The List
Police and others in law enforcement punished for doing the right thing.
This is a list of police officers and others in the law enforcement community who I describe as having been “punished for competence”. More directly, these individuals have faced retaliation for demonstrating, by word and often by deed, that Chuck Canterbury and his ilk are lying when they claim that it is impossible to enforce the law without a steady stream of civil rights violations, and when they claim to support “good” policing standards. I do not intend to be exhaustive here; I don’t believe I can be. I simply wish to document the cases I am aware of.
I will soon publish an essay discussing the incentive structure that rewards departments for punishing such individuals, which has remarkably little to do with qualified immunity; this post will serve as a living list of examples showing that incentive structure in action.
We who believe in the American dream, who wish and work to live in a more just society, must stand by these public servants and give them the support that the “law enforcement” community refuses.
Stephen Mader (Weirton, WV):
Stephen Mader was the subject of one of the earlier stories I, personally, heard that exemplified this phenomenon. After an incident where another officer shot a man who was having a mental health crisis, Mader was fired - almost certainly because he had recognized that the man was attempting suicide by cop, and the department needed to reject that awareness to avoid liability for the other officer’s actions.
Richard Ceballos (Los Angeles, CA):
Richard Ceballos was a prosecutor, not a law enforcement officer, but his case is too similar and too important to omit from this list. He discovered that an officer had perjured himself in a warrant affidavit, which undermined the foundation of a case being prosecuted by a coworker. He wrote a memo to that effect, which was ignored by the prosecutor and relevant supervisor, but ultimately became Brady material and destroyed the case. Because of this he was passed over for promotion and otherwise punished. His suit over that retaliation went to the Supreme Court, and led to the odd situation we live in today: if you swear an oath to uphold the law, and take some action a supervisor doesn’t like because of that oath, they are free to punish you however they wish. No court will evaluate whether you actually had a correct understanding of the oath you took to get your job.
Cariol Horne (Buffalo, NY):
Much like Stephen Mader, Cariol Horne’s story is extremely straightforward. The incident was older when it gained public attention, though, so more has happened. In this case, Horne stopped a fellow officer from throttling a man and was drummed out of the force. She continued as an advocate for reform in her community, ultimately achieving a significant change to local law and restitution for her firing, but has remained in conflict with the police department she was once a part of.
Adrian Schoolcraft (New York, NY):
Adrian Schoolcraft recorded, reported, and ultimately released audio tapes showing a variety of corrupt behaviors in the management of the NYPD, primarily centered around the manipulation of CompStat data for public relations purposes. The devolution of CompStat from a major advancement in law enforcement practice to a formalized structure for enforceing age-old prejudices is itself an important story, but a distinct one from the incentive structure that is the focus of this list. In any case, Schoolcraft was subject to substantial harassment before and after he released his recordings to the public.
NYPD 12 (New York, NY):
The NYPD Twelve were a famous group of officers who came forward in 2016 as whistleblowers, describing an illegal practice of racial arrest quotas. If this sounds familiar to you, yes.
Stephanie Wright (Kay County, OK):
Stephanie Wright’s is a story that parallels the story of Richard Ceballos. Ms Wright’s case is ongoing, due to a ruling by the 10th Circuit that Garcetti v Ceballos does not apply. Fundamentally, the case revolves around whether ensuring compliance with American Corrections Association accreditation requirements remains part of an ACA compliance officer’s duties after that officer is ordered to stop working on said compliance, and if so whether it is legal to retaliate against said officer for subsequently reporting inmate abuse to the state police. The appelate opinion overturning the dismissal of her claims is an entertaining word salad, but there remain several pathways her former employer might be able to escape through.
Elise Bowden (Arlington, TX):
Elise Bowden is a noteworthy example not of the institutional behavior that is the main subject of this list, but the things that encourage it. Her attempt to get a fellow officer out of a civilian’s car before he killed the man was cited in by the court deciding whether that officer had behaved reasonably.
Keechant Sewell (New York, NY):
Sewell was appointed Police Commissioner by Mayor Eric Adams early in his term. 18 months later, the NYC civilian review board recommended mild discipline for another high ranking police administrator because he had abused his authority to torpedo the investigation of possible crimes committed by one of his former subbordinates. Sewell decided to follow that recommendation, so the administrator appealed directly to Adams. When Sewell insisted on at least slapping his wrist, the mayor responded by escalating a pre-existing campaign of micromanagement that cut her out of the departmental chain of command. She resigned soon after.
Comments on this post are fully open so that others can add examples they may be aware of. I will attempt to bring such examples into the body of the post if I can vet them, and I will (or in some cases, already have) also be publishing shorter essays detailing the events of each case, with some analysis. When I do so, this post will be updated to link to those other pieces, and perhaps to trim or adjust the summary.