A Massachusetts police officer accused of spitting on and kicking a Latino teen during an arrest in 2016, yelling “welcome to the white man’s world”, has been arrested and charged with three counts of federal civil rights violations.
According to the indictment, Springfield officer Gregg Bigda also threatened to “stick a fucking kilo of coke in [the juvenile’s] pocket and put [the juvenile] away for fucking 15 years”, and to “fucking kill [the juvenile] in the parking lot”.
Those comments, which came during an interrogation after the arrest, were captured on video and publicly released by the Republican newspaper in 2016. In the footage Bigda can be heard yelling: “I’m not hampered by the fucking truth ‘cause I don’t give a fuck! People like you belong in jail. I’ll charge you with whatever!”
In the indictment, prosecutors described the officer’s behavior as “so abusive that it shocks the conscience”.
In addition to three counts of violating the civil rights of those arrested, Bigda was charged with one count of obstructing justice for allegedly writing a false report.
Read the full story at ‘Welcome to the white man’s world’: police officer accused of shocking attack on Latino teen.
I have one question, if this was “so abusive” that it shocked the conscience, why did it take almost three years to arrest Gregg Bigda?
I have two other questions, what happened to the 16-year-old and the other kids? Are they in jail awaiting trial?
It appears the US criminal justice system respects the presumption of innocence and follows due process when whites commit crimes, yet that is not the case when non-whites are suspects. In the latter case, there is a presumption of guilt, and due process is often lacking. My last question, why is that?
#SHAMEonU #SHAMEonYou #SHAMEonU #CopsBeeingCriminals #CopsBehavingBadly
Agree!
Thank you for posting this I hadn’t seen it anywhere.
Does that surprise you? That’s why Bigda said and acted the way he did. Cops think they can violate the constitutional rights of non-white suspects without consequences. The criminal system reinforces police brutality and violence.
No matter how many times situations as these are in the media, I will always be shocked. We should always be shocked, appalled and infuriated! It should never be a thing to get accustomed to!
Agree! What surprises me are many Americans support that abuse of power by cops especially if it’s against a non-white ethnic group.
They have been doing that crap since I was a teenager it’s sad.
Police brutality should NOT be tolerated and officers should serve time in prison. I’m 55, so this is just a mind fuck. It’s 2018 and discrimination is at a high due to the rhetoric of that person in the white house Emma.
Thank you for your comment. That racist police culture is a continuation of their role as slave catchers or patrollers. When I think about what that MA cop said and the tens of thousands of stolen black lives due to police brutality and violence, I wonder how cops unchallenged use of the defense “I felt threatened” to justify murders of innocent and unarmed black men, women and children stand up in court when evidence suggests otherwise. If anything black people should feel threatened and plan what to do should they find themselves alone with a racist cop?