My condolences to the family of the dead Justice Deprtment agent, and prayers for the wounded employee.
May the arrested guards rot in Hell. I hope they get 20 years hard, and are put in General Pop, where they won’t last 5 minutes. This is a total betrayal of the system, and those who perpetrated this affront need to pay. Painfully and publicly would be my preference. When you are part of the System, you need to be above reproach. This goes so far beyond criminal that it makes me…well, as mad as something has made me in quite some time.
Any lawyers want to weigh in on whether or not the remaining 5 guards can be charged with first-degree murder because of this? They committed the crime, and someone died in the commission/arrest.
I hope that no guards are injured in your scenario, trying to do their duty and protect the inmates under their care.
I also hope the family doesn’t win their civil suit against the employee who ignored the very-valid security risks involved in putting an ex-guard in general population, because having violated all of the rules for security assignment, the employee would not be protected by the “color of employment” and would probably lose their house/car/lifestyle (as well as their job.)
I also hope that the state corrections system doesn’t take a multi-million dollar hit to their budget because they didn’t stop that employee from foolishly placing the ex-guard.
And I hope that someday people will stop making bonehead statements like the one I quoted.
I just can’t think of anything evil enough to wish on people who abuse a position of trust. What goes around comes around, but damnit sometimes it just doesn’t happen soon enough to suit me.
That’s the part that gets me. That’s like ATF raiding some Crip stronghold and being surprised to face armed resistance. I’ve been a prison guard for twenty four years. And I know my colleagues enough to know that if I was going to arrest one of them, I’d expect them to have dozens of guns on hand.
What surprises me in situations like that is how someone can think, “gee, they know who I am, where I live, and that an agent was sent here to arrest me. Probably the best thing to do is shoot them. It’ll probably improve my chances for getting away scott free.”
back when I worked at a correction center, one evening, one woman was going to be arrested. she hid in her closet.sure, no one would ever look there, I’ll just wait til l they leave and then I’lljust go about my business.
The phrase you’re looking for is “suicide by cop”. A guy figures he’d rather be dead than face arrest and imprisonment. So when the cops show up he pulls out a gun and starts shooting. He realizes there’s virtually no chance he’s going to actually get away but he figures it’s better to go down shooting even if he ends up dead.
According to the spokesman interviewed on NPR, the logic went like this: It’s against the law to carry weapons on Federal property, therefore if we make the arrest in the low security area of the prison, they won’t have any weapons on them! Wow, what logic! We really need a “duh” smilie for situations like these.
What got to me is that the article said they were allegedly blackmailing the inmates into having sex with them … threatening to ship them to distant prison, etc., if they didn’t come across. Giving pot to an inmate who’s willing and eager to trade it for sex is one thing – blackmailing an unwilling inmate into having sex is quite another.
I got no use for them, if the allegations are true. They aren’t just abusing a position of trust, they’re serial rapists. They’re as bad as those pedophile Catholic preists. I dunno if I WANT them to be brutally killed by inmates, but I won’t shed a whole lot of tears if they eventually are.
In my experience, 4 out of 5 corrections officers are decent, hardworking individuals who really do try their best to do a tough, demanding job which can be both dangerous and scary on a regular basis.
Of the remaining 1 of 5, the majority of them are in the wrong line of work for their personalities and talents, but they’re not trying to hurt anybody.
It’s a small fraction that are predators. They need to be identified and to suffer the consequences of their behavior.
The whole field of corrections mirrors the field of policing in this way, IMHO.
Those with some experience and/or exposure in this matter… Do you think that this focus of the Justice Department on prison guards is not an isolated incident, that additional arrests may be coming and that conceivably this event may repeat itself?
There will always be people in positions of authority who use their position to exploit the weak and vulnerable. Whether it is prison guards, police, teachers, physicians, coaches, etc. No occupation is immune.
What we need is a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior, and appropriate consequences.
We also need a sense of proportion, too. The corrections officer who gets overly protective and ‘fatherly’ with one of his charges, who is caught giving said charge a hug and kiss needs to be removed from that line of work, pronto. But save the prison time for the officer who uses threats and/or coercion to get sexual favors.
I’m familiar with both these extremes of boundary violations, and many in-between. Thankfully, ‘looking the other way’ at such things is no longer the default response to bad behavior (tho still happens far too often).
You know the old saying about mocassins and walking a mile.
Suggest you learn something about corrections before making comment, I really do not take kindly to being described as having morals unfit for my role, and although my role is only to try educate and train prisoners, and perhaps even get some work out of them, your broad stereotyping will more than likely cover all prison employees, beside which, I resent the comment you make on my colleagues, on whom I may well depend upon for my life.
You should also know that prisoners often make allegations against staff if they have a disagreement, and some prisoners have enough pull in the outside world to make an attempt to fabricate evidence, such as procuring witnessess, having others plant drugs etc.
I do not know what went on in this case, and no doubt there was good reason to make the arrest, but until you have the slightest understanding of what prison staff have to deal with, you should pipe down.
You opinion was stated as fact, this is not representative of even a small number of staff.
