Yesterday afternoon, KPRC did a little rundown a few minutes after 4 PM of the recent cases of officials accused of acting badly. So sad that they had multiple stories readily available to do that!
The first thing to understand about accusations against officials like police officers is that they rarely make the news unless they are well backed up by multiple sources. Simple truth is that the media tends to tone down stories of official misconduct in initial reports. Now, if you or I get accused of something, all bets are off and the more sensational they can make it sound, the better. You or I get convicted in the press right out of the gate and can never recover our reputations because the truth and story corrections are slow to make the news, if they make it at all, and they will be down played. So, if I hit hard on the stories against officials, it’s because I know the ducks were lined up before anything even hit the news.
Now the case about 8 cops beating 1 guy… Turns out the “guy”, the VICTIM of this beating, is a 15 year old TEENAGER.
DA won’t release video until the investigation is complete. WTF? OK, so here again, the officers get special consideration. Video of us would have been promptly released but of them? Nope, gotta wait for that. What does it take to “complete” this investigation anyway? The tape is under 5 minutes long. How many times do you need to watch it to identify all the officers, plug their names into the criminal pleadings, be finished??? We shouldn’t have to pay these officers salaries for one minute longer than absolutely necessary and, as far as I’m concerned, any officer who wasn’t right in the middle of this trying to stop the beating of this teen, should be FIRED and the sooner the better!
The job is to protect and serve the public, not each other - first, foremost, and exclusively. Although it often seems that is exactly what HPD officers seem to believe.
Shoot, if it were you or I in a public place, the officers show up with media camera crews in tow whenever they think they can get some good PR. Here, no one’s even asking about the dashcams yet!
Mayor Parker says this isn’t about whether or not they are good officers but about their conduct in this single case. Oh, please! More special treatment. Anyone else who commits a crime, is alleged to have committed a crime, is vilified as a common criminal but this gang of 8 gets treated like they are generally decent guys, decent officers, and this single incident came out of the blue. HaHa. Yeah, that’s likely! I don’t buy it for one minute. 8 officers ganging up to beat a teen didn’t do that out of the blue. It’s an indication of long term habits and the rest of their unit, at a minimum, should be carefully scrutinized.
HPD rep saying they are officers who behave professionally in public and at other times. Really? Is beating a 15 year old considered professional? Yeah, it probably is by HPD! And THAT would be a big part of the problem!!! I see nothing at all is changing down at HPD.
"Less than 1 percent of (internal affairs division) complaints have found an officer doing wrongdoing. There are many Chad Holey's in the black community, many young men beaten by HPD officers," Quanell X said. Indeed and there are many in non-black communities as well. Have I told the story of testifying against a sheriff's deputy who beat a man; a beating that I witnessed; of being followed by deputies every time I left my home for weeks because I filed a IA report and was willing to testify?
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YESTERDAY’S BREAKING NEWS OF AN OFFICIAL ACTING BADLY: JUDGE STRIKES GIRLFRIEND. Well, that’s what it would have read except he is indeed a judge so it read: “Judge Accused of Family Violence". Judge Frank Aguilar, 52, is one of Harris County’s probably cause judges. “Aguilar used his hand to strike a woman he was dating”. I’ll put in my bet now that it turns out he used his hand while balled up into a fist to strike her.