City in Upstate New York to Impliment Martial Law?

Comments

1. Smitherines says:

   March 23, 2009 at 10:13 am

   Obviously, with time, you are going to get a lot of feedback on controversial subjects such as this… Which I think will be a great thing for us all. It will allow people to voice their opinions on subjects such as this and may even spread some light over the subject…

   I would like to speak not on my behalf, but maybe just as a witness to what hard working, upstanding individuals Schenectady has on its force. First you need to keep in mind that “Currently, the Schenectady Police Department employs approximately 160 sworn officers and 75 civilians making it the seventh largest police department in New York State.” (http://www.schenectadypd.com/about/index.php)... With that being said we also have to keep in mind that the system has been broken for a long time and will take time to fix. Face it; news stations want something to write about and to fire people up. Do you think they are going to put all the good things that the department has done in the past several years on the front page? OR are they going to post any corruption taking place in any smaller, lesser known departments than Schenectady? The department has been put into the public’s “spot light” by the media and once that happens it’s virtually impossible to change how everyone perceives the entire situation until the media itself takes an active role in changing that perception.

   If articles like these are going to be written, one has to look at it objectively and realize that these articles are one sided… Reading one news article will only tell you a fraction of the real story. It would be like watching only FOX News and believing every word that was thrown at you… Not focusing on the fact that Dwayne Johnson is just another working class man trying to earn a living, they point out what he has done wrong and focused only on the negative in this story… This is not to say that what he did was not wrong, just to shed light on his motivations and to point out that for the salary mentioned above he was required to work at least 70 hours a week almost all year long. That’s approximately 3640 hours in one year. The average full time worker only averages around 2000 hours per year… There are definitely more stories that are not showing up in the news. Good or bad I see that the media always chooses to focus on the bad, just to get their readers to keep reading.

   Recently the department had integrated up to 18 new officers into its ranks to improve community perception, as well as improve the department’s capabilities on the street… In the short time that my friend has been on the force, he has removed several illegally concealed guns from individuals that he has pulled over and seen more crack and heroine than most officers have seen in 10 years. This does NOT show that all the officers are doing the job they should, but it is a far cry from saying they need to shut down the department to “reset” it. The National Guard is one option… The State Police are another option, which I feel will be the only feasible solution… Did you know that the State Police already perform a ride along with many of the City officers? A program called “Operation Impact”, which also teams many other County and State Agencies with the department in full collaboration to produce the most efficient law enforcement teams possible in the area… The department deserves a little more than a reporter showing the dark side this time (http://www.schenectadypd.com/community/impact.php)... It has been too long that the department has been criticized…

   If you want to write another article I would suggest writing it on the cynicism of the modern day New Yorker and how we can’t get out of our own way of progress…
2. James Pickett says:

   March 23, 2009 at 3:29 pm

   Let me start by saying my initial reaction to the news was a bit hasty. The
   subject of police corruption is something that makes me emotional, as I have
   been taken advantage of by an officer who decided to “bend the rules” for
   the sake of a promotion. To be granted the right and privilege to serve your
   community as an officer of the law should be more than a paycheck, and
   should never be taken advantage of. I personally also have friends (very
   dear friends) and family in law enforcement and believe the right to wear a
   badge is a position of honor and respect. There is not one bone in my body
   that is pleased about what is going on in Schenectady, and my heart goes out
   to those officers that truly are men of honor. The men and women making the
   department look bad are making their brothers look bad, and endangering the
   welfare of their fellow officers families.

   There was a time in our country where the police were looked up to as role
   models, unfortunately that time is mostly gone. I myself, wanted to be an
   officer at one point. Corruption on any scale and in any scenario, is what
   everyone is going o focus on. As a human, I fear driving through
   Schenectady. No one should be afraid they are going to run into a bad cop
   having a bad day. Cynicism, yes… but from personal experience.

   Out of 160 officers there are currently five on the chopping block of the
   city and the media. The question of how many more there can be comes to my
   mind, as well as the question of how this came to pass?

   What is unique about this force? What influence is there, in this situation,
   that makes these actions morally acceptable? There comes a point in
   everyone’s life, sometimes daily, where you are forced to look inside
   yourself and ask if what you are about to do is the right thing… These men
   and women take an oath to make their entire lives about “doing the right
   thing” for the sake of their community.

   To put myself in the mind of an officer for a 30 second scenario, the
   thought of pulling someone over that has tinted windows and being afraid to
   walk to the car baffles me. The mere possibility that the person in the car
   could be a drug dealer with a gun just behind the glass sends shivers down
   my spine. Spending half of every workday with ones hand on a weapon ready to
   draw “just in case” is insane, completely and totally ludicrous. It takes a
   mountain of strength to be that man or woman and I respect the police
   immensely. Not one ounce of my respect is dedicated to the officers that
   abuse the privilege of their position, the officers that disgrace the honor
   of the badge.

   What Schenectady is doing to rectify the problem is very much appreciated,
   and I did not spend enough time on the actual purpose of the article to
   begin with, the suggestion of Martial Law as an option.

   If the city and the higher ranks of the department don’t rectify this
   situation quickly, what will happen? These options have been outlined and
   listed, but the collateral damage has not been discussed. No matter who
   takes over the policing of Schenectady in the event the department is broken
   apart (National Guard, State Troopers, Sheriff’s Department, or other
   departments in the county) every officer working in Schenectady at this time
   will be marked as part of a corrupt force, no matter how good and honorable
   they are. I can’t imagine it will be easy for any of these men and women to
   find employment in other jurisdictions. At my current count, that is 155
   people that support their family and depend on the job for their future.

   Tearing the department apart opens the door for a military policing of the
   city, and will put fear into the minds of anyone in Schenectady. My original
   point was simply this… Bad cops or not, to suggest this action is
   incomprehensible. To re-direct other state and local departments distributes
   needed resources away from those regions, effectively creating a weak point
   that could allow for crime to go unpunished. I feel like tearing this
   department apart is a cop out by state officials, and something has to be
   done before this situation is out of control and good people are left
   unemployed.

   This is a situation where “something” is not right, and needs to be fixed.
   In no way did I mean to make it look like the whole city is corrupt, but it
   seems that there are issues that could be solved by stricter policies,
   better management, and maybe even tighter security within the department.
   (How on earth does someone steal drugs from evidence? Doesn’t one have to
   sign in, or walk in front of a security
   camera?)

   This is a scary and unstable situation that needs to be rectified within the department, before it is too late, and the thought of martial law transforms into an option.
3. Smitherines says:

   March 23, 2009 at 4:17 pm

   There are several great points that could be explored in the above comments. I think I will only scratch the surface for now though.

   Martial Law… Somehow I think the Mayor of Schenectady is wishing he had not made that statement… martial law is a bit too strong of a word for what I think he was really trying to state. I would think what he really wanted to say was that the department would have to be “locked-down” and the positions of the current officers would have to be back-filled with an outside governmental authority, such as the National Guard or State police. ML should never have been mentioned in his statements.

   I also do not necessarily agree that something like this, if it were to take place, would cost every officer his or her badge. I believe that there is a majority of great officers on Schenectady’s force that have been highly trained and highly effective against crime in the city. Yes, only 5 bad eggs have been caught, but if examples are made out of them what is the need to catch anymore as long as the others learn from the example? Sometimes the chase isn’t worth what would be lost if it came to fruition.

   I believe in one way or another we all have been through our own varying degree of bad experience with the “law”. There will never be a perfect system, but there never was. I believe that people’s expectations change through the years, and now with all the different ways that we can communicate and share information we can all see how every other person lives and gauge our life styles against there’s. If something doesn’t seem right, we “fix” it, the same way we want Schenectady’s Police Department fixed… There used to be so much corruption in the system that they used to indict 50 officers at a time. The system never came crashing down. It survived. Schenectady will do the same and grow from it. The officers that are border line will, hopefully, straighten up and the great officers will be even more highly respected, as they should be.
   I think what these men and women are doing is amazing! With the stress that this all causes on their lives in general would drive me to drink if I were them. It’s just amazing to watch them in action. They could see both the worst in people and the best in people in the span of one day, yet it does not affect how they do their jobs.