Originally Posted by
studentff
The LEOs? Give me a break. They detained, harassed, intimidated, humiliated, lied to about legal questions, intrusively searched, and confiscated property without cause from an innocent citizen. The LEOs families? Give me a break. The ill-conceived actions of a spouse can ruin the other's life up to and including causing the family to be put out on the street; just ask Ruth Madoff. I didn't propose any legal or government punishments for the families, just social shame. Social shame is an incredibly powerful tool that is grossly underutilized these days--if the wife and kids are ashamed that their dad was a bullying cop and were shunned by the community and forced to live incognito, it would give great pause to other cops who were considering bullying citizens.
Not good enough. When the ex-cop is helplessly watching from his jail cell while his wife and kids live in a refrigerator box eating out of garbage cans because even the homeless shelter won't take them in, I'll consider that enough punishment has occurred. And not just for bad cops, but for anyone who abuses their authority. ($300/yr to have a blog in Philadelphia? O RLY?)
There are times when a particularly egregious event hits the news that I believe physical castration and tubal ligation of the offending "public servant"'s offspring sound just about right and the 8th Amendment be damned. Nits make lice, after all, and abusers tend to run in families.