Misbehaviour

I generally support the nice folks with the flashy lights, badges, and guns that in general make my little world a safer and better place at significant risk to themselves.

That said, the very nature of the position is such that occasional lampooning is *also* to the benefit to society (if only so folks don't take themselves over-seriously and become over-serious robotic by-the-book rule-followers good for naught but doltish adherence to bureaucratic whimsy), and further, that calling out misbehavior (when one believes one sees it) is absolutely necessary if we want to keep the quality of police-folks that we have or improve thereupon.

That said, we have before us a couple of instances of egregious WTF presented by some of the less stellar of the LE clan in recent days, and we'll start with the less offensive, the recent events in Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Daily News and John Stossell of Fox News reports on one Mark Fiorino, a law-abiding firearms owner in Philadelphia lawfully open carrying a legally owned pistol on his way to an Auto Zone store was accosted by Philadelphia PD officers who verbally and physically abused him, holding him against his will and violating his civil rights.

This might have gone unnoticed, but Fiorino had an audio recorder rolling (check your local and state laws, but this might become a better and better idea as we see more of these incidents).

Unfortunately, the police and prosecutor took exception and charged Fiorino with felonies (based on the fact he recorded the incident) which may result in up to two years imprisonment if convicted.

The response of the Philadelphia Police? They won't "look the other way at a perfectly legal practice anymore."

This isn't exactly a shining example of folks in the business of adhering to the law and protecting the safety and rights of private citizens (all the rights, not just the convenient ones...).

Enough for one post. More tomorrow.