D.C. police officer Kenneth Furr was recently arrested having shot transgender citizens in a drunken rage. It now appears that the D.C. Metropolitan Police was aware of prior alcohol-related incidents by Furr. We previously followed a detective who brandished his gun to threaten people who hit his private Hummer with a snowball. In that incident, Assistant Chief Peter Newsham told the media that the gun in his hand (and clearly shown on videotape) was really just a cellphone.
The latest scandal in the MPD occurred when Furr crashed his Cadillac into another vehicle last Friday. Furr, a 20-year-veteran, then reportedly jumped on the hood of the victims’ car and shouted, “I’m gonna kill all of you.” He then allegedly proceed to shoot one person multiple times and hurt two others in the attack. He registered a 0.15 on a breathalyzer and has been charged with DWI and assault with a deadly weapon.
Prosecutors say that Furr first got into an argument with transgendered people around 4:40 am outside of a CVS pharmacy. He reportedly pulled a gun at that time. While one of the people reported the incident to an off-duty D.C. police officer working security, that officer determined that the culprit was “off-duty officer, and therefore no further action was necessary.” The victims then followed Furr in his Cadillac and the confrontation occurred.
Police on the scene found Furr still standing on the hood of the car of the victims after firing five times.
Now it turns out that Furr was previously arrested in 2004 for drunk driving, but was only suspended for 30-90 days. Then on Christmas Day 1996, Furr and another officer were disciplined for getting into a drunken argument with a mother and son. The MPD tried to have him fired but he was reinstated in 1998 after a change in police chiefs. In 1998, Chief Charles H. Ramsey took office and apparently Furr was reinstated.
What I find most interesting is the absence of any discussion of the failure of the off-duty officer who was first told of Furr’s dangerous conduct. I was unaware that once you determine a gun-wielding maniac is an “off-duty officer . . . no further action [is] necessary.” This unnamed officer was told of a fellow officer who was threatening transgender citizens with his firearm and did not call police or seek to hold the officer. The result is that the citizens took it upon themselves to follow Furr. While the security officer was off-duty as a police officer, off-duty officers are expected to take steps to protect the public. There is no mention of this officer receiving even a reprimand over the incident.
As for the detective who brought a gun to a snowball fight, one would think that he would be fired. However, after refusing to release his name or arrest, MPD ultimately imposed a ten-day suspension. That is it. His name is Michael Baylor and he is still patrolling the streets. No actions was taken against Assistant Chief Peter Newsham for his denials of any gun — until the MPD was confronted with clear video evidence of a gun-waving Baylor. What is also unclear is how people like Newsham would put out the false story about the cellphone unless Baylor had failed to tell the truth from the beginning about brandishing the weapon or the MPD was not interested in his account before denying the allegations of multiple witnesses. Yet, such an incident warrants only a ten-day suspension for a MPD police officer.
[For full disclosure, both Newsham and Ramsey are defendants in the World Bank case where I served as co-lead counsel for the Plaintiffs]
Source: Washington Examiner
hate to be one of the disabled people she’s gotta work with.
@OS
“Despite the evidence, including video, she was acquitted.”
TAMPA — A former Hillsborough detention deputy will likely avoid jail time for dumping a quadriplegic inmate from his wheelchair.
She has her victim to thank.
Attorneys said Brian Sterner, the disabled man tossed onto the floor at the Orient Road Jail, agreed that a pretrial intervention program for first-time offenders was a just resolution in the felony case against Charlette Marshall-Jones.
At Sterner’s request, prosecutors added two special conditions to the 18-month diversion program Marshall-Jones entered Monday.
Marshall-Jones, 45, must perform 100 community service hours working with disabled individuals and surrender her detention deputy certification before the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office will drop her abuse of a disabled adult charge.
The third-degree felony carried up to five years in prison.
Read the rest here: http://www.tampabay.com/news/courts/criminal/article652879.ece
This case reminds me of a movie. Super Troopers! Did this happen in Spurbury? This guy has got to go.
Mike, it is stuff like this (in the video) that makes you scratch your head. This is the worst booking officer I have ever seen. After the internal affairs investigation, the file was turned over to the Grand Jury and she was indicted on a charge of felony abuse of a disabled person. Despite the evidence, including video, she was acquitted. Go figure.
“And they wonder why police in general have such a horrible public relations problem.”
OS,
Sadly the “Us vs. Them” mentality trained in many PD’s and reinforced through fellow officers on the job, blinds all but the most perceptive LEO’s to their real purposes. It mentally provides the means for them use denial to ignore the validity of all criticism. Thus the criticism and their response become self-fulfilling tautologies.
While this happened in D.C., one has to wonder if police unions aren’t playing a similar role in many jurisdictions:
“Florida police unions boast about 80% success rate using arbitrators to force law enforcement agencies to rehire of cops fired for misconduct”
– injusticeeverywhere.com
http://southflorida.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-police-fired-20110813,0,668784.story
….and what OS said.
I’ll second OS’s statement.
Imagine.
You are hanging with friends, and go to a convenience store to get cigarettes or whatever before you go home. In the store, you get hit on by an older guy who you have no interest in. After you tell him you aren’t interested, he further insults you by offering you money. And then more money. You aren’t having any of it. A male friend asks him to leave you alone – nicely. You pay for your stuff and leave the store. The same nut job is outside and flashes a gun at your friend, threatening him. You leave in your car. Down the street, the nut job blocks the path of your car, screams ” I’ma kill you all” and opens fire with a semi-automatic glock. Glass is shattering. The back windshield explodes. You are cowering in the car, terrified that you will be killed. You are grazed by a bullet. Your friends are hit! Everyone is screaming! NUT JOB jumps on the hood of the car and keeps firing through the roof of the car – bullets are flying!
Now…..
The MPD arrives. They take the gun from NUT JOB, smoke still coming out of the barrel. They gently lead NUT JOB away, and escort him to a cruiser. MPD have their own weapons drawn, and they are pointing at YOU! They are telling you to lie down, and hands up…they are yelling at YOU! They handcuff you all and take YOU away. Your friends who are shot are put in a wagon…they take you all to a hospital. At the hospital, they call you sir even though you are obviously a woman. They intimidate you. What were you doing? Why were you there? Where are the drugs? What have you had to drink? You are bleeding. You are scared. You are in shock. MPD puts you in a room the size of a closet, and come in to interrogate you. You are in the room for what seems like forever…a couple of hours. You are misgendered some more. You are insulted some more. You are intimidated some more. MPD brass is there…they bring a friend to talk to you, to get you to cooperate. You tell them what happened. And then they just let you go.
They don’t offer victim services. They don’t even apologize for their insults. They let you go.
Later, morons on the internet blame you for being in a bad neighborhood. Or soliciting sex for money. or somehow deserving of all that has happened. You are young. You are black. You are pretty. You must be to blame. You asked for it. Because, after all, you are transgender.
Imagine. In a world that is hateful and insane, you are always somehow at fault.
And to all of you out there who would criticize these young women?
SHAME.
So many targets for litigation, so little time. The transgendered victims are going to need a whole team of lawyers for this one.
“What I find most interesting is the absence of any discussion of the failure of the off-duty officer who was first told of Furr’s dangerous conduct. I was unaware that once you determine a gun-wielding maniac is an “off-duty officer . . . no further action [is] necessary.””
It strikes me that if that presumption wasn’t so common among the chain of command we wouldn’t read stories like this on a daily basis.
And they wonder why police in general have such a horrible public relations problem.
“off-duty officer, and therefore no further action was necessary.”
Good call Officer Dudley…..NOT….