At this point everything is speculative. I don’t know what happened in the back of that wagon any more than anyone else other than the six cops and Freddie (and he ain’t talking).
And as a retired LEO who spent the majority of my career working in the inner city of a relatively large city, it bothers me that some guys think that the badge makes them judge, jury, and executioner.
Working in a minority community is tough. There is a natural suspicion of police (primarily young people) and some of it is because it is justified and a great deal more of it is because of the race hustlers who blow into a town and agitate the locals, coerce corporations to make large donations to keep peace and then blow out of town.(Are your ears burning Jesse and Al).
If these guys are dirty, then let the system convict them. BUT, let them have the constitutional protections we all ask for. Just because they wear a uniform doesn’t mean they are second-class citizens either.
One more thing...I’d bet the reason Freddie was charged under the Muni Code was two-fold. One because it is very loosely written and the other is because all the fines and court costs stay in the city. If they would have charged him under State code, the State would have gotten the money.
Just my experience.
Can’t wait for the preliminary hearing.
Agreed. We either find ways to clean out the bad cops or else a whole lot of us “rock solid middle class suburbanite conservatives” or whatever — wl finally decide the police are a big part of the problem. Police work depends a lot on the wider public respecting and supporting the good officers.
A I can say is that it doesn’t take many rotten apples to spoil the entire Apple crate. Right now the many good officers need to speak up and lead the cleanup - stop their code of silence protecting the scum wearing badges. Then we can get back to good normal situation again. And yes, I’ve seen and experienced both very high quality and helpful policing and also some of the thug- thief- liar scum types wearing our badges. Cleanup is essential even though I fear some of these mass media circus incidents may be staged a lot for radical political agendas We will see thanks