Cambridge officer on leave after hit-and-run involving a bicyclist

the officer was completely unaware, and assumed he had traveled over a pothole

All of that is basically true for all drivers and gun users in America. You can get away with killing whoever you want. Just say it was an "accident" or that it was "self defense" and you won't even lose your license to operate the weapon you used to kill.
Luckily with cell phone cameras everywhere now some of these people are very occasionally caught in their lies and prosecuted.

If anything, our police officers are dealt with more harshly than the general public. In this case, a minor accident where the bicyclist was quickly treated and released yet the off-duty officer is now subject to a comprehensive investigation by the State Police, District Attorney and investigative reporters from throngs of Boston media outlets.

And that's "harsher" treatment? That various agencies are asking questions? My god but you've got a thin skin, or you assume one when that skin is covered with a blue uniform. I'm not sure who you think investigates the police, but when someone responsible for enforcing the law breaks a very important one, an investigation certainly is warranted. Sorry if it offends your delicate cop-sucking sensibilities when a hit-and-run is treated as a serious matter even when the runner is a cop.

I mean, the bicyclist was ONLY the hospital a day and the alleged perpetrator ONLY left the scene of an accident. Sheesh, what's the big deal, amirite? It's a witch hunt, I tell ya.

Daily police misconduct reports:

http://www.policemisconduct.net/

More than 3 people killed per day by police

http://killedbypolice.net/

Note that the FBI crime statistics do not report how many people are killed by police.

testilying

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_perjury

Blue wall of silence

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-12-07/breaking-blu...

Need I go on?

You want credibility, O-Fish-El? provide statistics on police crime rates. Oh wait, there are few or none.

Who indeed will guard the guardians?

O-Fish, let me ask you. How do I go about getting one of the blue and black stickers to put on the back of my car so I can park anywhere?

Or, what happens if I make one for myself?

Legitimate question, I believe. I don't mean to snark on police - I've got family bpd, but this really bugs me. Everytime I see one of those stickers its a statement that the police get a benefit that others don't and that's not right.

its definitely only the police that people are after for hit and runs, not commercial drivers that might be mentioned in the very same comments section

im not pro or anti police, like any reasonable person should be, i take each situation on a case by case basis but god damn if it isnt just embarrassing to try and defend the police sometimes nowadays

First of all, why are you using the term "accident"? That implies it was unavoidable. We saw just recently a case also in Cambridge where a truck purposely hit a cyclist.

I have an anecdote of my own. A cop told me a week ago that he was taking an exam. For some inexplicable reason the exams were graded by other cops in the room. The cop I know get multiple questions wrong and the cop who graded his exam fixed them to the right answers and said to him "cops are always right". Perfect example of how cops think they are above the law and they how they can't even take a little bit of criticism professionally even when they are killing so many unarmed people(and usually getting away with it like Michael Slager almost did).

if your first reaction to criticism is to stop doing your job the best you can, quit before you get somebody killed.

or should i be thanking you for your valiant effort at restraint and your grave sense of duty?

some people value cops as much as they value rubber dog shit for a variety of reasons. you aren't helping your case any.

If you want to avoid accusations of police misconduct and double standards, avoid misconduct and hold your fellow officers to at least as high a standard as you hold everyone else. Failing that, do not tow the line as an apologist for bad/crooked cops and departments who maintain that double standard.

Unless you're FISH, in which case you should definitely keep writing longwinded screeds about the unfairness of it all, because every moment you spend typing is one fewer moment in which you are actively making the world a worse place for everyone else.

I see both sides of the situation. A majority of cops are honest good people doing a thankless job. Like everything else, the few rotten ones bring everyone down. The same arguments hold for most public employees (The T anyone?)

But, the public's perception of unfairness is sometimes justified when details of some police improprieties are kept from the public. Drunk driving, sexual assaults, the public has a right and if joe schmoe's name is put in the paper for driving drunk, I expect the same for the police officer.

I do believe if the day came that a police officer came to the aid of any of these posters, they would be very appreciative.

There's a line that is often used by cops and fans of cops: if you haven't done anything wrong, what are you afraid of? Likewise, if you're not a crooked cop, if you're not the kind of cop who drives drunk, if you're not the kind of cop who threatens to shoot a civilian over an honest and harmless traffic misunderstanding, if you're not the kind of cop who hits a cyclist and drives away, then what are you afraid of?

And if you're now feeling indignant and hard-done-by and falsely accused, well, maybe you should realize that civilians feel the same way when we are subjected to cop suspicion and "you will comply with me or else" behavior. Maybe you'll realize that punishment (particularly the extrajudicial variety) doesn't always land on the guilty, and revise your thinking about the popular cop belief that only lawbreakers distrust cops.

Lack of enforcement of traffic laws is the number one reason that people drive, cycle and jaywalk they way they do in this town.