The Police Association Has a Problem with Fairness
The San Antonio Police Officers Association (SAPOA) has a big problem with fairness. The association refuses to properly address bad police officers that continually get rehired after the police chief fires them for some of the most horrid violations. With over 70,000 voters who voted to strip away the power of the association last year the SAPOA is conducting a campaign to put a good face on a corrupt agreement they have with the city. At the present time they are looking for photo ops with community members to put a good face on a severely tarnished image. It will not work, especially since the police still refuse to address the issue of a civilian review board that could allow bad cops to be judged by fair minded citizens.
Since the SAPOA voted to approve the current contract, with some minor changes, the community is still concerned that the officers that call Black people the “N” word, who beat pregnant women, and who choked a man to death on a San Antonio expressway (Jesse Aguirre), and who continue to rob the police force of its sworn duty and image. The police association has robbed the force of its stated goal to provide “the highest level of ethical and more standards” when people are abused over and over on city streets. Those of us who have police officers in our families know how important it is to get rid of bad cops, yet the police association protects the worst officers that are not fit to serve.
SAPD officers are supposed to show “Mutual respect” during police interactions but violate their own code of conduct with racist words during police encounters. There was no compassion when they called a black man the “N” word and violated yet another code of conduct that speaks to treating “people with kindness and respect.” Now, they are conducting damage control methods to shore up their soiled reputation. Good police officers don’t have to worry about being protected by a corrupt association, but the bad ones are given a free ride to endanger the community at large. According to KSAT News, “Act 4 SA, a police reform group that rose out of an effort to strip SAPOA of its power to collectively bargain for a contract, said it still wants to see additional reforms, such as getting rid of a civilian advisory board to make way for more a stronger, independent oversight office.” This is a must. A civilian review board must have subpoena and contempt power and the ability to rid our community of cops that beat pregnant women, use racial slurs, and choke and beat people that question their abusive actions.
San Antonio has an extremely high number of people that have died while in police custody and this is something that the FBI needs to look into. The federal authorities should also be looking at a collective bargaining agreement that is used to violate the 14th Amendment of the United States constitution. Bad cops have all been involved in the killing of unarmed victims who were experiencing mental health issues and behaving erratically. In several cases, numerous officers have used unnecessary, excessive, and deadly force, the use of the prone maximal-restraint position and piling on. Bad cops have treated their victims as sub-human, with each victim’s life being expendable, dying in their custody, directly beneath them. They all involved officers who meted out a death sentence in public, all of whom didn’t believe they did anything wrong. This has to stop!
