Despite furor, accountability lags for police. Here’s why it might change.
Posted on AllSides June 1st, 2020
From The Center
It’s not his phrase, but former Seattle police Chief Norm Stamper covets it when describing police officers: “tiny principalities of power.”
Armored with immunity for a wide swath of behavior, protected by unions and friends and demands for civic order, and beholden more to a beat cop code than to the chief’s orders, the 900,000-strong American police force cuts a unique profile: They aren’t mentioned in the U.S. Constitution.
On even the best day, officers say, they have immensely difficult and dangerous jobs. Nearly every social problem is theirs to...
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