David Mascarella returned to the Suffolk County Police Department in New York on Thursday following an 18-month unpaid suspension for driving drunk and crashing into a car carrying two children, one of whom was permanently injured. In August 2020, Mascarella spent his day off golfing and lunching during which he claimed he drank up to three 12-ounce vodka soda cocktails, Newsday reported after an extensive investigation.

That day, the off-duty police officer drove his pickup truck 20 mph over the speed limit while texting and rear-ended a compact vehicle driven by Kevin Cavooris. Cavooris’s two young sons were passengers in his car.

When the crash occurred, instead of calling 911, Mascarella called his union delegate. At the scene, a detective said he wanted to administer a breathalyzer test but the responding sergeant contacted a Suffolk County Police Benevolent Association delegate who drove Mascarella away before the test was given, according to Newsday.

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51 points

There are times I become cynical, and say that this world is filled with assholes. That I am surrounded by assholes. People hear me say that, and say that if I can’t find a common denominator, that I must be the common denominator.

No, the common denominator is that society lets this guy live. There should be lynch mob ready to put this guys head on a pike. Yes I blame the cop. The cop is 100% at fault here. But I also blame every single person who interacts with this cop. He lives somewhere. The line to justice should have started at his neighbors houses, and grew from there. Everybody should have been out for this guys blood.

The fact that he walks free, is a testiment to how much society is willing to swallow. If he can cripple a kid for life, and just live his life worry free, tjat essentially says that he can do it again. He probably has drank and drove again. What’s stopping him? Certainly not the courts. Certainly not society. He can do it, and he can get away with it. Which means in my eyes, society may not be just as guilty as he is, but they’re certainly not innocent either.

The world is filled with assholes.

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16 points

Evil happens when many decide to do nothing.

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1 point

What can be done besides impotently complaining online about this?

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2 points
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Start with making sure your family, friends and neighbors are ok. If they need help, help them. Get armed and do mutual aid work.

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THE POLICE PROBLEM

!thepoliceproblem@lemmy.world

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    The police problem is that police are policed by the police. Cops are accountable only to other cops, which is no accountability at all.

    99.9999% of police brutality, corruption, and misconduct is never investigated, never punished, never makes the news, so it’s not on this page.

    When cops are caught breaking the law, they’re investigated by other cops. Details are kept quiet, the officers’ names are withheld from public knowledge, and what info is eventually released is only what police choose to release — often nothing at all.

    When police are fired — which is all too rare — they leave with ‘law enforcement experience’ and can easily find work in another police department nearby. It’s called “Wandering Cops.”

    When police testify under oath, they lie so frequently that cops themselves have a joking term for it: “testilying.” Yet it’s almost unheard of for police to be punished or prosecuted for perjury.

    Cops can and do get away with lawlessness, because cops protect other cops. If they don’t, they aren’t cops for long.

    The legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” renders police officers invulnerable to lawsuits for almost anything they do. In practice, getting past ‘qualified immunity’ is so unlikely, it makes headlines when it happens.

    All this is a path to a police state.

    In a free society, police must always be under serious and skeptical public oversight, with non-cops and non-cronies in charge, issuing genuine punishment when warranted.

    Police who break the law must be prosecuted like anyone else, promptly fired if guilty, and barred from ever working in law-enforcement again.

    That’s the solution.

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Our definition of ‘cops’ is broad, and includes prison guards, probation officers, shitty DAs and judges, etc — anyone who has the authority to fuck over people’s lives, with minimal or no oversight.

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INFO

A demonstrator’s guide to understanding riot munitions

Adultification

Cops aren’t supposed to be smart

Don’t talk to the police.

Killings by law enforcement in Canada

Killings by law enforcement in the United Kingdom

Killings by law enforcement in the United States

Know your rights: Filming the police

Three words. 70 cases. The tragic history of ‘I can’t breathe’ (as of 2020)

Police aren’t primarily about helping you or solving crimes.

Police lie under oath, a lot

Police spin: An object lesson in Copspeak

Police unions and arbitrators keep abusive cops on the street

Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States

So you wanna be a cop?

When the police knock on your door

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ORGANIZATIONS

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