Grits opposes most penalty enhancement bills and I may end up being against this one after I've given it sufficient thought. However, with police unions poised to go after the Smart on Crime agenda, I'm at least glad to see legislation filed that will keep them occupied some of the time next session playing defense. State Rep Borris Miles filed HB 265 increasing penalties for "official oppression" from a Class A misdemeanor to a third degree felony if the public servant in question was a police officer who "knowingly caused bodily injury to another."
(That oughtta rile the unions up more, even, than Jon Stickland's proposed HB 137 limiting government grants to law enforcement groups that lobby at the Legislature.)
At times, prosecutors have pled serious assault cases against officers down to Class A misdemeanor official oppression as sort of a place-holder to avoid pursuing more serious offenses that would get you or I charged with felony assault or worse. So I certainly understand Miles' frustration. Even so, arguably the public would be at least as well or better protected by altering the civil service code to make it easier for police departments to fire bad cops and empower the Commission on Law Enforcement to keep them from being re-hired elsewhere in Texas if they engaged in serious misconduct.
Prosecutors can always find a lesser charge to plead down a case and will find something else if misdemeanor official oppression is removed from their toolkit (e.g., misdemeanor assault). As much as one might like to, I don't see how it's possible to legislate away the discretion of elected District Attorneys to exercise routine lenience toward criminal defendants employed by police departments. The punitive impulse is not a pragmatic one.
That said, another piece of Miles' legislation, HB 270,
would make official oppression complaints subject to the Public
Information Act in Dallas and Houston (cities over two million) and
require their retention as long as the officer as employed. That's a
fine idea that IMO needn't be limited to the state's biggest cities.
Isn't this the same legislator that was charged with Deadly Conduct in Harris County a few years back and was also accused of publically kissing some other dude's wife at a party? And he's put out with the cops? Go figure...
ReplyDeletePublically?? Is that French?
Delete@ Anonymous with "Publically?? Is that French?" as a comment. The first Anonymous had a valid comment with a misspelled word, and the your brilliant comment was on the misspelled word, not the topic at hand. Good job.
ReplyDeleteAssault Causing Bodily Injury is already a Class A misdemeanor.
ReplyDeleteThe same crime, committed under the color of law, should be a higher level offense.
The color of law should be a higher level offense so let's incarcerate them all for their illegal activities under tdcj
ReplyDelete