Couple harassed by local police

Now and then we run another article verifying the authoritarian mentality of so many American cops. We do not claim all are such. I have law enforcement employees in my own family. But many, many cops are just bullies in uniform. They are drawn to the power and the ability to torment and harm others. In other words quite a few cops are pathological.

Fran and Casey Galik discovered this when they spoke up at at town meeting in Oak Brook, Illinois. They wanted some changes in the police department and said so. That was a big mistake. To make it worse Fran organized a group to promote good government (an oxymoron I fear).

Police Sgt. Randy Mucha did not take kindly to the criticism and began a harassment campaign of the couple. Mucha was caught running unauthorized background checks on the couple and suspended with pay. (In other words he doesn’t have to work but he gets paid as if did work.) And the new police chief says he wants Mucha fired.

Apparently numerous background checks were run on the Gaiks and on their daughter by Mucha and his friends in the police. A deputy US marshal also ran such checks on them, presumeably as a favor to Mucha.

The harassment started slow and picked up. After first speaking up Fran found the mailbox at their home destroyed. Screws were spread in their driveway to puncture their car tires. Anonysmous emails, some clearly linked ot Mucha, were sent to them regulaly. A computer program or virus was introduced to the computer wiping out the data completely.

Mucha went to neighbors of the Gaiks and enlisted them to “spy” on the couple for the police. They were followed by police cars. At one such incident they were followed to a restaurant. When they went in to eat someone broke into their home setting off the alarm. When they went home two police officers were in the house saying they were responding to the alarm. But neighbors said that 3 uniformed police officers and a plainclothes officer, believed to be Mucha, entered the house earlier.

The city is denying any wrongdoing. And they are so sure that there was no wrongdoing that they are paying the couple $2 million in damages but refusing to admit guilt.