Disturbing images have emerged of Kentucky police throwing slushies at unsuspecting pedestrians in low-income neighborhoods, in scenes straight out of the show “Glee.”
Footage released by the Louisville Metro Police Department this week shows former officers Curtis Flynn, 40, and Bryan Wilson, 36, driving in an unmarked vehicle in their uniforms and throwing large slushies at people in the streets. sidewalks.
In one video, police officers are seen walking along Berry Boulevard in south Louisville when they see a woman walking on the sidewalk in the rain.
As the car slows down, an officer can be seen asking the woman, “Hey honey, do you have change for a dollar?”
Then, as the woman turns to face them, the police officer shouts, “How about a drink?” as he throws the contents of his cup at the woman. The two policemen walk away quickly, laughing.
Another video shows officers approaching another woman in the Park Hill neighborhood.
As they get closer, one of the police officers can be heard saying, “She’ll take care of this, you son of a bitch. She will receive all of this” as she lifts the large drink.
In at least one case, a victim fell to the ground after the attack.
Newly released footage shows a pair of former Louisville police officers throwing slushies at unsuspecting pedestrians. WHAS11
Those were just some of 24 unique incidents in which Flynn and Wilson threw frozen drinks at pedestrians between 2018 and 2019 and filmed their actions in a scandal that became known locally as “Slushygate,” according to the Louisville Courier Journal, which obtained by images from a Freedom of Information Act request for the first time.
Officers would then share the videos they took with their colleagues in group messages or show them to each other during their breaks, the Journal reports.
Both Flynn and Wilson later pleaded guilty to civil rights violations, and a federal judge called their actions “egregious and shocking to the conscience” before sentencing Flynn to three months in prison and Wilson to 30 months behind bars, according to WDRB.
At least five other officers were temporarily suspended for their duties, such as assisting with filming or driving and failing to report misconduct, but were allowed to keep their jobs.
There were 24 unique incidents of officers throwing ice drinks at pedestrians between 2018 and 2019. WHAS11
Among them was Detective Joseph Howell, who received a 10-day suspension.
“I thought this was just a silly prank that special units play,” he told the Courier Journal. “And everyone seems to be okay with it.”
To point out the misconduct would have been to claim that his supervisors were not doing their jobs, he said, because “everyone knew it.”
“If I had gone to the [commanding officer] At that point, I would have been 100% excluded. “They would have isolated me without a doubt.”
But Sgt. Kevin Casper has denied knowledge of the attacks and is appealing his 30-day suspension, despite writing in the group text where the videos were shared, “everyone needs to use the slow motion feature,” according to the Journal.
Internal documents show that at least three other Ninth Mobile officers were involved in that text thread but were not disciplined, the Journal reports.
Officer Curtis Flynn, 40, was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to civil rights violations. WHAS11 Bryan Wilson, 36, was sentenced to 30 months behind bars. WHAS11
All of the officers involved were part of an elite squad tasked with preventing drug and firearms crimes that eventually earned a reputation for police brutality and abuse of authority, and which was disbanded in 2019.
“The reputation was that they were taking a lot of guns off the street. They were making a lot of arrests,” Deputy Chief Steve Healey told the Journal.
“You didn’t really find out about all the other things until you saw the news, you saw the complaints.”
In fact, the civil rights charges against Flynn and Wilson only came as a result of the FBI investigating Wilson for a separate sextortion plot, according to the Journal.
Mayor Craig Greenberg has since called the acts “unacceptable” and said he is “grateful that every officer caught throwing drinks at people has been prosecuted by the Department of Justice.”
In one video, police officers are seen asking a woman, “Hey, honey, do you have change for a dollar?” her before asking him, “How about a drink?” and spraying it with the contents of a cup. WHAS11
But he also noted that the incidents occurred long before he or the current LMPD chief took office.
“We are focused on improving the culture of LMPD where we work proactively with [the] community, build trust with the community, and we want to have an LMPD that everyone trusts and respects,” he said, noting that the department has changed the way it trains officers and increased its emphasis on supervision, according to WHAS.
“Incidents like that will not be tolerated by the Chief [Jacquelyn] Gwinn-Villaroel or me.”
In a statement, the Lousiville Metropolitan Police Department also said: “Videos of the drink throwing incidents from 2018 to 2019 understandably upset and disturbed the public. The incidents are a painful part of LMPD history.
“For context, the individuals responsible for throwing the drinks faced federal prosecution, and others who were involved are no longer employed by LMPD and/or have been disciplined,” he said.
“The department has implemented reforms that emphasize constitutional policing while rebuilding community trust.”
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn