Cops: "That Lying Whore! Oh, Never Mind."

Priceless:

BRADENTON, FL — When a convicted prostitute said a police officer supplied her with drugs and money for sex, and that she had sex with another officer in an undercover vehicle, police and city officials were stunned. Nobody wanted to believe her. Investigators found the woman in the Manatee County jail and hooked her up to a polygraph machine — evidence that is not allowed in court but is routinely used when the police investigate their own. The questions police asked Dawn Marie Gibson were simple and direct. Her answers rattled the department, and documents released Wednesday indicate that Gibson told the truth about sexual liaisons with former Bradenton officers. 

On-duty police officers getting it on with prostitutes — I'm shocked, shocked.

There's just no precedent for that kind of thing, you know?

BONUS: If you have the stomach, check out the website Bad Cop No Donut (now defunct, I believe), where one measly three-month period yielded 70 cases, culled from the news, of North American police officers perpetrating sex crimes. And that's not just the rape or sexual coercion of prostitutes and strippers — not by a long shot. In fact, that strong stomach will come in handy when you realize that most of the cops' sexual assaults (in the BCND sample) were on minors.

Of course, these are only the incidents that (a) came to light and (b) were picked up by the website in question.

I wonder if, once you know the ratio of police officers to citizens, and once you know how many serious sex crimes are committed by those citizens vs. the number committed by our badged protectors, it's the cops who turn out to be the bigger sex fiends, or regular people. Anyone have the answer?

Comments

[Phelps]

Before you get too far into that ratio (which has a good chance of giving you the answer you expect anyways) consider how much the Thin Blue Line protects police officers and their families by the reluctance to investigate by other police and the reluctance to prosecute by the DAs.

[Jeff the Poustman]

I'm given to understand that those with arsonist tendencies are attracted to and often enter the firefighting ranks. Perhaps a similar dynamic with those attracted to sex crimes becoming cops.

The Sesame Street image of the friendly neighborhood cop on the corner to whom a child can safely apply in times of crisis is dead indeed.