New Orleans Beat Cop grows a Conscience

6-12-07 Tulsa World newspaper: remember New Orleans at about tile time hurricane Katrina hit. A pack of vicious cops got caught in the act of savagely beating a schoolteacher. The tape was remarkable in that it plainly showed the rabid cops not only dogpiling and bashing an ordinary citizen, but also a cop abusing his horse, trying desperately to shove his horse's ass between the camera and the atrocity being taped.

After all this time; it seems like about two solid years, it turns out that the authorities really were going to have to put somebody through a mock trial on this. That somebody, apparently, was actually named. (The two FBI cops got completely away, and, of the four local cops, this "Lance Schilling" guy was left holding the bag.    Officer Schilling was, in one more month, to finally be forced into court and before a civil jury. (Cops do not normally get prosecuted by prosecutors.) Very few actual facts about the case were ever released, but apparently someone was able to overcome the many legal roadblocks and immunities ("Absolute" and "Special") to the law and punishment that prevent cops from being sued.

Having had years to think about his deeds, Officer Schilling eventually concluded that his long career of being a protected social species had encouraged him to perform and enjoy too many acts of gratuitous violence that he visited upon others for no good reasons. Helping him to reach this conclusion, no doubt, was the schoolteacher's lawyer obtaining, despite massive police and City opposition, a copy of Officer Schilling's Service Record. Now Schilling was faced with having to explain, in public, not just his reasons for abusing and torturing the schoolteacher, but also justifying the many other incidents of savagery he had been caught at. His police buddies ran away from his heat, trying hard that none of the scrutiny he was subjected to came to scrutinize them. (New Orleans cops have been known for decades to be the most vicious, unscrupulous, scurrilous, corrupt and murderous cops in the nation.) Before leaving, his cop pals told him, "Semper Fi!", "Protect the Force!", "Thin Blue Line, Buddie!" or other form of "Mum's the word! Don't snitch us off! Don't send any heat after us! You sink; you sink alone! Don't drag any of us down with you!" As Schilling watched, all that "Private Ryan" and Three Musketeers (All for one and one for all!) turned into what it really is: cheap Hollywood movie feel-good propaganda designed to keep camaraderie high and attention to reality minimal.

Schilling, no longer a highly respected Officer of the Law, has had his teeth pulled. When the High and Mighty fall from their lofty Ivory Towers, there is usually a Police Psychiatrist waiting to catch them. The transition from virtual Demi-God to hated pseudo criminal is a hard one that sometimes causes thoughts of suicide. (About 60 cops commit suicide per year in America; about half as many as who kill themselves in thrilling copcar fleet-chases of cars, motorcycles and trucks.) Despite the almost 100% chance that Schilling would not suffer Civil conviction or personal financial punishment of any kind, something led him to put the gun barrel of hisPolice issue weapon into his mouth and blow his brains out. I'd like to think that, because most of these suicidal cops are in the exact, same situation as Schilling, they are sending all of their fellow cops a message. That message is that, while a conscience can be amputated with a lot of clever police training in the pack mentality, once the pack kicks out a tainted member to save the pack, the isolated member's conscience often grows back and reviews past dirty deeds. The Law of Evolution very likely has a mechanism for weeding out psychopathic members of a species, as they are detrimental to the good of the species as a whole. Schilling's conscience grew back, judged him, and found him too dangerous for the world of Man. His conscience directed him to commit suicide for the common good of man. His suicide served to make the species healthier by warning other too-powerful psychopaths of the possible consequences of the actions that they enjoy perpetrating too much.

Take heed, vicious cops, corrupt prosecutors, arrogant judges, sleazy politicians; this can happen to you!