Regina Tasca at the Borough Council meeting dealing with her termination. |
What does it take for a police officer to get fired?
Regina Tasca, a 20-year veteran officer from Bogota, New Jersey, was terminated by the Borough Council on September 21. This decision came after a lengthy investigation into her purported misdeeds.
Prior to her termination, Officer Tasca had never generated a single citizen complaint or official reprimand. She was being considered for promotion before she got in trouble in April 2011.
What horrible deed led to Officer Tasca's dismissal?
Before answering that question, it’s worth reviewing a few recent cases of severe police misconduct that either went entirely unpunished, or resulted in sanctions short of termination.
Lawrenceville, Georgia Police Chief Randy Johnson refuses to fire Detective Tim Ashley, an abusive cop with a nasty habit of imprisoning innocent people – a habit that has already cost the local taxpayers a great deal in legal expenses. Among his victims is Ann Jaipersaud, who operates a Chevron station in Lawrenceville.
When Jaipersaud found herself dealing with an aggravated customer, she made the common – and by now inexcusable – mistake of calling the police for help. As is always the case, matters immediately got much worse after the police intervened in the dispute.
The customer, an American of African ancestry, apparently thought that the store owner (a woman of East Indian descent who was born in Guyana) didn’t want to sell him gas on account of his ethnic background. When told that the station had no gasoline, the customer — who verbally abused the store owner — refused to leave.
Jaipersaud’s
call was answered by five officers, including Detective Ashley. After the customer claimed that
Jaipersaud had struck him, she pointed out that the store’s security video
would prove that she had done no such thing — but she didn’t know how to access
it. Ashley demanded that she call her son, who was at school.
Detective Tim Ashley abducts Jaipersaud (right). |
Last
November, Fairley — who was earning an honest living as a cook at a casino —
tried to obtain a more lucrative position in the plunder-based sector by
applying for a position with the Transportation Security Administration. A
background check by the agency found that Fairley had outstanding arrest
warrants in Lawrenceville for two counts of armed robbery.
At
this point the alert reader will probably ask two questions:
“Wait
— the TSA actually does background checks on applicants? And an
accusation of armed robbery would be considered a disqualification,
rather than an endorsement, for someone seeking to join the TSA’s corps
of molesters and petty thieves?”
In
any case, Fairley was told he had to clear up the warrants before being
considered for employment with the TSA. When he called the Lawrenceville PD to
inform them that he had not so much as visited Georgia for nine years, “Ashley
`loudly and rudely’ said he knew Fairley committed the crime and hung up on
him,” recounts the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The
warrants were issued on the basis of a photo lineup that included a picture of
Fairley when he was booked after being arrested as a teenager roughly a decade
ago for “joyriding” in a stolen vehicle. Furthermore, the eyewitness testimony
described the robber as having a face disfigured by several tattoos; Fairley’s
face is unmarked. This difference should have been obvious even to a specimen like Tim Ashley.
A
few weeks after he contacted Ashley, Fairley was seized in a guns-drawn police
raid in Mississippi and extradited to Georgia, where he was imprisoned for
three months.
Defense attorney Jason Robert Cornell, who represented Carlos,
recalled to Pro Libertate that the young father “was stuck in jail for 2 months
while I desperately tried to prove his innocence. I wasn't entitled to any portion of the investigative file, seeing as he hadn't yet been
indicted. I had to defend the case blind.”
As an out-of-state defendant accused of a violent felony,
Carlos wasn’t going to be granted bond even if is family could afford it,
Carnell observes.
“Fortunately, after
showing the Assistant District Attorney Carlos' banking records, showing that
he had withdrawn $40 from a Biloxi ATM 45 minutes before he was supposed to be
robbing someone in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and pictures of another guy in
Gwinnett County Jail who looked very
similar to Carlos – and who had been arrested for armed robbery -- the ADA
suggested we have the victims identify him in court.”
Carnell rejected that offer, because in-court identification
would have been “highly suggestive and prejudicial to Carlos.” Instead, the
defense “agreed to a photo line-up. I provided the photo of Carlos and the
other guy and Tim Ashley provided a few others. Neither of the two victims
picked Carlos….The ADA then grudgingly told me he was dismissing the warrants without
apology to me or Carlos.”
In addition to having two months of his life stolen from
him, Carlos now bears the all but ineffaceable taint of the fraudulent arrest.
“Carlos lost his job at a Biloxi casino,” Carnell explains. “He
lost his Dodge Charger he had just bought and his name is permanently tarred
due to the way GCIC and NCIC keep criminal records. You will always be able to
find warrants, for armed robbery, with his name on them -- not to mention his
mug shot.”
Ashley, on the other hand, enjoys perfect job security
despite numerous suspensions for misconduct – including a threatening phone
call to his ex-wife’s boyfriend, and refusing to respond to a homicide call while
on duty.
Not
surprisingly, Fairley has filed a lawsuit against Ashley and the department
that employs him. That lawsuit — and the needless abuse of Orlando Fairley —
could have been avoided if Ashley had invested a minimal effort in trying to
identify a legitimate suspect, rather than pursuing what appears to be a
mission to punish Fairley for impudently asserting his innocence.
Regina
Tasca has been responsible for supervising prisoners, but there is no evidence
that she ever imprisoned anyone on false pretenses, or arrested a citizen for
petty or vindictive reasons.
German
Bosque, a Sergeant in the police department terrorizing Opa-Locka, Florida,
has been the subject of 41 internal investigations, more than a dozen of them
in cases involving battery or excessive force. He was found with counterfeit currency, crack
pipes, and cocaine in his police vehicle. On several occasions, Bosque has been
accused of domestic violence, stalking, and stealing a car. One of his
preferred tactics is to “tune up” – that is, assault – youngsters if they
display what he considers “disrespect” toward the police.
Well-compensated thug German Bosque. |
Bosque
has been arrested three times. He has also been fired five times -- and
immediately re-instated with the help of the local criminal’s lobby (more
commonly known as the police officers’ union). He is safely ensconced in a
$60,000-a-year job as a state-licensed thug.
Officer
Regina Tasca was never accused of abusing anybody. As noted above, she has
never received a single citizen complaint.
The
City of Scottsdale, Arizona faces
a lawsuit by the daughter of John Loxas II, who was fatally shot by Officer
James Peters, a former SWAT operative previously involved in six fatal
officer-involved shootings. Peters killed
John Loxas II on February 14. At the time, the 50-year-old grandfather was
holding a seven-month-old baby.
Although
police “could see that the suspect had the baby in his arms” just before Peters
fired the fatal shot, Loxas was unarmed, according to a Scripps wire service
account. “After several calls for Loxas to exit the home, he opened the door
with the baby in his left hand, and stood just inside the doorway…. Officers
then saw Loxas reach down to his right, lowering the baby and exposing his head
and upper body. Peters then responded to the movement with a single shot to
Loxas’ head.”
Two
years ago, Loxas was arrested following a report that Loxas had been seen
“yelling and walking around with a handgun.” Although officers described him as
“drunk” and “threatening his neighbors with a pistol,” he was not charged with
aggravated assault — as Arizona statutes would dictate if that description were
accurate — but for the trivial offense of “disorderly conduct.”
The
Valentine’s Day incident began in similar fashion. The police were summoned by
a report that Loxas had kicked a neighbor’s garbage can into the street while
he was on a walk with his nine-month-old grandson. When police arrived they
found him outside his home. Ordered to “step away” from the house, Loxas
retreated inside. Without any evidence that Loxas intended to harm the child,
the officers created a “crisis entry team” — that is, they escalated the
conflict by imposing a military protocol that led to the summary execution of a
man who wasn’t suspected of a violent crime.
Although
Loxas was treated as if he were a heavily armed barricaded kidnapper, a search
of his home turned up a total of two firearms — neither of which was within
easy reach when he was killed by Officer Peters — and an object described as a
“functional improvised explosive device” that was disposed of by a bomb squad
and not inspected by any independent party.
The
Scottsdale PD has claimed that the paramilitary tactics used in the
confrontation were dictated by concerns for the infant’s safety. It’s not clear
how shooting the grandfather while he was holding the infant was to the child’s
benefit. Another possibility is that Loxas, by virtue of his impassioned
political opinions, fit the profile of the dreaded “Sovereign Citizens”
movement, which has
been designated by the FBI as the most prominent domestic “terrorist” threat —
and the most acute threat to “officer safety.”
His pension's secure: Peters. |
While
Loxas’s behavior and statements were considered troubling by some, it was Peters
who clearly posed a danger to himself and others. During his 12-year career,
Peters was involved in seven shootings, six of them fatal. His personnel record
is replete with complaints about excessive force, including “dozens” of
episodes involving Tasers. In 2005, he was disciplined for pointing a gun at
his own head.
Peters
left the force following the Loxas shooting – but he wasn’t fired. Instead, he
received an “accidental disability retirement,” which permits him to
collect a full pension. He will probably be able to find employment as a police
officer in another jurisdiction. Regina Tasca, who fought the decision to
terminate her for more than a year, most likely will lose at least some of her
benefits – and, as we will see shortly, she will almost certainly be persona non
grata throughout the “law enforcement community.”
Davis received a 30-day unpaid suspension, as did fellow Officer Steven Running. Senior Officer Kenneth Bigger was handed a 20-day suspension. The sternest punishment – if the term could be applied here – was imposed on Sergeant Paul Terry, who was suspended for 45 days.
By any rational standard, embezzling a million dollars is a serious crime. Yet none of the officers involved in that felonious conspiracy faced criminal charges. None of them has been required to make restitution. None of them was fired.
Accordingly, it would be reasonable to expect that Regina Tasca’s firing offense would be more serious than defrauding Houston’s tax victims out of a million dollars. As it happens, her offense had nothing to do with corruption of any kind.
On September 22, a Houston Police Officer named Matthew Jacob Martin shot and killed 45-year-old Brian Claunch, a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair who was “armed” with a pen. The victim was an emotionally disturbed man living in a group home for the mentally ill. The caretaker made the reliably fatal mistake of calling the police.
According to Houston PD Spokeswoman Jodi Silva, the shooting was justified because Officer Martin, who was supposedly “trapped” by Claunch, feared “for his partner’s safety and his own safety” despite the fact that they were both young, able-bodied, armed individuals confronting an invalid in a wheelchair who was armed with a writing utensil.
The killing of Brian Claunch, which was not Officer Martin’s first shooting, precipitated a huge public outcry, and the Police Chief has called for a Justice Department investigation. On previous performance it is all but certain that Martin will not be prosecuted, nor is it likely that he will suffer injury to his career.
It so happens that the incident that led to Regina Tasca’s firing offense also involved an emotionally disturbed and unarmed individual who was perceived as a threat to officer safety. Did she shoot and kill the subject, or use disproportionate force in subduing him?
Career-ending nobility: Tasca stops Rella's assault. |
As Officer Tasca summarized the matter in an interview with Pro Libertate last spring: “I didn’t fail to aid another officer; I acted to stop a beatdown.” Tasca interposed herself to stop Sgt. Joe Rella’s assault on 22-year-old Kyle Sharp, an emotionally troubled young man who had done nothing to justify police violence of any kind.
About two days after the episode, Tasca was labeled a “danger” to her fellow officers and suspended by the department. Following a year of disciplinary reviews, psychological evaluations, and a spurious legal process worthy of the Soviet Union, Tasca was fired.
Tasca was on patrol on April 29, 2011 when she got a call for medical assistance. Former Bogota Council Member Tara Sharp, concerned about the erratic behavior of her son Kyle, called the police to take him to the hospital for a psychological evaluation. As noted earlier, requesting police intervention, particularly in cases of this kind, is never a good idea. Sharp was exceptionally fortunate that Officer Tasca was the first to respond: She has years of experience as an EMT and had just completed specialized training on situations involving psychologically disturbed people.
Once on the scene, Tasca acted quickly to calm down the distraught young man, whose mood changed abruptly when he saw the other officers arrive.
The official report on the matter, which was written by retired Judge Richard Donohue, claims that Kyle “was aggressive [and] started to walk away….” Only someone incurably inhospitable to both logic and honesty would describe walking away as “aggressive” behavior. Kyle also instructed the police not to step on his property, which was a lawful order the police were required to obey. Instead, Sgt. Chris Thibault tackled Kyle, wrapped him in a bear hug, and attempted to handcuff him. Within an instant, Sgt. Joe Rella piled on and began to slug Kyle in the head while his horrified mother screamed at the officers to stop.
According to Thibault, it was necessary to assault Kyle because he believed “danger is near for us if we let this kid go.”
No, really. That’s what Thibault said, under oath, during Tasca’s disciplinary hearing.
Tasca instinctively did what any legitimate peace officer would do: She intervened to protect the victim, pulling Rella off the helpless and battered young man. Tasca’s act was one of instinctive decency, genuine principle, and no small amount of courage. It was also the action dictated by her department’s use-of-force policy, the first page of which specifies that it is “the responsibility of law enforcement to take steps possible to prevent or stop the illegal or inappropriate use of force by other officers.”
In his report on the case, Judge Donohue acknowledged that Tasca acted in compliance with the use-of-force policy – but he dismissed that fact on the preposterous grounds that “no evidence was presented to establish that Officer Tasca even knew about the document.”
Only an uncommonly inventive sophist would pretend that the important question is whether Tasca was aware of the document stating the policy, rather than whether her actions were in accord with that policy.
Earlier in the same month, Tasca had prompted criticism for failing to rush to the aid of her partner, Officer Jay Fowler, during a brief confrontation with a tiny, drunken woman at a hospital. The woman, who was not a criminal suspect, was taken to the hospital for medical attention. She decided to leave, and when Fowler – who had already surrendered custody to the hospital – tried to stop her, the young woman “flailed” her arms, inflicting a small scratch on one of Fowler’s hands that tore open an old scab.
As a result of this “altercation” with a woman whom he outweighed by about 100 pounds, Fowler spent a week on paid medical leave, according to Donohue’s report.
“Nobody had said anything to me about the earlier case until after the incident with the Ridgefield officers,” Tasca pointed out to me. Her refusal to gang-tackle a tiny, confused woman in a hospital, coupled with her active intervention to stop a criminal assault on an unarmed, mentally unbalanced man who was not a criminal suspect, supposedly established a “pattern” of behavior that made Tasca a danger to her fellow officers.
After being put on suspension, Tasca was subjected to a psychological evaluation by Dr. Matthew Geller, a psychiatrist who does contact work for New Jersey law enforcement agencies. Geller’s assessment reads like something compiled by a State-employed psychiatrist in the Brezhnev-era Soviet psihuska. Geller claims that Tasca suffers from something called a “mixed personality disorder,” displaying “a personality type characterized by a long-standing pattern of grandiose self-importance and exaggerated sense of talent and achievement.”
This purported dysfunction, once again, wasn’t noticed until after Tasca displayed the character and integrity to take the morally appropriate action – one dictated by the official guidelines of her department – in defiance of pressure from her peers and superiors to conform.
Tasca, an openly gay female police officer, believes that at least some of the problems she’s experienced are the product of a cultural clash with what she describes as “the Old Boys Club.” Judge Donohue’s report mentions two instances in which she was criticized by for not extending what is euphemistically called “professional courtesy” by writing traffic citations against another officer.
Despite such frictions, Tasca’s job appeared secure – until the moment she behaved like a peace officer, rather than a law enforcer, and crossed the “Blue Line” by coming to the defense of Kyle Sharp.
Fidelity to the tribal interests of the punitive priesthood will cover a multitude of crimes, but taking the side of a Mundane being attacked by a member of the Brotherhood is an unpardonable offense.
Dum spiro, pugno!
12 comments:
That was a fantastic article. Usually the police brutality reading goes over my head. I just expect it nowadays. But for them to do this to their own?? They are truly setting the stage for absolute control.
Every time I read an article with content like the first part of this, I wonder when I'll start seeing followups about angry mobs dealing with the authorized predators in their communities in the old way. You can only push people so far before they start pushing back.
This article reads like a nightmare episode of the
Any Griffith show where Barney arrests Andy and takes
over Mayberry, permanently.
Unfortunately, this is far too common. Even 30 years ago when I worked for the LAPD as a civilian traffic officer - assigned to the night watch in a patrol car without a gun or partner. The corruption I witnessed and then tried to expose in a book I was writing got me sent to prison. Even though Ed Bradley and '60 Minutes' investigated and found that I was incarcerated for NO other reason than that I was writing a book did not free me. I've been fighting against police corruption and abuse for 30 years now. And still, most people in society just don't care.
http://www.policeprostitutionandpolitics.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=96:norma-jean-and-the-hollywood-corruption-scandal-1982&catid=1:latest-news&Itemid=50
and this document I created to fight California Prop 35 gives a small percentage of the numerous cases of cops using laws to extort sexual favors from prostitutes- also something society doesn't seem to mind. http://www.policeprostitutionandpolitics.com/pdfs_all/PDFS%20for%20Maxine%20Prop%2035/PROP_35_FINAL3.pdf
My heart goes out to Tasca. It isn't easy fighting against the blue mafia.
I thinks that's Bogota, I used to live in a neighboring burg.
Thanks for the correction. :-)
Amazing. This has to be the first time I've seen a cop removed, and quickly no less, for, ironically enough, doing the RIGHT thing! Now how screwed up is that?!
Remember comrades in the glorious people's collective utopia where we all belong to the state, some are a little more equal than others. Also remember religions other than statism are heresy.
"They are truly setting the stage for absolute control."
I disagree. They may believe they are in control but they seem to have forgotten that they are severely outnumbered and we mundanes are well armed, well trained, and have just about had all we are willing to take. I am frankly surprised and dismayed that necessary corrective action has not already taken place since it is now obvious that there will be no recourse from within the system. I have already resigned myself to the fact that should a member of my family or a close friend be victimized by one of these power hungry steriod addled thugs, I will most likely die at their hands or be imprisoned for the reat of my life because the offending officer or officers will have nowhere to hide from me.
If there are still good people in law enforcement, I would suggest they either turn the ship around or get out. When the great correction does take place, there will not be time to seperate the good from the bad.
Agreed!
Abandon ship it has succumbed to the mutineers!
Cops claim Loxis's home was armed with a "functional improvised explosive device”.
That's probably a BS term for a 'gas can' in the home's garage.
I remember you first writing about Tasca and her case last year, so I appreciate knowing the outcome (however unfortunate it may be).
In truth, the Tasca case should act as a baseball bat upon the side of the head of anyone who still believes police departments in the US are in business to 'protect and serve' the public.
That Tasca followed the written policy to the letter; that she didn't offer ''professional courtesy'' to other cops when they were 'off duty'; that she was branded 'grandiose' and having 'an exaggerated sense of talent and achievment' by the state psychiatrist... these issues all prove, in a way perhaps police abuses can't, the fact that police agencies across the land put their wants and needs first and foremost.
It should be unbelievble that a city council would go along with such a railroading. In this case I hope she files a bitchin' lawsuit against the city and includes Geller and Donohue in it and wins a tremendous amount of money. The fools who reside in Bogota deserve to pay it.
Post a Comment