Charles B. Asheim
... is a name I didn't know before today. He's a Portland detective, formerly with the city's gang enforcement team. This week he's featured, rightly or wrongly, in a story about bad cops, in the Washington Post. He's made out to be a sort of poster child for police racism. The story's here.
Somehow I got through the Post paywall via my Apple Music subscription, but if you can't get past it, here's an executive summary: Portland's in the national news again, and alas, not in a good way.
The main point of the story is how much wayward cops end up costing the taxpayers in legal fees and judgments. In fairness to him, Asheim's tab seems a lot lower than some of others profiled. But the story of what he was accused of is disturbing.
How much training does a typical cop get in the United States? A couple of months' worth, perhaps? In Germany, it's three years. In France, one year. And so on.
ReplyDeleteWell there are two sides to every story, and the low settlement amount was probably just a way to make the whole thing go away. I am not saying that there aren’t bad cops, because I’ve had a few experiences that made me change my view about them. But to use this as an example of police misconduct is really reaching.
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