Some things remain true

Among those things is that the standards are different for cops.

Los Angeles, California (AP, January 19) - A former Inglewood police officer who was fired for punching a black teenager and slamming him against a patrol car was awarded $1.6 million Tuesday by the jury in a discrimination lawsuit he and his partner brought against the city.

The jury voted 11-1 in favor of the verdict for Jeremy Morse, said defense attorney Gregory Smith. He said the jury was unanimous in awarding $810,000 to Morse's partner, Bijan Darvish, who had been disciplined in connection with the 2002 incident.

This cop, who is white, was caught on videotape punching Donovan Jackson, who was 16 years old and all of 5-foot-6 and 136 pounds - and who was handcuffed - and slamming him down on the hood of the car.

The tape also shows Morse putting a hand on the back of Jackson's neck, slugging him with his other hand and then trying to choke him.

Two other officers intervened, with at least one attempting to pull Morse away from Jackson.

Darvish then filed a false report claiming that the incident arose because of a "violent confrontation" between three cops and one skinny teenager. So Morse was fired and Darvish was disciplined.

The result? Morse was prosecuted twice for assault, but the charge was dismissed when two juries deadlocked. Darvish was acquitted of filing a false report. Mitchell Crooks, the guy who shot the videotape, was arrested on a three-year old charge after the police department, in what can only be considered either intimidation or payback, investigated his background. And now the two cops have been awarded big bucks because they, they say, were the targets of discrimination.

The city has not decided whether to appeal the verdict, though the chief of police said he was "shocked" at the "ridiculous" outcome and the mayor called it inflated and inappropriate. But if the city's plans aren't clear, one thing is: The rules for cops are indeed different.

Footnote: Morse claimed in his suit that he reacted to Jackson grabbing his testicles. The tape does not show any such thing happening. However, it is hypothetically possible that it did but the line of sight to the videocamera was blocked.

But I'd say that even if that's true, he still should have been fired, canned, dumped, and forgotten - because anyone who flies that far off the handle, who is so incapable of controlling himself in a tense moment that other police had to intervene, is not someone I want walking around with a badge and a gun, nor is he someone who should be pocketing a wad of cash as the fallout of his own irrational behavior.