To Protect and Serve

A trio of court dismissals of serious traffic prosecutions, last week, against police officers have locals in Chicago, Cleveland and Cape Cod wondering about double standards.  Let's start with Cape Cod where Barnstable Detective John Murphy (pic, left) got a pass on a hit and run from last December 6th after crossing left of center and crashing into another vehicle.  The Judge who dismissed the hit and run citation found Murphy not culpable because he claimed to have sustained a head injury according to the report at the Cape Cod Times.  

Maybe.

A more dubious situation occurred with a Cleveland cop who slammed into a disabled car at 73 mph along Interstate 71 causing a local motorist to suffer an amputation loss of part of his leg.  Like Murphy Patrolman, Officer John Cotner did not stop immediately at the scene of the accident.  And unlike you or me in a similar situation Cotner was not tested for the use of drugs or alcohol.  In addition to the shockingly inadequate crash scene investigation, Cotner may or may not have been impaired, but for certain he was operating his patrol car in a grossly negligent manner, and yet he was given a misdemeanor citation at the scene of the crash.  Last week the Cleveland municipal Court tossed even that citation according to the Plain Dealer website.  Oh, the poor schmuck who lost his leg, he got cited.

But the topper is the case of the off duty Chicago Cop, John Ardelean (pic, left with victims, right) who killed two young guys in a motor vehicle drunk driving accident.  Ardelean walked despite videotaped evidence of excessive alcohol consumption filmed in the hours immediately prior to the crash.  Why?  According to the Chicago Tribune Ardelean's colleagues on the force did not obtain blood alcohol evidence after the collision.   I reported on Ardelean back in April, all I can add is--be disgusted. 

These defendants took an oath to protect and serve, and instead are being served and protected.