Since I wrote my original piece on the situation over at the Sacramento Police Department, more information has made its way to me. The good part about being in my position (a working cop) is that most of the people in my line of work know they can trust me, so I get some info that would never make its way to the “news” because no cop in their right mind would trust the mainstream media to do the right thing with that info.
Infighting for Chief of Police Position
Ever since the anti-cop Mayor Darrel Steinberg won the election, upper management at the Sacramento Police Department has been in an upheaval. Steinberg, who incidentally is a complete moron when it comes to anything public safety related, like most liberal mayors, wants a yes man in the position of Chief of Police. Steinberg and the mostly leftist city council have been initiating drastic changes that affect how Sac PD operates, and every single change has been based on the loud cries of the very vocal minority (whining anti-cop snowflakes). One of those most recent changes involved the releasing of video from officer involved shootings. The interim chief, Brian Louie, recently crossed the mayor and city council when he did not release video from an officer involved shooting as quickly as the city leaders wanted (because to them people’s feelings are more important than a police investigation). That incident essentially ensured that Louie will not be the next chief, and it is my understanding he was told as much. That is all old news to me, but what follows is new.
So, now that the Chief of Police position is again up for grabs, there appears to be a power struggle going on. When this whole “Police Officer Beats Up Pedestrian” situation hit the news, Louie, the interim chief was out of town on vacation, so it was left to the deputy chiefs who are fighting over the vacant chief spot, and what better way to suck up to the criminal placating, cop hating city management than to throw a good cop to the wolves? As an extra bonus, the cop in question is a white male and the “victim” (suspect) of the contact is a POC (person of color), even better since he is a young black male who claims (lies) to the media that he was totally innocent. With that playbook in hand, one of the deputy chiefs stepped forward and publicly went to bat against his own people. At this point, I’ve received no confirmation on who made that call, but I did hear that Deputy Chief Bray was one of the management folks hitting roll calls and giving the middle finger (figuratively) to all of the working cops.
A Good Man Betrayed
So much for the internal battles at the heart of this public sacrificing of a cop, it is time to talk about man himself. I do not know him personally, but from what I hear from people who know him and work with him, he is someone I would be proud to work alongside.
While his law enforcement career is still in its infancy, his service to this country and the public in general is not. He is a Marine Corps veteran who served two stints. After his full time military service ended, he began his career as a cop. While he has only been off probation for a short time, I’m told he has earned the trust of the senior officers on his patrol team. He has a reputation as a hard worker who is both reliable and willing to help his coworkers.
And it is not just his coworkers that he is known for helping. Not too long ago, there was a gang shooting at a park in his district. Injured in that shooting were a couple of innocent children. This officer was not only one of the first on scene at that shooting, but he and one other officer, who both just took a tactical life saving class worked on an 11 year old boy who had been shot in the chest, saving that boy’s life. Not that this officer cared what that little boy’s skin color was, but seeing as the local media is making this incident to be about race, the boy he saved just so happened to be black.
Of course, you will not hear his department or the media talking about his heroic actions because they are both too busy either attacking him or very publicly abandoning him.
The Kicker
Yet another thing that you will not see the Sacramento Police management, or official department representatives talking about, is that this officer and all of his coworkers have recently been instructed to step up their pedestrian contacts in the very area where this jaywalking stop occurred. Why were they instructed to do so you might ask?
Do you remember that gang shooting I mentioned above, the one where this officer saved a young boy’s life, BECAUSE OF THAT SHOOTING, that’s why. Many of the members of the gangs involved in that incident are from the area and often travel on foot. And no, I am not making this up. This is one of those times where real life seems stranger than fiction. During roll calls in the days leading up to this stop, supervisors have been instructing the patrol cops in that area to increase their pedestrian contacts. Being the conscientious employee that this officer is, he did what he was instructed to do, likely never expecting doing so would turn him into the sacrificial lamb of some politically minded asshole deputy chief who was going to use this officer as a stepping stone to the position of Chief. While any working cop knows this is not the type of guy you want at the helm of your department, I can pretty much guarantee this is exactly the type of guy Steinberg and the city council do want. As I stated before, this event and the fallout from it are going to drastically reduce Sac PD’s ability to hire and retain cops.
Meanwhile, the Sacramento Bee (not surprisingly) is happy about how this situation is unfolding. While they acknowledge that the rank and file cops at Sac PD are “disgruntled” (a large understatement), they say this is how situations like this should be handled.