO’s in my extended family. Every one of them when questioned say they want these guys out of the force. When I ask them what they are doing to help mediate them leaving? Nothing. The problem is that they have this CODE. A code to lie and cheat and lie more if it’s to protect one of their own. So when one side of their mouth says “we don’t condone” another LEO being bad ass, they would cover for his bully ass every time. It’s the CODE. The good officers always know who the bad ones are, but rarely ever help to evacuate him/her from the job.
Silly blogger. Philly is a Constitution exempt zone.