One of the reasons I’m voting for Donnie Harrison to remain Wake County Sheriff is because he doesn’t mess around. When three undercover deputies were arrested for beating a guy who parked in two parking spaces, Harrison fired them immediately. Our law enforcement officers have a very tough and often unrewarding job, but going ballistic on citizens should never be tolerated.

Contrast this to the episode which occured in the Wake County courthouse. Two off-duty Durham police officers were charged with kicking a restaurant worker in the head outside of Blinco’s sports bar on Glenwood Avenue. Did the dirty cops get convicted? No. They walked when their case was dismissed. The prosecutor “failed to prove the bar is in Wake County,” if you can believe it. Judge Debra Sasser helpfully forgot how to use a map, too, and thus justice was not served.

With Durham’s reputation for police corruption I wouldn’t be so surprised if it happened there, but Wake County? Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that the prosecution and the judge got just what they wanted: that two dirty cops walked? Or is it just that the prosecutor is that big of a bonehead? Both sure as hell weren’t trying too hard.

I support law enforcement, but only clean law enforcement. If you go out drinking with your cop buddies and then beat the shit out of someone when they call you out for driving recklessly, you deserve to face the music for your dumbshit ways. Instead, the state and county look the other way. Shame, shame.

Cops have a tough job to do. The vast majority of them are good and deserve our respect. on the other hand, when the bad ones get a slap on the wrist – or worse, no slap at all – you can kiss goodbye any illusions of a “justice” system.