Milwaukee Police Department, preach to yourself

With Nicole Belmore's testimony today in the Frank Jude Jr. trial, I'm pretty much fed up with the Milwaukee Police Department. The department has been trying to combat the community's "no snitching" policy, and publicly on display is the department's own internal no snitching policy. That's really going to help in making progress with the community, and it is going to do nothing to help in crime investigations.

I have a number of friends who are police officers. They are good officers and good people, and the actions of these Milwaukee officers tarnishes that, even if though they work outside of Milwaukee. The Green House had it right this afternoon. The relationship between the administration and officers is such in any police department that changing this no snitching culture is going to be tough to do from the top. The union could and should make an effort to change it, because cases like these only hurt the union members. It'll never happen, though, and the department, police officers in general, and the community will worse off for it.