How do we solve the police corruption problem in Fairfax County?
Easy.
We bring in fresh blood. We hire
someone who will adjust the attitude of arrogance and entitlement that permeates
the department, an outsider who will change the culture of contempt and
brutality that is the Fairfax County police.
With an honest police chief, meaning someone who wasn’t bred in the
Fairfax County Police department, we won’t need to discuss a citizen oversight
panel to investigate entrapment and murders by the cops-from –another-county on
the local citizenry.
With an ethical man or woman at
the top of the Neanderthal chain, the cops reckless spending could be roped in
and the several thousand yearly misconduct complaints against the police would
actually be investigated and the results of those investigations would be made
public, since, after all, the public pays for them.
And no, the Fairfax County Police ARE NOT investigating complaints
against them. Snap out of it. This isn’t a fairy tale. This is a police
force out of control and to prove that, not one incident report on the killing
of eight unarmed citizens in the past decade has been released to the public in
all probability because they were never investigated in the first place.
Anyway, back to an honest police chief.
The board of supervisors would fire an honest chief who tried to drag
the Fairfax County police force into the light of day. They’d fire him and they
would do it within a year. And they would do that because it’s really
a matter of values which is why Sharon Bulova and her cronies will never bring
in an outside person to manage the police.
What the board wants is someone who has no values, someone who won’t
question the practice of sweeping complaints about the cops under the carpet.
And most importently they want someone who will make damn sure the right
political contributions arrive into the right hands.
To prove the point, instead of hiring an outsider who will change
things, Bulova and her friends promoted whatever the hell is name is as chief
of police….it doesn’t matter what his name because he doesn’t matter. He won’t
rock the boat. He won’t change anything. That’s what matters to those people. To
prove the point, when asked what his plans for the department are, Chief
whats-it responded that he intended to hire more cops under the guise of
diversity. We don’t need more cops, of any color or creed. More cops will just
add to the problem. Fix the cops we have and then hire new ones.
It doesn’t matter, really. None of this matters because it will never
change. This guy, chief what’s his face,
will put in his time and retire with a pension that would make him a
millionaire in most 3rd world countries.
And when he goes, the next irrelevant person chosen from the inside the
department will take his place and nothing will change and Fairfax County, a
21st century place, will go on with its 19th century police force.
And no, correcting the corrupt and often
criminal Fairfax County Police Department won’t be solved by police oversight
because oversight can’t fix the core of the problem within the Fairfax County
Police Department which is contempt by the cops for the citizens who pay them (and
pay them much too much, way above the national average)
Oversight in Fairfax County will solve nothing except to give a bunch of
angry and bored retired guys something to do while adding even more bureaucracy
to a county government already saturated in red tape, overhead and redundancy.
Want an example of costly overhead and redundant positions? Former
police chief Rhorer’s six figure salaried job as “extra special police chief” or
Head Dwarf in charge or whatever the hell he is this month, can’t be justified any
more than the board of supervisors can explain the 20,000 foot, multimillion
dollar addition to the McLean police palace or the several hundred unused cars
the police department purchased and doesn’t use or the small fortune of public
money the cops are secretly pouring into drones.
Aside from not doing anything to change the cop’s culture of contempt
the claim that a citizen’s review board
would protect the public from continued
unlawful actions by the Fairfax County Police is unfounded . The fact is that is
no evidence can be found anywhere in the United States to justify that claim.
Citizen’s review boards do not curtail violence and other felonious activities
by the police upon the citizenry because virtually every citizen’s review board
in the nation is a dismal failure. Most are powerless to enforce their will and
are manipulated into subservience by local politicians, people like Bulova and
Hyland and that’s exactly what will happen in Fairfax County if we get
oversight.
It’s also not true that a citizen’s review board would protect the
police department from unjustified criticism by the public. Snap out of it….the cops in this county don’t give
damn what the public thinks. That’s mean
you. They could care less what you think. You have no value to them and in so
long as the board of supervisors continues to reward the cop’s culture of
contempt the police will continue not to give a damn about what the public
thinks of them or anything else.
Bulova and Hyland handed us an “independent
auditor” to investigate the hundreds and hundreds of complaints about abusive
behavior by the occupying force of outsiders that is the Fairfax County Police.
And to their credit they did with a straight face and doing anything straight
must have been a real chore for Hyland but anyway……the reason the board of
supervisors dreamt up the “independent auditor” wasn’t to derail calls for
police oversight. They did it because they can fire anyone in the position who
either audits the police or acts independently.
Elected officials, generally, are
all about power and live in the cult of self adoration. They don’t want or give a damn about what’s
good for you. They want what’s good for them and controlling the “independent
auditor” is what’s good for them. Citizens controlling a police review board
does not benefit members of the board of supervisors in any way, shape, manner
or form. In fact, police oversight would draw attention away from people like Sharon
“Show me the money” Bulova and Gerry Dearie Hyland and it would sap their
control over the county.
Besides, the fact that the board of supervisors funds almost 100
advisory boards but can’t bring itself to create a citizens advisory board
should tell the citizens advisory board advocates that a citizens review panel
ain’t gonna happen.……..so snap out of the piss trance and revert to plan B and
make a real difference, here and now, through political action and pulic awareness
because police oversight until pigs fly….pun intended.
If you want change don’t expect the local government to bring about that
change. The only way to rein the police in is to fire the people who hire the
cops and you will only be able to do that if you have grass roots support. Form
a political action. Work the polling precinct with handouts on the issue of
police corruption. That should be easy
since Virginia seems to have elections every three weeks.
Build blogs and websites aimed at informing
the people of Fairfax County about how corrupt, contemptuous and bloated the
Fairfax County Police are. Send speakers
to community groups and churches to bring the issue to light. People will listen if you give them something
to listen too and if you include them in the process.
Police oversight isn’t the silver bullet that will end the systematic corruption
and contempt that is the Fairfax County Police ebcuase the answer to fixing the
Fairfax County Police isn’t one thing it’s many things.
Not running the police department like a secret hillbilly cult is also
part of the answer.
Firing Sharon Bulova and keeping
her out of public office forever is a very large part of the answer.
Holding Gerry…that’s Gerry with G dearies…..Hyland accountable for his
“spend whatever the cops want” actions over the past few years is part of the
answer as well.
Putting a stop to the cops costly an unneeded publicity campaign is part
of the answer.
Forcing the cops to live in the county that pays them (and again, pays
them better than the national average) is part of the answer.
Cutting the police budget by at least 20% and placing that cash where
it’s needed (Schools, highways, more roads) is part of the answer.
Explaining to the cops that using lethal force when unnecessary is a bad
thing. So is setting up school teachers and eye doctors for false arrest. The
cops don’t understand that those are morally wrong things to do and their
actions support the claim.
As to the suggestion of bringing in the FBI to investigate possible
civil rights violation by the Fairfax County Police. Forget it, that ain’t
gonna happen in a Democratic stronghold while we have a Democratic
administration in the White House.
Besides investigating civil rights violations isn’t what we need to
investigate. What we need to investigate is the reason that our elected
officials are so hell bent on making the cops happy. To find that out, don’t
send in the FBI send in the IRS to investigate the hundreds of nickel and dime
political contributions that come into the Board of Supervisors campaign offers.
Have the auditors pay special attention to those contributions that come in
from Louden and Prince William Counties….you know…those two places where 80% of
the Fairfax County police force lives.
And the investigators should ask “Are these low ball contributions,
intended to fly in under the radar, coming from the sons, daughters, in-laws
and other relatives of the Fairfax County Police at the urging of the cops
union and if so, what are the cops getting in return at our expense? A lot, actually.