Probable Cause

Seventeen-year-old Sammy Adams was running down the sidewalk alongside Floradora Avenue, no doubt a little faster than he should.  He was late for work.  Again.  Today was inventory day and he knew what the boss would do if he didn’t get there on time.

Doris Daudy, a woman of approximately 38 years old, was walking north on Maroa toward her home just north of the Tower District.  Her purse was slung over one shoulder, her arms wrapped around grocery bags.  She never minded the walk; it was just a few blocks.  And although there was an occasional purse-snatching in the area, she’d walked this route for years without problems and felt perfectly safe.

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Believing that law enforcement officers are good guys is one of the linchpins of our society; probably of all societies, even where they don’t officially call them “law enforcement” officers.  But to believe in law enforcement officers, we must be able to believe law enforcement officers.

So far that doesn’t seem to be a problem for the majority of submitizens, even though newspapers as small as the Fresno Bee contain at least one — and usually more than one — story almost every day about the illegal activities of police officers.

But there’s one type of malfeasance in which police officers engage even more routinely that usually goes unreported.  Until now.

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