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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBuffalo Cop Loses Job And Pension After She Intervenes With Fellow Officer Choking A Suspect
This is a story from 2014, that shows what happens to cops who intervene:In Buffalo, New York a former police officer is fighting for her pension after being fired from the city's police department for interfering with another officer she claims was abusing an arrested suspect. Cariol Horne was fired from the force in 2006 and charged with obstructing another cop during an arrest over a domestic dispute, ABC 7 reported last week.
Horne claims that fellow Buffalo officer Gregory Kwiatkowski was abusing a suspect who had already been placed under arrest in handcuffs. "He was handcuffed in the front and he was sideways and being punched in the face by Gregory Kwiatkowski," explained Horne. Horne said she intervened when she saw Kwiatowski begin to choke the man. "I'm like, 'Greg! You're choking him,' because I thought whatever happened in the house he was still upset about so when he didn't stop choking him I just grabbed his arm from around Neal Mack's neck," said Horne.
ABC reported that Kwiatkowski then turned and punched Horne in the face. She said she needed the bridge of her nose replaced after the blow. The obstruction charge against Horne stated that she "jump[ed] on officer Kwiatkowski's back and/or [struck] him with her hands." However, in his own testimony, Kwiatkowski said, "she never got on top of me."
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Meanwhile, ABC noted that Kwiatkowski later was forced into retirement following two separate incidents, one in which he punched another officer while off duty, another in which he choked a fellow officer while on the clock. In May of this year, he was indicted, along with two other officers, on charges of federal civil rights violations towards black teen suspects.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvaqa3/buffalo-cop-loses-job-and-pension-after-she-intervenes-with-fellow-officer-choking-a-suspect?fbclid=IwAR3Ik-paTlQlkDCbIupajaYr67j9eecKza4LuxvnBolka6UOiz82r3HgpJs
She never got her job back or her pension. Lawmakers are now looking into it, hopefully she'll get her pension for her 19 years of service. https://buffalonews.com/2020/06/09/buffalo-lawmakers-reexamine-police-use-of-force-policy-cariol-hornes-pension/
superpatriotman
(6,252 posts)Who to defend?
whistler162
(11,155 posts)the white male or the black female..... so difficult! <SARCASM>
IronLionZion
(45,528 posts)since she clearly forgot her place
Alacritous Crier
(3,818 posts)Snitches get stiches.
Celerity
(43,499 posts)The copper unions need to be crushed to dust via RICO Act prosecutions.
They are giant organised criminal gangs.
zaj
(3,433 posts)BComplex
(8,064 posts)They are RICO, under the "corrupt organization" part of the definition.
dalton99a
(81,570 posts)Hav
(5,969 posts)and if they were the ones setting the tone for the rest. Instead the good apples seem to be in the minority getting kicked out by the fascist pieces of shit types. Just another indication how much work needs to be done and the need to get rid of all the rotten pieces that have infested the police from top to bottom.
Depressing, but good point(s).
napi21
(45,806 posts)I'm positive if I were her lawyer it would give me several prime examples of why an officer should intervene when another officer is out of control/
WVreaper
(623 posts)Police Union only protects good white cops.
SunSeeker
(51,698 posts)SHE was the one who lost her job and pension.
Kaiserguy
(740 posts)or so it seem.
lpbk2713
(42,766 posts)...
warmfeet
(3,321 posts)penalized for life.
The current system does not work.
Time to change.
Lonestarblue
(10,066 posts)I do hope the good ones outnumber the bad (though thats hard to know). Perhaps the good ones should hold a vote to decertify the union. Strong-arm union tactics and resistance to any changes seems to be a large part of the problem. Maybe the best idea for some police departments like the one in Minneapolis is to disband the department and get rid of their toxic union head. Otherwise, any change will be rejected by the police union. And police all over the country are still feeling protected because theyve still using abusive practices even though they know someone will be creating a phone video.
Caliman73
(11,744 posts)What she got in return was: a broken nose, fired, lost her pension, years of legal battles, and a still unresolved situation.
How, pray tell, are we to expect the "good cops" to risk everything, like Serpico and other officers who "take a stand"?
Here are the outcomes of a few other good cops.
https://www.ranker.com/list/police-department-whistleblowers/brent-sprecher
DENVERPOPS
(8,844 posts)The bad officers gang up and make life miserable for the good ones until they quit or retire.....
progree
(10,918 posts)https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2020/06/07/duty-to-intervene-floyd-cops-spoke-up-but-didnt-step-in/
Incidentally, the article pointed out that two of the four officers in the George Floyd incident were minorities, specifically hired as part of a program to diversify the overwhelmingly white Minneapolis police force -- Thao (Hmong) and Keung (biracial African American). So while that might help (Keung did the most objecting, per their lawyers), it's not always enough.
Layzeebeaver
(1,638 posts)I was working on a short term project in buffalo NY
Anyway... there was this really good ZZ Top tribute band playing on a night we are all not going to work the next morning.
So... we tied one on that evening. When we left the joint the cops were outside. But we didnt see any crazy over-lord behaviour. We all made it back to our hotel with no issues.
That said, we cant do that today!
The buffalo Cops have devolved, and us non-cops have evolved.
C Moon
(12,221 posts)SunSeeker
(51,698 posts)He broke her nose, yet they fire HER. He got NO punishment for assaulting Horne or choking the defendant they had arrested.
They should have fired Kwiatkowski in 2014 when he punched Horne, then there would not have been these subsequent attacked for which he was jailed.
And yet he got to keep his pension. She didn't.
It iis fucking infuriating.
Cha
(297,655 posts)Mahalo, SunSeeker
Response to SunSeeker (Original post)
Rainbow Droid This message was self-deleted by its author.
cab67
(3,007 posts)BSdetect
(8,999 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)It's spread everywhere - just like Covid-19