People ask over and over again why the city so often concedes large out-of-court settements to plaintiffs in "thumping" suits yet never manages to fire the cops involved. I'm no lawyer, but I suspect one of the reasons these cops remain beyond reach is that the city's contract with the Police Federation requires much more stringent proof of culpable behavior than the courts require for determining liability. If I'm right in thinking so, it would mean that that the city has waltzed itself into a vicious circle: Cops whose viciousness results in court settlements of hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars cannot be fired because of an agreement the city itself negotiated; but since they cannot be fired, they're put back out in the street where they generate -- you guessed it -- more law suits. I also suspect that when the city justifies itself for settling these cases out of court by describing them as " too dangerous" to litigate, we are getting a fairly realistic assessment not of the legal merit of the city's position but of the professional competency of its own attorneys.
Finally, I would point out an ironic symmetry here. Sociologists assure us that the vast preponderance of mayhem that occurs in our streets is caused by a relatively small number of criminals, perhaps as few as two or three percent of the overall criminal population. This is a proposition that most people seem to have no trouble accepting. We're also assured by the same authorities that only a tiny number of cops engage in brutality. Now, why is it so easy for most of us to accept the former, and so difficult for some of us to accept the latter? I have my own ideas, but I'd like to hear what others think.
Paul Weir
Phillips
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