It's Different Over There

Notice the difference in this corrupt police story and how Memphis / Shelby County stories are handled?

Three Cocke County sheriff's deputies and two Newport police officers have been arrested in connection with the probe....

Dist. Atty. Gen. Al Schmutzer said last week that although the officers have not been proved guilty, their testimony in other cases could be troublesome.

"These officers are innocent until proven guilty under the law, but obviously these charges will hurt their credibility in court," Schmutzer wrote. "If the officer's testimony is not critical to conviction or can be independently corroborated, we will prosecute it. Otherwise, it will have to be dismissed."

Whenever I hear about Memphis / Shelby County law enforcement officers being arrested, indicted, investigated, etc. it seems to me that we don't hear about the tainted cases and testimony their troubles will cause. The focus always seems to be on isolating the troubles to just those officers, as though there isn't systemic or endemic trouble, but just a few bad apples. It's almost like we're being led to believe one image of local law enforcement while not having other possibilities presented.

Seems lately that Memphis and Shelby County have a lot of "isolated" bad apples, too. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?