A judge has thrown out drunken driving counts against an Indianapolis cop who crashed into motorcyclists and killed him, essentially on a technicality, leaving him to face only one felony count of reckless homicide:
The ruling dealt a blow to Prosecutor Terry Curry's efforts to show that Bisard was driving drunk when his police cruiser crashed into three motorcyclist Aug. 6 on the Northeastside.
Curry's predecessor, Carl Brizzi, had dropped drunk driving charges against Bisard, citing problems in the way a blood draw taken hours after the crash had been administered. The problem stems from a technicality in the drunken-driving law that says blood drawn outside hospitals for tests must be drawn by certain medical professionals.
Reading the comments section shows what problems this case is causing for Indianapolis police. "For people -- innocent until proven guilty ... For police -- innocent despite the evidence," says one. "If the judge throws the test out, I will never be able to trust another cop as long as I live," says another. And this: "This murdering scum's cop buddies belong in prison for obstruction of justice."
Police can't be effective unless they enjoy the broad support of the public they serve. And they can't keep that support if there is a strong belief they take care of their own when one of them fouls up -- people willing to protect their buddies despite the evidence are also quite capable of screwing the innocent despite the evidence. In some ways, we are justified in giving police more protection than the average citizen -- a harsher penalty for killing one, for example -- as a way to send the message that we value them for standing between us and anarchy. But that makes it all the more important that we know they face the same penalties we do when they cross the line marked by the law.
