Dallas | Drunken Dallas Cops to get Cab Rides

from copblock.org

Drunken Dallas Cops to get Cab Rides

Posted on 19 January 2011 by Ademo Freeman

In hopes of curbing the offenses allegedly committed by drunken Dallas (TX) police officers, the city’s major police union is going forward with a program to provide cab rides for no charge to officers who believe they have had too much alcohol to drink.

For the past year, the Dallas Police Department has been a more visible source of embarrassment and misconduct than most. Beyond the commonplace instance of police brutality or asinine comment made by the police chief blaming women for the city’s spike in rapes, a good handful of Dallas police also apparently have had trouble keeping their drinking under control.

In June, an off-duty officer was arrested for firing her gun in a police squad car while being escorted home by on-duty officers after a night of drinking. Two months ago, another Dallas officer was arrested in a neighboring county on suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI), when police records indicate that drug paraphernalia was found in her car. In December, a Dallas officer, who days before had been suspected of smelling of alcohol while on patrol, was arrested on suspicion of committing a DWI offense. Showing appreciation for his mentors, a trainee was apprehended on a DWI-related charge back in September.

The cab program will be funded by the Dallas Police Association, which helped secure a paltry two percent pay cut, the union’s first pay cut in three decades, in a time of an unprecedented $130 million city budget shortfall.

It goes without saying just how embarrassing it must be for Dallas police to concede that there are officers on the force who habitually break laws they are paid to enforce.

It is unclear just how successful the program could be. As part of their job, cops are so routinely obnoxious, violent, destructive and quick-tempered that it may be difficult for them to recognize when are drunk or not.

In all seriousness, this brings to light the fact that cops have the same every-day problems as other people. On average, they are no more honest, brave or intelligent than the rest of the population they berate. Upon then examining the method by which their salaries are extracted from peaceful people, there is even less reason to hold police in high esteem.

Their actions should be looked up in the same light as anyone else’s might, not as if they acquire a unique moral nature while wearing a government-issued uniform.

For sure, the apologists for police misconduct will say that some abuses of power come along with the job, that there are unfortunate casualties in the ongoing effort to protecting the public. I would pose a simple question to those people, assuming their premise were true. If the nature of the public is so corrupt that we cannot be free, how is it that we can trust the motives of those who would control us? “Or,” as Frederic Bastiat might ask, “do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?”

Adam Freeman is an advocate for a voluntary society, one where people are free to live their lives so long as they don't initiate force on others. He uses a camera and blogs to spread the message of voluntarism. Adam has also been involved with other projects such as the Motorhome Diaries, Fr33Agents, the Free State Project and Liberty On Tour.