According to Slate.com it seems “hero” cop Michael Bongiovanni – who was filmed last week brutally attacking a non-resisting motorist – has used excessive force in the past. The only difference seems that this incident was caught on video and impossible to cover up. From Slate:
Looking through internal affairs investigations into Bongiovanni’s alleged public misconduct—all of which ultimately exonerated him—as well as his use of force reports makes for depressing and infuriating reading.
In multiple of the use of force reports stretching back to 1999, Bongiovanni admitted to punching suspects in the head (each event was considered lawful).
The actual misconduct complaints are even more troubling.
- In 1999, a black man alleged that Bongiovanni said this to him when he asked for the officer’s name during an incident: “Here is a card, you can report me you [dumb] mother fucker get your Nigger ass out of here.” The man’s account of Bongiovanni’s use of the slur was backed up by another witness. (The man also said this in his official statement: “The police officer[‘s] job is to serve and protect. This officer was very rude, aggressive, boisterous, and [did] not have the right mind nor heart to be a police officer on the streets.”) Bongiovanni wrote it up differently. The complaint against Bongiovanni was not sustained.
- Earlier that same year, an unarmed Haitian man accused Bongiovanni of choking him and accused Bongiovanni’s partner of choking the man’s mom after they had entered a private residence. Multiple witnesses described in almost the exact same way how one of the men had begun to use a racial epithet before cutting himself off. “God is my witness, that man almost said ‘nigger,’ I know he did,” one witness said of the incident. “He said ‘nig’ and stopped himself. He said ‘I’ll take you ni—in the house,’ just like that.” Another witness described things similarly: “He said ‘[…] I’ll arrest every, every, every, every nig’ and he, he corrected [himself], he was about to say ‘nigger.’” Bongiovanni and his partner wrote it up differently. The allegations of the choking and the racial slurs were determined to be “unfounded.”
- In 2001, a Hispanic man who was never charged with a crime in the incident accused Bongiovanni of brutality after he had to go to the hospital. Bongiovanni wrote it up differently. The internal investigation found him to be exonerated.
- In 2002, a white woman who was in a car with her black boyfriend accused Bongiovanni of fondling her inner thigh with the inside of his hand during a stop frisk, pulling the elastic band on the back of her sweatpants, and breaking a purse during a search. (“He didn’t pull them far,” she said. “He, you know, he pulled enough to where you could see the top, leg part of my underwear.”) Bongiovanni and his partner wrote it up differently. The internal investigation found him to be exonerated.
- In 2003, a black man accused Bongiovanni of striking him and choking him with a baton. Bongiovanni wrote it up differently. The internal investigation found the complaint was not sustained.
- In 2004, a black man who was eventually arrested on a drug charge claimed that he had his hands on the roof of his car when Bongiovanni punched him in the head and said “don’t look at me, or I’ll shoot you.” Bongiovanni wrote it up differently. The internal investigation found him to be exonerated.
- In 2006, a black man who was being arrested claimed that Bongiovanni choke slammed him on a car, punched him twice in the face, and elbowed him twice in the head. He also claimed that Bongiovanni said “I’ll fuck you up nigger.” Bongiovanni wrote it up differently. The internal investigation found him to be exonerated.
This is why you must always film the police.
Without clear video proof – or even audio – it is nearly impossible to have the word of a “civilian” override the words written in a report by a “hero.”
The Gwinnett County Police Department released files showing that Bongiovanni had at least 67 use of force incident reports, 12 citizen misconduct complaints, and four administrative conduct investigations in the nearly 20 years he was a “hero.”
In all of those times, he was apparently sanctioned just once. And that one time, wasn’t even for an act of misconduct against the public. (He was recommended for a demotion and ultimately a 15-day suspension in 2014 for the administrative crime of “failure to supervise and lead those under his command.”)
This is good news. Who knows if there will be a conviction.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/former-cops-indicted-beating-handcuffed-driver_us_5a9821e2e4b0e6a523059a6b
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/us/georgia-police-officer-cases.html
100 years or so ago, there were citizen vigilantes who dealt with this sort of thing unofficially. It was a good solution in a relatively free society.
Unfortunately in a police/surveillance state, the good unofficial solutions are much more difficult to practice. It is probably time to start figuring out ways to get away with fighting back against these criminals.
Action and reaction. When you tie down the safety valve, you get explosions. It’s just a law of nature.
When you can’t get rid of a serial offender like that hero (let alone prosecute him), you have a major problem. There are probably thousands of hero’s just like him, with a complaint list that long. I know of a hero near me with a rap sheet nearly as long, and for a long period of time as well.
Even having a video doesn’t guarantee anything, like the family of the guy in New York killed over selling loose cigarettes found.
Outside of figuring out a system to investigate hero’s that doesn’t include other hero’s, there really is no solution. Maybe something like a grand jury. Hero’s will always be loath to lock up their own. Just the reality that internal affairs departments are universally hated by other hero’s, but corrupt hero’s are almost always supported by other hero’s no matter. That really shows the mindset of those in LE.