Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2009 10:15:46 -0800 (PST)
From: Kit Donner
Subject: Pittsboro Officer B Hadley
Folks –
I wasn’t there when Officer B Hadley stopped a speeder who later wrote to the chatlist to complain about Officer B Hadley. I don’t know, and neither do any of us, whether Officer B Hadley operated in an extremely professional manner in an extremely trying and dangerous situation. I don’t know whether he behaved in an inappropriate fashion as alleged.
I do hope that the Pittsboro Police Department will look into the allegation in a thorough and professional manner, and that if there was any impropriety on the officer’s part, the officer will be given guidance by the department in how he is expected to perform his duties.
It is a temptation to assume that the police only act inappropriately against people who deserve it. That police only stop people who are guilty. That I don’t have to worry about how the police treat people, because I am a good guy and therefore the police will never stop me.
Police stop people that they think MAY be doing something wrong, and none of us are always going to be above suspicion. All of us deserve to be treated as professionally and politely as our behavior will allow in all our contacts with police and law enforcement personnel of any type. If significantly abusive behavior occurs, it should be reported to the appropriate authorities and occasionally made public. This keeps us all safer. Failing to do so can result gradually in a police state where all of us fear our own government and cannot safely do anything about it.
Our civil rights and liberties were won for us by the blood of patriots and are sustained still by the blood of patriots fighting for us overseas. But they can be lost by us here at home if we cease to realize that it is the responsibility of all of us to speak up whenever our government fails to realize that it operates by the consent of the governed, and that we as individuals are the ultimate watchdogs of ouir freedom.
I hope that Officer B Hadley did in fact turn out to have acted in an exemplary fashion, and that the complaint turns out to be the thoughtless grumbling of an overly irate citizen.
But don’t discourage people (guilty or innocent) from complaining about police misconduct if or when it occurs. Monitoring the behavior of all facets of our government isn’t just a civil right, it is a civil duty. If we the people don’t guard our rights, we will lose our rights, and we will deserve to lose them. The people who make up our government make mistakes, because they are human, and when the mistakes are bad mistakes, the people who make up our government need to be held accountable, by us, because ultimately there is no one else who can.
I suppose I am going to get a lot of irate responses to this post, but I felt that this is an important enough issue that I had to risk it.