Why It’s Impossible To Get Rid Of Bad Cops

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk,

Derek Chauvin, the officer who murdered George Floyd, had 18 complaints against him. He was disciplined twice. Why was he still on the force?

Please consider What We Know Derek Chauvin.

Before he knelt on Floyd’s neck, Chauvin was the subject of 18 prior complaints filed against him with the Minneapolis Police Department’s Internal Affairs.

Only two of the 18 complaints were “closed with discipline,” according to a MPD internal affairs public summary. In both cases, Chauvin received a letter of reprimand.

We do not know whether any of the other complaints were valid or not.

But 18 seems like quite a bit and it is certain that most valid charges are swept under the rug.

Already, the Minneapolis union signaled it wants to protect the other three officers complicit in the death of George Floyd.

Prosecutors Charge Police Inspector 

On Friday, Philadelphia Inspector Joseph Bologna smashed a student on the back of the head. 

Then after reviewing a cell phone video, Prosecutors Charge Police Inspector Instead of Protester.

Staff Inspector Joseph Bologna faces charges of aggravated assault, simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering another person, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced Friday.

Prosecutors say Bologna was captured on cell phone video striking a Temple University student in the back of his head while he was participating in a mass demonstration on Monday.

The unidentified student suffered “serious bodily injury, including a large head wound that required treatment in a hospital while under arrest, including approximately 10 staples and approximately 10 sutures,” Krasner’s office said.

Philadelphia police arrested the student protester and detained him for more than 24 hours and referred him to the district attorney for prosecution. But after prosecutors reviewed the video and other evidence, Krasner declined to charge the student and charged Inspector Bologna instead.

Police Unions Defend Nearly Anything

The Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police vowed in a statement to “vigorously defend Bologna against these baseless allegations and charges.”

The police union said they were “disgusted” to learn about the charges. Bologna, a police officer for more than 30 years, was “engaged in a volatile and chaotic situation with only milliseconds to make a decision,” the union said.

Public Unions are the Problem

It is nearly impossible to get rid of bad cops and bad teachers. 

It takes outright murder caught on video before police unions don’t look the other way. Even then, the union tries to protect the others involved.

The same happens with teachers who abuse kids, Bad teachers cannot be dismissed. 

Bad Teachers Protected by Tenure and Unions

If you search, you can find hundreds of stories like this one: Dirty Dozen: 12 Bad Teachers Protected by Tenure and Unions.

Matthew Lang was a band director at O’Fallon Township High School in Illinois in 2007 when administrators learned he was having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old female student. But instead of being fired, Lang was able to resign, and the relationship was kept out of his file so he could seek another teaching job.

“… we are asking that all information concerning the request for his resignation not be placed in his file,” read a letter from the teacher’s union rep to the O’Fallon school board that was originally obtained by education news site EAGnews.

The district complied and even provided a letter of recommendation that called Lang “an outstanding instructor.” Lang landed a job with Alton High School near the Mississippi River and about 15 miles north of St. Louis, Mo.He worked at the school until 2010, when he was convicted of molesting another female student and sentenced to six years in prison, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Jon White was sentenced to 48 years in prison in 2008 for abusing ten students at schools in the Illinois towns of Urbana and Normal. But those victims might have been spared their ordeals if White’s past had been revealed.

He had previously worked in McLean’s school district, where he was twice suspended for viewing pornography on a school computer and for making sexually suggestive comments to a fifth-grader. Instead of being fired, the union-protected teacher was allowed to resign – with a letter of recommendation that made no mention of the incidents.

There are 10 more stories like that in the one article above.

Bust the Police Unions to Rank and Yank Bad Cops

As I started this article I was unaware of this WSJ article that came out yesterday: Bust the Police Unions to Rank and Yank Bad Cops

The police officer who killed George Floyd had been the subject of more than a dozen complaints about his conduct. In two previous incidents, Derek Chauvin had been disciplined with letters of reprimand. Tou Thao, who stood by as Floyd died, previously had a lawsuit brought against him over excessive use of force. The lawsuit was settled for $25,000. How can such men be allowed to “serve and protect”? Unions.

Public-sector unions, including police unions, will do almost anything to protect their members. These unions create a culture of impunity. Even police officers who are terminated can be reinstated, “often via secretive appeals geared to protect labor rights rather than public safety” as a 2014 piece in the Atlantic put it.

Letter by Franklin D. Roosevelt on Public Unions

Please consider a few key snips from FDR’s Letter on the Resolution of Federation of Federal Employees Against Strikes in Federal Service, August 16, 1937, emphasis mine.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations. 

Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of Government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of Government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable. It is, therefore, with a feeling of gratification that I have noted in the constitution of the National Federation of Federal Employees the provision that “under no circumstances shall this Federation engage in or support strikes against the United States Government.”

Roosevelt was discussing strikes, but public unions threaten them all the times, especially teachers’ unions. They demand money “for the kids”. The school boards are padded with teachers demanding more money “for the kids”.

Collective bargaining cannot possibly exist in such circumstances. Unions can and have shut down schools. The unions do not give a damn about the kids.

Notice I said “unions” do not give a damn. Many, if not most, teachers do care for the kids, but the union does not. The unions can, and do, protect teachers guilty of abusing kids. It is nearly impossible to get rid of a bad tenured teacher or a bad cop.

Unions also threaten to shut down mass transportation.

None of this is in the public interest.

Abolish Public Unions Entirely

Union leaders have a mandated goal of protecting bad cops, bad teachers, and corrupt politicians. Unions blackmail politicians and threaten the public they are supposed to serve.

Union leaders will do anything to stay in power, the kids and the public be damned.

The only way to deal with the situation is to “effectively” abolish public unions entirely.

The key word is effectively. What do I mean by that? Take away 100% of their power as opposed to ending their right of association.

Recommended Steps

1. National right-to-work laws

2. Abolishment of all prevailing wage laws

3. Ending public unions ability to strike

4. Ending collective bargaining by public unions

Consider Illinois’ prevailing wage laws: Prevailing wages are union wages. Municipalities and businesses have to pay prevailing wages. If they do not hire union workers, they get picketed.

Why bother hiring non-union workers if you have to pay union wages in the first place? 

As a direct result, municipalities and businesses must overpay for services in Illinois. 

Illinois is Bankrupt

Not only do public unions protect bad cops, bad teachers, and bad employees in general, Illinois is bankrupt after giving in repeatedly to union contract demands and pension spiking. 

Fundamental Problem

Lost in the wake of the death of George Floyd is the simple fact that officers like Chauvin may have long ago been weeded out had corrupt union not protected bad cops.

The California Policy Center has a nice set of articles on the Problems of Collective Bargaining. 

Trump’s Scorecard

President Trump had two years with a Republican Congress to pass legislation on right-to-work, collective bargaining, national bankruptcy reform and other related items.

His scorecard is a perfect zero.

It will be interesting to see if he cowers to the unions in the next 5 months in an attempt to get re-elected.

Police Unions Love Uprisings

The unions love these uprisings. They will use it to demand more cops, higher pay, and more prisons.

Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That

The unions are willing to hold the public hostage without police service, without fire service and without schools to get what they want.

The fact of the matter is simple: Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That.

Addendum: Reader Response

I just received this response from a reader.

“So tell me Mish. How do you reconcile your admission with the Police unions being at the heart of the problem with your support for the Democratic party which fully supports public unions.”

My Reply

How the hell do you conclude I support the Democratic Party?

I speak out against what is wrong.

Speaking out against Trump does not make me a Democrat. Speaking out against Obama as I frequently did does me me “Radical Right” and yes, I was accused of that.

I am tired of idiots who support people and parties instead of ideas.