A recurring theme in criminal law is whether law enforcement officials are subject to the same scrutiny as the rest of us.  If there was any doubt in your mind before, this may be just what it takes to push you over the edge.  Via Radley Balko comes one of the most horrendous stories ever, and one that everyone should know.

From the Denver Post :

Charles Porter is a 13-year veteran of the Denver Police Department who one night last spring, on a gang- unit detail, believed he’d seen Juan Vasquez, a 16-year-old boy, swigging an alcoholic beverage in northwest Denver. When he flipped on his flashing lights, the boy ran.

The chase was a short one. In the end, the boy lay prone and handcuffed on the ground with several of his ribs smashed, his kidneys half- pulverized and his liver lacerated.

The cops, a month later, came for one of their own and arrested Porter on a felony charge of second-degree assault. He went to trial a little more than a week ago. A jury acquitted him Thursday.

Of course it did.

There was a videotape.  The City paid the family $1 million.  But most shockingly, this was so outrageous that the unthinkable happened: Two fellow officers testified against Charles Porter.

“Officer Porter grabs hold of the fence with both hands,” Officer Luis Rivera, who was partnered with Porter that night, testified. “He jumps up, raises his knees and lands with both feet on the kid’s back.”

He then demonstrated the jumping to the jury, the loud thud of each jump reverberating through the courtroom.

Back in their squad car, Rivera said he questioned Porter as to why he jumped on the kid. “Officer Porter said, ‘I don’t know why I do that. It’s just something I do lately. I guess I just like the way they sound.’ ”

And the jury acquitted.

It appears from the story that the jury never considered whether it was wrong for Porter to stomp 16 year old Juan Vasquez.  The foreman, however, did have some hard questions about Vazquez’s testimony.

“When you look at how (the boy) testified versus other statements he made, there were far more inconsistencies in his testimony,” the foreman continued. “He had mentioned that it was more than one officer that committed the abuse. He was the only one who said that in any of the testimony.”

Not that there was any question that the kid got stomped, or that Porter did the stomping.  But then, what’s that got to do with anything when the man on trial is a cop.

I guess that we’re just going to have to suffer a few Juan Vazquez’s getting stomped if we want to enjoy law and order.  it’s the price we pay to show our devotion to cops.