No one should be exempt (editorial)

The River Reporter
Thursday, December 31, 1992
EDITORIAL

No one should be exempt

In my former employment as a county probation officer, I had occasion to interview convicted criminals at the Sullivan County Jail in Monticello. It seemed more common to hear complaints (often accompanied by physical markings) of allegedly unnecessary beatings by Village of Monticello police officers when the suspect was African-American than when he was not.

Of course Monticello is not alone in this. I recall a homeless drunk from Liberty telling me he had sought refuge in a warehouse one winter night to keep from freezing. He had a vivid account about being roughly awakened, arrested, handcuffed and then a police dog being ordered to attack him while he lay helplessly chained on a cement floor, with a high-ranking officer standing by laughing. Of course this was unconfirmed and the officer denied it.

Recollections of these accounts become more believable, in retrospect, upon reading published accounts of Nazi and KKK oriented decor in the Monticello police locker room. Our police officers are paid and sworn to defend our liberties and rights as Americans.They should act the part without pretense. Nazi humor is unquestionably incompatible with the role of a police officer.

I urge the creation of a citizen review board or human rights council with broad powers to investigate complaints about police conduct and publicly make recommendations. It is apparent that the village board needs some highly focused assistance in shedding light on interpersonal abuses of power by police which occur in Monticello, at the very least. If any officers are guilty of the type of behavior advocated in the cartoons (such as unnecessary beatings), I would hope they would be prosecuted and the village sued.

It is my hope that most police officers are deeply offended at the idea that any of the colleagues might find humor in the sad ironic display of swastikas and Jim-Crow cartoons inside a building supposedly dedicated to justice.

I am not sure that the officers who placed the offensive items on the lockers, or those who silently assented to the material remaining there for any duration, need to be fired (as some have called for). I do not know enough about the motives of the people involved. Is it possible the items could even have been placed by a coworker who was making a statement of opinion about conduct or attitudes by the officer(s) assigned to the lockers in question?

What about the fact that the entire police department apparently tolerated the offensive items for some time before anyone took action. It is hard to conclude, from news accounts, precisely what occurred or was in the offenders' minds.

At the very least, it seems clear the police department is in need of intensive sensitivity training. No one should be exempt. A public explanation and apology would also be in order. How can community members be expected to respect the law when the law's enforcers display bigotry and contempt toward the citizens they are supposed to serve and protect?

-- Tom Rue, Contributing Editor