The Other Price We Pay for Woke DA's

Police lawsuit payouts are rising, are cops acting worse?

The payouts for police misconduct have been rising steadily in recent years in the United States.  Police officers are not perfect.  Bad cops sometimes slip through (especially since finding people to take the job is getting tougher).  Cops and victims make mistakes and occasionally the wrong person is arrested.  I’ve done that myself when a robbery victim made a misidentification.  It happens.

But it is not happening more.  If anything, it is happening less.   More video, facial recognition, lower arrest rates, and body cameras all point to fewer bad arrests.  Cops are not more violent or more corrupt than they used to be.  I could tell you that during my 25-year career with the NYPD, I saw a great improvement in professionalism, restraint, and corruption controls.  People can believe what they want, but I know that is true.

But lawsuits and payouts keep rising.  The New York Times reported that New York City paid out $135 million in police misconduct suits in 2022 alone.  Chicago had to pay $67 million in 2021. One of the causes for this is with the “woke” district attorneys that are gaining control in our major cities.  Many Soros-funded social justice warriors have no business in a prosecutor’s office.  Not only are they hurting their constituents by allowing crime to rise, but they are hurting taxpayers. 

Prosecutors are declining to draw up arrests at a rampant rate.  In Washington DC, 67% of police arrests are dropped.  In Los Angeles, George Gascon has dropped 46% of felony arrests.  The year before Larry Krasner took office in Philadelphia, the city paid out $10 million in police lawsuits.  Last year, that number was $20.7 million.  District Attorneys in New York have refused to prosecute large swaths of crimes. 

“I love perps!” - Larry Krasner

Across the country, in the wake of the George Floyd riots, prosecutors refused to charge thousands of protestors arrested by cops.  They continue to do so with the current anti-Israel protests.  The result is retaliatory lawsuits from the accused, which the cities rarely bother to even fight.

Some cases should not be drawn up.  I have brought complainants to the district attorney’s office that I had misgivings about, but which had to be pursued further.  That is the nature of the business.  But we are currently at a “decline prosecution” level that has no basis in reality. 

This is leaving police departments and the taxpayers who fund them open to lawsuits.  Cities generally settle these suits for small sums, but the bills add up.  New York City’s average payout has increased from $10,000 in 2018 to $25,0000 in 2023.  This number indicates the volume of “pay to go away” settlements.   

When a cop makes a valid arrest and the district attorney refuses to even write up the case, it is hard to defend in civil court.  There is no legal process to show the cop’s justification for arrest.

Naturally, police opponents in the media report increases in police lawsuit payouts as evidence of cops being out of control.  In reality, this issue does not indicate more police corruption.  This is a false correlation that for many media outlets is apparently too good to check.

This is also another example that elections have consequences.  As taxpayers we should be electing district attorneys who do their job, not advocates for criminals and chaos.  And for easy payouts.

Up In Smoke

Once again Governor Kathy Hochul is complaining about New York’s marijuana rollout.  Perhaps she forgot about the last time she was griping about ganja, when she took decisive action and did her trademark… nothing.  Perhaps it slipped her mind that she is the chief executive of the state. 

The number of illegal (sorry unlicensed) cannabis stores in the state is still wildly out of control.  There are 400 such operations in Manhattan alone.  At a press conference this week, Hochul decried the number of unlicensed weed shops, but in a remarkable example of “pass the buck” mentality, she requested that social media and mapping sites remove the unlicensed shops from their searchable databases. 

In other words, we can’t handle the problem we created, so blame companies that make them easier to find (as if google maps searches were the problem).

Don’t forget that this state legalized marijuana in March 2021, without ensuring a proper licensing system was in place. The state legislature is equally to blame for this S.N.A.F.U. (situation normal – all fucked up, a term that came out of military logistics in WW2 and apparently the state motto of New York).  They never created penalties and regulations for cannabis sales when they legalized it.  But it has been years now with no improvements.  

Hochul’s response is typical.  The “rollout” of licensing is still delayed.  The asinine and arcane rules around who gets a license include giving a preference to people with criminal histories.  By now Hochul should see that the New York Office of Cannabis Management is dysfunctional and failing miserably – but she’s taking no action.

The organization is still being led by Chris Alexander, who must himself be a regular user of cannabis.  He has done nothing to show that he is capable of running this operation.  Alexander has no real-world experience and has jumped from one government agency to another before landing his current gig.  He is supported by a team of young political hacks who have past experience with cannabis.  Not exactly a team that inspires confidence.

Chris Alexander

But Hochul has kept this clearly failing team in place.  Now the “lucky” few who have paid for cannabis licenses are losing their patience.  They have followed the Office of Cannabis Management’s rules and are paying dearly.  As unlicensed vendors rake in the dough the higher priced, licensed shops are seeing their businesses fail.  License fees and taxes make them uncompetitive with the illicit market.     

Licensed business owners are not the only ones getting hurt financially.  New York, like many other states, promised huge tax revenues from that legal cannabis business.  Numerous states are falling below their anticipated tax estimates from peddling the harmful drug.  New York has likely lost money thus far with their disastrous program, but unsurprisingly many states are not close to meeting politicians’ financial promises.  Washington politicians estimated over $1 billion in taxes, but have only realized half of that number.  On the other end of the country, Maine estimated that they could earn as much as $49 million.  The actual number for 2022 was $27 million. 

And its not like this tax revenue has no consequences.  What started out as a push for “social justice” is turning into a national, state-sponsored, addiction epidemic.  The federal government still lists cannabis as an illegal substance.  You can disagree with the federal government keeping marijuana illegal, but perhaps they are looking out for Americans. 

The National Institute of Drug Abuse reports that over 30 % of high school seniors are using marijuana.  A government sanctioned store with outdoor advertising in neighborhoods will likely increase this number. 

And despite claims from advocates, marijuana is not good for you.  A recent study showed that heavy marijuana users in their teens lost an average of 8 IQ points.  Marijuana use has triggered paranoia, depression, and worsened symptoms in people with schizophrenia.  People who use large amounts of marijuana report lower life satisfaction, poorer mental health, and more relationship problems. 

Perhaps it is not good to be arresting people for smoking a joint, but is cannabis something that state governments should be pushing and profiting from? 

In ten years, there may be more tax revenues for politicians to waste, but Americans will all be worse off for the normalization of cannabis in our country.  We can guarantee that New York will be worse off.  We see it everyday already. 

If our officials are indeed smoking it regularly, at least we’d have an explanation.

Thanks for reading The Ops Desk. Stay Safe!