One set of rules for police and one for average citizens?

A Grant County, Washington police officer who accidentally shot his wife will be re-instated to his duties as a police officer.

Grant County Sheriff's Deputy Jose Rivera had apparently shot his wife while "dry-firing" a gun without realizing that there was a round in the chamber. The shooting was handled by the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office. Franklin County neighbors Grant County.

He was originally charged with two counts of assault 3, a class C felony, but pled down to reckless endangerment, a gross misdemeanor. He was sentenced to 48 hours of community service and two years of probation. The felony counts, which would have disqualified him from voting and possessing a firearm were dismissed.

He is not the only officer to have been re-instated after shooting someone. It has happened in New Orleans, in Columbus (after an officer kicked a suspect who was already on the ground), in the City of Athens for an officer who lied, and in countless other examples.

When the police do actually have trials, they tend to opt for bench trials, as opposed to jury trials. A bench trial is one that is conducted by a judge only. As the referenced Washington Post article suggests, this has been a successful tactic. Judges hear a lot from police in dealing with crimes in their courtrooms and, like certain demographics, many judges to seem to tend to favor police officers.

The danger in all this is a divide in the treatment between law enforcement and average citizens. Other police departments are often called upon to investigate where police misconduct. The results are not too surprising. Most of the time no charges are filed. The police wait until the investigations are fully completed before making any arrests. The officer is often placed on paid leave until the investigation is complete.

This is pretty disparate treatment than the average person who may be charged with a crime. Charging against the average person is sometimes done before the investigation is fully complete. A fair number of people are held on bail and cannot afford to post bail, meaning that they sit in jail until their case is ready for trial, which can take months. This can result in losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing their property, and otherwise having their lives ruined. If the charges get dismissed prior to trial or the person wins at trial, they usually have very little recourse for their pre-trial incarceration.

There are many gaps in the criminal justice system that still allow for favoritism, bias, racism, classism, and other disparate treatments of individuals. While some studies have been done and positive reforms and steps have been undertaken to analyze and address some of the issues. There is still a long way to go.

Especially in relation to police incidents, the police from the next county over, who probably deal with the police in the neighboring county somewhat regularly, should not be the ones to deal investigate. The police are not going to police themselves. Some watchdog group involvement and community involvement should be incorporated into these procedures. Perhaps a federal agency specifically tasked with investigating these types of incidents should be created. In any event, the current system is creating one set of rules for police and one set of rules for people, which only serves to increase the divide between the police and the citizens of this country.