Some cops are heroes.
Like these cops, who “chose to sack a man instead of shooting him in the Tenderloin early this morning, even after he drew a .380.” (Via Fark)
And some cops aren’t, like this local cop who shot and killed an unarmed man who’d led police on a pursuit before crashing into a building:
The chase ended after ten minutes when Bledsoe crashed his truck into the main building at Faubian Plumbing, Heating & A/C Inc. The business located in the 700-block of E. Lincoln Ave. saw nearly $10,000 in damage.
Police say Bledsoe tried to dislodge his truck from the building by flooring the accelerator as police surrounded him. After refusing to stop, Bledsoe was shot once in the neck.
(Compare the case of Tyrus Coleman.)
Just being a cop, or a fire fighter, (or a lawyer, or a judge) doesn’t mean squat:
A federal judge’s order to have a court-appointed monitor oversee the employment practices of the New York Fire Department, “a stubborn bastion of white male privilege,” is entirely justified.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis of Federal District Court ruled on Wednesday that the department’s hiring practices and racially biased tests systematically excluded blacks from its ranks. As a result, the department is about 3 percent black in a city where roughly a quarter of the population is black.
Under the ruling, a monitor will have to be installed to ensure that the department’s hiring practices comply with federal civil rights law. The move is necessary given the nearly 40 years of illegal discrimination that has persisted under six New York City mayors.
. . .
It is well past time that New York City was forced to correct its failure. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, however, has vowed to appeal the decision. “The judge was not elected to run the city,” he said, “and you can rest assured that we’ll be in court for a long time.”
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