When the video emerged of Philadelphia cops beating suspects, it presented an opportunity.  Here was the list of options:

A.  Nothing will happen, and police brass will announce that the officers were defending themselves.
B.  Nothing will happen, and police brass will announce that the officers were beating acting according to department guidelines.
C.  Nothing will happen, and police brass will explain that the beaten men were suspected in a drug-related triple homicide and therefore deserved a good beating.
D.  Something will happen.

Shockingly, the answer turns out to be “D”, something happened.  According to the New York Times :

Four police officers who were caught on video beating three suspects in a drug-related triple shooting will be fired, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said Monday.

Three other officers have been suspended, Commissioner Ramsey said at a news conference, and one officer has been demoted.

Well, that’s certainly something for the City of Brotherly Love.  The fact that this horrific beating wasn’t swept under the rug, justified or excused reflects a significant advancement in the attitude and tolerance of the Philadelphia police department.  Of course, one has to wonder whether it would have been the same had their not been a video of the beating, but let us not indulge in rank speculation.

What else did Ramsey have to say?

Commissioner Ramsey said he did not know why the officers acted as they did but he added that emotions were running high because Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski had been killed two days earlier in a robbery in the Port Richmond area of the city.

Some of the officers used “indiscriminate force” that went beyond what is justified to make an arrest, he said. The officers kicked one man in the head and hit another in the head with an object while they lay on the ground.

“There are a group of officers whose actions were outside of department policy,” Commissioner Ramsey said. “We have to be better than some of what we showed on the fifth of May.”

All true, but having overcome the first hurdle, admitting that cops don’t get to beat suspects because of “high emotions,” a second hurdle remains.  Firing, suspending, demoting are all punishments reflecting the right direction, but if you or I were to do what these officers did, would it end there?  Hardly.

D. Scott Perrine, a lawyer for one of the men, Pete Hopkins, 19, said the disciplinary action “falls far short” of the appropriate response, which he said should be criminal charges of aggravated assault for the officers involved.

“The only reason these people are not in handcuffs is because they are police officers,” Mr. Perrine said. “They behaved like a pack of wild animals.”

Therein lies a significant difference, and problem.  How many of our defendants have argued with their lawyer that if they don’t have a video, it never happened?  We hear this all the time, and we tell them that it doesn’t work that way.

But here, there was a videotape.  It showed cops behaving like animals.  Had this beating been perpetrated by anyone other than our men in blue, you can bet the farm that they would be arraigned the next day and held on ridiculously high bail.  But not here.

The 67-second video, which has been broadcast repeatedly on local and national television, is now being examined by District Attorney Lynne Abraham, who will decide whether to file criminal charges against the officers. The F.B.I. is also reviewing the tape, Commissioner Ramsey said.

What exactly are they waiting for?  They are waiting for people to move on to the next atrocity so that they forget about this one.  Having done something, the officials are hoping that the combination of short attention span and the never-ending stream of police scandals will direct attention elsewhere, so that they can claim they dealt with the problem and be the heroes of the great unwashed.

Mayor Michael Nutter said at the news conference that he was satisfied by the department’s response to the beating, pointing out that 16 of the 18 officers at the scene had been fired, disciplined or subject to retraining.  “Today’s announcement represents, I believe, what is required in this matter: swift, direct action,” Mr. Nutter said.

It strikes me as unlikely that he would be satisfied if this was cop on the ground being beaten by a gang of hoodlums, and the upshot was that 4 lost their jobs. 

So Philadelphia has clearly made some headway from the days of Rizzo and the Move firebombing.  But it still has a long way to go.  Like most places, including New York.