Detective Russell Poole Was a Robbery
2
Determining Moral Behavior
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Define deontological and teleological ethical systems, and explain ethical formalism and utilitarianism. 2. Describe how other ethical systems define what is moral—specifically, religion, natural law, ethics of virtue, and ethics of care. 3. Discuss the argument as to whether egoism is an ethical system. 4. Explain the controversy between relativism and absolutism. 5. Identify the three consistent elements of most of the approaches to resolving ethical dilemmas.
Classic Image/Alamy
Detective Russell Poole was a Robbery-Homicide Division investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1998, he was assigned an investigation regarding the alleged beating of Ismael Jimenez, a reputed gang member, by LAPD officers, and a suspected cover-up of the incident. In his investigation, he uncovered a pattern of complaints of violence by the antigang task force in the Ramparts Division. Gang members told Poole and his partners that a number of officers harassed them, assaulted them, and pressured them to provide untraceable guns. The beating occurred because Jimenez would not provide the officers with a gun. In a search of the house of Officer Rafael Perez, a member of the anti-gang task force, Poole found a box with a half-dozen realistic replica toy guns. He concluded that a number of the officers in the division were “vigilante cops” and requested that the investigation proceed further. After Poole informed his superiors of what his investigation had uncovered, Bernard Parks, the LAPD chief at the time, ordered Poole to limit his investigation solely to the Jimenez beating. Poole prepared a 40-page report on the Jimenez case for the district attorney’s office, detailing the pattern of complaints, alleged assaults, and other allegations of serious wrongdoing on the part of the Rampart officers. Poole’s report never reached the district attorney’s office because his lieutenant, enforcing the chief ’s orders,
Determining Moral Behavior
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Define deontological and teleological ethical systems, and explain ethical formalism and utilitarianism. 2. Describe how other ethical systems define what is moral—specifically, religion, natural law, ethics of virtue, and ethics of care. 3. Discuss the argument as to whether egoism is an ethical system. 4. Explain the controversy between relativism and absolutism. 5. Identify the three consistent elements of most of the approaches to resolving ethical dilemmas.
Classic Image/Alamy
Detective Russell Poole was a Robbery-Homicide Division investigator with the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1998, he was assigned an investigation regarding the alleged beating of Ismael Jimenez, a reputed gang member, by LAPD officers, and a suspected cover-up of the incident. In his investigation, he uncovered a pattern of complaints of violence by the antigang task force in the Ramparts Division. Gang members told Poole and his partners that a number of officers harassed them, assaulted them, and pressured them to provide untraceable guns. The beating occurred because Jimenez would not provide the officers with a gun. In a search of the house of Officer Rafael Perez, a member of the anti-gang task force, Poole found a box with a half-dozen realistic replica toy guns. He concluded that a number of the officers in the division were “vigilante cops” and requested that the investigation proceed further. After Poole informed his superiors of what his investigation had uncovered, Bernard Parks, the LAPD chief at the time, ordered Poole to limit his investigation solely to the Jimenez beating. Poole prepared a 40-page report on the Jimenez case for the district attorney’s office, detailing the pattern of complaints, alleged assaults, and other allegations of serious wrongdoing on the part of the Rampart officers. Poole’s report never reached the district attorney’s office because his lieutenant, enforcing the chief ’s orders,