Bad Cops!

Ready now? Bad cops! Bad, bad, bad.

by Isaiah Thompson

Tut, tut, tut. Tsk, tsk. Bad cops, bad cops!

Anyone else want in? Because it's a rare occurrence — an opportunity not to be squandered — when the chief of police, the mayor, the District Attorney and even — can it be? — the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) president give us all the go-ahead to let it rip on any members of Philadelphia's police force.

Indeed, the opportunity has presented itself, after a Philly cop was charged last week with robbing the safe of Pat's Cafe, a bar in the Northeast — just a few weeks, of course, after three other Philadelphia police officers were charged with stealing and dealing heroin. "I'm personally pissed off," Mayor Michael Nutter boldly told reporters and TV cameras after that heroin-dealing snafu. And after Officer Kenneth Crockett was charged in the Pat's robbery, an "angry" Police Chief Charles Ramsey promised to root out corruption in his force. Even FOP President John McNesby chimed in: "You can't be a policeman and ... a burglar... [or] a drug dealer," he pronounced. The anger has been officially sanctioned: So go ahead and say it. Ready now? Bad cops! Bad, bad, bad.

Officials, after all, prefer these kinds of cases: They're easy, clear-cut and they let them channel the public's wrath on a few bad apples, then go quietly back to the business of quietly backing the cops in the cases that aren't so tidy — especially when it comes to use of deadly force. Like in April, when police sprayed a playground with bullets — killing fugitive Vincent Parsons, oh yes, but also terrifying the dozen-plus children present, according to witnesses, who also told reporters that Parsons was killed trying to surrender.

Or, for example, the disturbing number of cases in which police have killed homeless and mentally ill individuals. That describes at least three of the eight fatal police shootings in 2009. In April of that year, 27-year-old Anthony Temple — whose family says he was schizophrenic — was shot and killed by police when he allegedly tried to take a veteran officer's gun. That July, police shot and killed an unknown homeless man who had been pressing the emergency call button in a downtown SEPTA concourse, after he brandished a box cutter at the officers. Two weeks later, 22-year-old Baron Adams — also homeless — was killed on the front steps of his parents' house after allegedly taking an officer's weapon. A few months later, police fired at, but did not kill, a "cinder block-wielding" man who was subsequently committed to a mental health facility.

None of these instances, unlike the current scandals, indicate malicious intent on the part of the officers — but they deeply trouble advocates for the mentally ill. And they troubled Ramsey enough to vow to provide better training to the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) police officers tasked with dealing with the mentally ill — as well as 1,000 new Tasers, preferable to guns in such cases.

Things seemed to cool down — until last Friday, that is, when police were dispatched to a run-down block in North Philly where 53-year-old Harry Bennett was behaving erratically and wielding a knife. As is supposed to happen, CIT was called out.

As isn't, Bennett was Tasered — then shot.

An investigation — as always — is under way. But you won't get the results in a press conference.

Get personally pissed off, via e-mail. Hit up your Man Overboard! at isaiah.thompson@citypaper.net.