Police Misconduct Case Study

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Police Misconduct is a hot button topic in the zeitgeist today; personal feelings on the topic seem to have little bearing on policy changes and prosecution of Police Officers charged with abusing their position. The following questions need to be raised: How many civil and human rights society is willing to give up to remain safe? Do authoritative positions corrupt otherwise good people, or do authoritative positions attract bad people? If laws governing police misconduct get stricter, will it become too hard for them to maintain order? All of these questions need to be taken into account when considering this issue. In 1971, Stanford University conducted an experiment that examined the psychology of persons in authoritative positions. …show more content…
Pike was suspended and subsequently fired. The internet group Anonymous found his personal information and posted it online, causing him to receive a massive influx of hate-mail. He then sued for workman’s comp receiving 38,000 dollars and was allowed to keep his retirement benefits. Some looking from the outside might have trouble understanding how Pike’s actions were justified. The protesters were seated; other protesters in the area were not particularly rowdy. The chancellor for the school has since claimed that she instructed the police officers at the UC Davis protest not the use violence, as well as not authorizing them to use riot gear. Whether Pike was acting on orders or his own volition, it still remains that it was his lapse in good judgment that caused him to lose his job. He was compared to Bull Connor, the commissioner for public safety in Birmingham, Alabama, who turned hoses and dogs on civil rights activists. Through all of this, Pikes only punishment was early retirement. If an average citizen make a lapse in judgment as large as his, that effected as many people, they would be looking at heavy fines or jail time. It is this double standard that attracts those that abuse authority to the law enforcement
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