Ex-Baltimore Police Officer Rails Against His Department’s Many Wrongdoings
Following the suspicious death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, Baltimore erupted into a city of peaceful protest turned violent riots, in which demonstrators clashed with police officers on national television. Six officers were eventually indicted. Yet even if anything comes of these charges, many point to the lack of desired results in the court hearings following the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.
Enter Michael A. Wood Jr., a former Baltimore police officer and member of the United States Marine Corps who’s been calling out the BPD for some time now. In a candid three-hour radio interview back in may, Wood detailed the department’s many failings — including poor management at all levels and entrenched corruption. At one point, Wood concludes that “BPD started the Baltimore riots.”
Yet nothing ever really came of the PhD candidate’s interview and statements — until now. That’s because Wood took to Twitter on Wednesday with a special announcement:
So here we go. I’m going to start Tweeting the things I’ve seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Seems like more talk, but his tweets began just a minute later:
A detective slapping a completely innocent female in the face for bumping into him, coming out of a corner chicken store.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
They go on for awhile:
Punting a handcuffed, face down, suspect in the face, after a foot chase. My handcuffs, not my boot or suspect
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
CCTV cameras turning as soon as a suspect is close to caught.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Pissing and shitting inside suspects homes during raids, on their beds and clothes.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Swearing in court and PC docs that suspect dropped CDS during unbroken visual pursuit when neither was true.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Jacking up and illegally searching thousands of people with no legal justification
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Having other people write PC statements, who were never there because they could twist it into legality.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Summonsing officers who weren’t there so they could collect the overtime.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
Targeting 16-24 year old black males essentially because we arrest them more, perpetrating the circle of arresting them more.
— Michael A. Wood Jr. (@MichaelAWoodJr) June 24, 2015
If even one of Wood’s tweets turns out to be true, then it’s a devastating blow to an already-embattled city police department. Especially since everything he mentioned — and it was a lot — spanned on for only 10 minutes’ worth of tweeting. Yet at the end of his run, Wood promised more for Thursday.
BPD responded in a statement questioning the validity of Wood’s tweets, especially since he didn’t mention any “names and addresses” for specific incidents and personnel. Despite this, Det. Shawn Strong said, “We’ll look into this and his background. This is news I’m getting right now.”
[h/t Twitter, NY Daily News]
[Image via Shutterstock.com]
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