Councilor Renaud’s proposal to have a civil rights police officer is a bad joke. By their very nature, most civil rights violations in my opinion are committed by the police. Some examples include profiling, stop and frisk, illegal surveillance, invasions of privacy, unlawful search and seizure, violations of speech and assembly, violations of the Second Amendment, Miranda rights violations, withholding evidence, planting evidence, illegally obtained evidence, coercion or torture to gain confessions from innocents, homicidal racism.
The police have been allowed to run rough shod over society for years. To correct civil rights violations, an independent agency would be required. They would need 24-hour bodyguards, powerful independent lawyers, strong support from the Statehouse and Washington D.C. to go up against the brotherhood of police who they would be opposing in most of the cases. However, there may be something even more effective.
The citizens of this country have had enough of it. They will not continue to pay to have police sent out to prey on the public, to have unnecessary altercations with citizens, to bankrupt them or kill their unarmed children. Councilor Renaud’s proposal in my opinion will increase the bureaucracy, be used to further abuse the public and insulate the police from their own civil rights violations.
Tedd White
Hawley