A treasure trove of police criminality

It seems a fitting memorial to deceased San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi that a couple of journalists, Robert Lewis and Jason Paladino from UC Berkeley, have successfully used a Public Records Act request to extract the news that an awful lot of California cops have criminal convictions.

Their crimes ranged from shoplifting to embezzlement to murder. Some of them molested kids and downloaded child pornography. Others beat their wives, girlfriends or children.

The one thing they had in common: a badge.

Thousands of California law enforcement officers have been convicted of a crime in the past decade, according to records released by a public agency that sets standards for officers in the Golden State.

Mercury News, 2-26-2019

State Attorney General Xavier Becerra wants the reporters to give back the goods, but so far they aren't budging. The release may have been inadvertent, but what's done is done.

This new information set is apart from the disciplinary records of California cops which a new law that came into effect this year should make more transparent. For the moment, many police departments are refusing to comply. Police union lawsuits claim the new transparency rules don't apply to findings of officer misconduct in the past. San Francisco Chronicle opinion writer John Diaz calls bullshit:

Here is the outrage of these disingenuous lawsuits: These cop unions knew full well that the law would apply to records on file before Jan. 1. The fact that past misdeeds would be fair game for public inspection was one of their primary arguments against SB1421.

Let the sun shine in. If the cops are the good guys they want to think themselves, they have nothing to fear from the public they are supposed to serve.