You read and hear the stereotype view all the time: that people in power and in law enforcement are treated more leniently than your average citizen when it come to punishment for their infractions of the law.

Reading through the media reports; we are certainly finding this to be the case. Guys and girls in law enforcement and elected officials do get mere slaps on the wrist when they do wrong or commit errors compared to you or I. They also seem to commit a relatively high number of crimes in their professions in comparison to other professions. Perhaps the easy access to power and illicit items is the reason. We don’t know why. And, why is it that cops are statistically more likely to commit suicide than to be killed by offenders? Is it because of the nature of the individual called into the enforcement occupation? We wonder. We also don’t encounter all that many stories of cops and law enforcement doing the right thing: speaking up for right when their colleagues pressure them to keep silent, and really doing something special to help your average citizen.

Here is some of what we find. See what you think of the following:

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Here’s the story of a cop who conducted a little test. He gets drunk with a friend and fires off his gun after he and friend have a discussion about whether officers are treated differently when they break the law. He claims that cops don’t get a break. He and his friend are arrested. Note that the friend is arrested for possession of maryjane. He gets arrested for “reckless discharge” of a weapon. But, he does get a break! He and his friend are lucky enough to not test positive for gun-residue, and, more luck, another off-duty cop vouches for him by reporting he saw the every ubiquitous hispanic male fire a gun versus him. So, yeah, he is off on administrative leave, but what do you guess nothing will end up happening to him over this incident? http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2249592,CST-NWS-bowling08.article

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Here is another story: police officer John Ardelean off-duty and reportedly taped on a bar surveillance video drinking five shots and other drinks shortly before being involved in a two-vehicle crash that killed his friend, Miguel Flores, on Thanksgiving Day 2007.  Ardelean was first charged with misdemeanor DUI, before it was upgraded to a felony. But the case against him fell apart when a judge ruled there was “no indication that he was drunk”, in part because the police took seven hours before they arrested him or gave him a Breathalyzer! The decision to drop the prosecution has caused immense pain to the family of Miguel Flores. Read Chicago Sun-Times article, here.

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And when the cops take all your stuff, can they really do that? Here is a nice summation of some of the ways in which your possessions can be seized by the police even if you are not guilty or knowledgeable of a crime, and you can have a devil of a time trying to get the stuff back! Most people are not aware of the forfeiture laws or the way that law enforcement is profiting more and more by seizing assets (Read article) A truck in the dock,”How the police can seize your stuff when you have not been proven guilty of anything”, published in the Economist, May 27th 2010.