In juxtaposition to the many instances of police (usually at the behest of school administrators) taking infantile pranks and turning them into very real prosecutions of children, four cops in North Providence, Rhode Island, took the law into their own hands and did what one would imagine Andy Griffith would have done 50 years ago.
Four police officers in Rhode Island are being investigated for making five boys do pushups on the side of a street as punishment for damaging a mailbox.
Acting North Providence Police Chief Paul Martellini said a woman called police Friday morning to report her mailbox was damaged. Officers soon found a bright yellow sports car that matched the description, he said. Several teenagers were inside.
Mayor Charles Lombardi told WPRO-AM on Monday the officers thought the best way to reprimand the teens was to have them do pushups.
So they made the boys do a dozen pushups, gave them a stern warning to never vandalize a mailbox again, and sent them on their way. No cuffs. No tasers. No criminal records. And for this, the community built them a statue, right? Not exactly.
Martellini said he has ordered an internal investigation and would not immediately comment on whether the officers’ actions were appropriate.
Clearly, the cops acted as judge, jury and executioner, conceptually a position that most are disinclined to relegate to the police. As Chief Martellini ponders whether this was “professional” behavior, he asks the wrong question. It wasn’t. Professional behavior would have compelled the officers to arrest the youths and turn the matter over to prosecutors, ultimately resulting in a determination of guilt or innocence, and if the former, a life saddled with a criminal conviction. Now that would have been the way a “professional” cop behaves.
Instead, they did what a cop would have done a few generations ago, when the idea of hanging a criminal record on every stupid kid would have been considered absurd and outrageous by pretty much everyone, cops included.
Given how police are inclined to explain away as justified the needless deaths of innocents without blinking an eye, why is Chief Martellini not reacting with, “what the hell is wrong with you people”? This could explain:
Martellini is acting chief because Chief John Whiting was recently convicted of stealing money from a stripper’s pocketbook after a car chase last year.
Once a department is perceived as dirty, even doing the right thing presents questions that aren’t so easily swept under the rug. But this?
The problem is that these four cops did what one might hope they would do when dealing with dumb kids; the only additional thought is whether they had to pay to repair the damaged mailbox. They should. And maybe buy the person who suffered the damage a dozen donuts for the trouble they made. Case closed.
But the inclination of years past to trust police is long gone. Praise these officers for taking the law into their own hands and you’ve taken a giant step onto the slippery slope of police misconduct. Sure, this time the punishment, a dozen pushups, seems right on the money, but what about next time? A different set of cops, a different place, and it’s a taser and a few kicks in the head. Suddenly, their notion of street justice doesn’t give us a warm and fuzzy Mayberry feeling.
On the one hand, putting the handling of punishment in the discretionary hands of cops doesn’t strike many as a good idea. There have been far, far too many times when police have demonstrated that they so utterly lack the judgment and discretion to control vicious urges, violent tempers and the knee-jerk resort to the weapons of their trade, to ever willingly go down the road to Mayberry. Especially when it comes to children.
Yet, in this instance, what happened was clearly the best outcome for all involved. The alternative of prosecution and potential criminal record would have ruined lives over a stupid, juvenile act. The boys needed to learn they can’t destroy things, that vandalism isn’t fun or cool. But once the lesson was learned, they similarly need the chance to grow up and lead productive lives, unencumbered by the yoke of the criminal justice system.
Let’s come to grips with reality here: no child is better off for having become embroiled in the system. Some may have engaged in conduct sufficiently serious that it can’t be avoided, but they are no better for it. When the offense is more prank than crime, and can be effectively dealt with by a good metaphoric spanking, we are all better off.
But because we are constrained to remember history so we don’t repeat it, we’re just not inclined to trust the police to handling things well either. What a mess. What a shame that there is no going back to Mayberry because most police aren’t Andy Griffith. And if Andy Griffith came back again, he would likely find himself sitting at a desk, gun and shield surrendered, and under investigation.
H/T Steve Magas, the Bike Lawyer
There was a story yesterday about an NYPD cop who bought a homeless man boots with his own money. The department will probably put him leave for wasting time when he could have been frisking kids for marijuana.
I have to ask ….
4 cops, for a damsaged mailbox …??
what do they do about a speeding ticket in this town ..??
SWAT Team ..??
Would you want to be the only cop who missed the one call that came in all week?
Yeah, I find the smaller the town the bigger the response. I’ve seen 6 squad cars / 12 cops just to take 1 unarmed non-violent vagrant psych patient to the hospital.
“we’re just not inclined to trust the police to handling things well either.”
It’s too bad the cops couldn’t bring the kids before someone with mature *judgement* who could *judge* an appropriate punishment for them. Too bad there isn’t anyone in our criminal justice system who can do that. Instead we have prosecutors in black robes who are just another part of the system.
You missed the point, and conflate bad judges with the fact that some childish behavior doesn’t belong in court regardless.
Nope, didn’t miss that at all, just didn’t express myself. The underlying problem, I think, is that we need judgement at all levels of our judicial system, and it seems that such judgement isn’t allowed at any level. And when it’s exercised, it’s frequently done so in the wrong direction (bad cops smacking kids around, etc)
Comments here relate to the post above. There are a bunch of posts dealing with a bunch of subjects. The idea is to connect the comment to the post, not to go down a different path that the commenter thinks ought to be connected because he hasn’t read the bunch of other post dealing with the subject, some of which might be exactly on point, while the post about which he commented isn’t.
In other words, you can think whatever you please, but if you feel compelled to comment, stick with the point of the post rather than whatever tangent strikes your fancy. Does this make it at all clearer?
It seems to me that the Sheriff Andy I remember would have been more likely to give the kids a stern lecture, escort them to their parents, explain what they had done, and leave it up to the outraged parents to impose appropriate punishment and restitution. (Though a victim in a small town like Mayberry would probably have known the kids and told their parents directly, rather than involve Sheriff Andy.)
Of course, that’s exactly what parents back then would have done, while such a response is far less certain these days. More likely the parents now would deny that their darling could do such a wrong and then sue the officers for defamation or something.
Perhaps the push-ups were a better idea, though now the parents will undoubtedly convince the kids that they were treated brutally and make them all self-righteous about the barbarity inflicted on them rather than reflecting on the shame of their own actions.
Sigh. The residents of Mayberry may have been eccentric, but they were rock solid where it counted. I wish they’d come back.
Too true.
It used to be the cops would make the kid empty their beer can and then would turn over to their parents.
That was when the parents knew their kid could do dumb things. Now there are so many delusional parents they arrest all the kids.
While there are certainly plenty of delusional parents who refuse to believe their children can do any wrong, that doesn’t mean it has a cause and effect relationship on police conduct. Correlation does not equal causation.
The policy was changed in the early 80s by the city attorney on the grounds that everyone should be treated the same (a small minority messes thing up for everyone). I doubt the police would have made such a change because it was a lot more work for them.
I think there are small towns where the Mayberry policies are still used.