I still find it a bit weird when I read something in the national news and then somebody whose weblog I read has a personal connection to it. Greg Pierce posted an entry a couple months ago to his web site about his friend getting busted — and exonerated — on a completely bogus charge. Now it turns out, the cop who arrested his friend was the same officer who was recently arrested in Texas after he was caught on videotape stealing from someone he pulled over in a traffic stop.
Even scarier is the bizarre incident involving a Prince Georges police officer a couple days ago. A jury in Maryland is currently deliberating the fate of two Prince Georges officers. Two homeless men claim that in 1995 two police officers unleashed a police dog and administered a beating even though the two homeless men were unarmed and had surrendered by putting their hands up against a wall.
But the bizarre incident has nothing to do with the officers on trial, but a third officer, Pfc. Brian Lott, who was in the courtroom in support of his coworkers. Lott was reportedly in a vestibule with other officers, reporters, and other court visitors when he loudly said,
I wish I would have been there in ’95. I would have shot the bastards, and we wouldn’t have all this crap.
The Washington Post reports that Lott has been removed from active duty.
The Prince Georges police department has been rocked by scandals, with the Washington Post noting that since current police chief John Farrell took over in 1995, 74 employees have left the department after facing misconduct charges, including 34 facing criminal misconduct charges. Looks like Farrell’s task of cleaning up the police force has at least one more officer to deal with.